VARIETIES OF THINKING READING GROUP

facilitated by Dr. Monica Mikhail and Dr. Dena Fehrenbacher

We invite you to join us in reading and discussing our Spring 2025 Community Read, a collection of short stories that inspire reflection on varieties of thinking: Contemplative, Reflexive, Critical, Imaginative, and Speculative.

Short stories don’t necessarily tell us what or how to think, but they can render the act of thinking itself, making it available as an object of thought, imagination, and contemplation. In order to become more conscious and deliberate about our thinking, it helps to know what different types of thinking look and feel like. Rather than ordering thought into an argument, the short story arranges it — and the mental, emotional, and somatic sensations that accompany it — in the order in which we experience it. In doing so, fiction illustrates the need for thinking by exploring the limits of our ability to do so: how it can go wrong or be done badly, or how we can refuse to think altogether. So fiction can show us how not to think, but it also helps us consider how our thinking could be conducted differently.

We’re excited to read these texts together, alongside our Spring 2025 semester theme “Varieties of Thinking.”

This reading group will meeting monthly, during lunch hour. You will find the reading schedule below. Feel free to drop in to the meetings that best suit your schedule (i.e. you do not need to commit to attending all monthly meetings).

This reading group is open to the general public. RSVP is requested as lunch will be provided.

Reach out to info@binst.org with any questions.