The Deep Read – A Conversation with Margaret Atwood
On September 22, 2020, The Humanities Institute produced its first ever annual Deep Read program!
Throughout 2019-2020, we had over 1,000 people – students, staff, faculty, community members on campus and around the world – reading together and discussing Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments with insights from UC Santa Cruz professors in Literature, Feminist Studies, Engineering, and Anthropology and 3,000 people registered for our event on September 22nd.
The 2020 Deep Read and the virtual Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture featured Margaret Atwood in conversation with UC Santa Cruz alumna, and New York Times bestselling author, Kate Schatz (Stevenson ‘01, Creative Writing). This event culminated months of in-depth programming and community engagement focused on Atwood’s latest Booker Prize-winning novel, The Testaments, a sequel to her 1985 classic The Handmaid’s Tale. With The Handmaid’s Tale now a critically acclaimed television series set to enter its fourth season, Atwood’s prescient prose depicting a dystopian future is more relevant than ever.
Dan White also wrote about the event for UCSC News:
In her dialogue with Schatz, Atwood often invoked the power of the humanities to help beleaguered humans address problems ranging from climate change to the insidious creeping of authoritarianism. In Atwood’s view, the various disciplines of the humanities—from the close study of history and literature to the rigors of philosophy—are a path forward in times of chaos. Read the full story.
Dan White. “Hope in the time of Dystopia,” UC Santa Cruz News, 2020.
Read more about the Deep Read launch.
Read UCSC’s exclusive interview with Margaret Atwood.
More about the event and Margaret Atwood:
Words of warning – UC Santa Cruz Magazine
Fiction forward – UC Santa Cruz Magazine
2020 Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture to feature visionary author Margaret Atwood
Nostalgia, celebration, and literary star power on tap for Alumni Weekend
Exploring The Testaments
As we intend to do every year, we read our annual text closely and comprehensively with the help from professors and scholars at UC Santa Cruz.
Our Deep Read Scholars
- David Draper, Statistics, Director of the College Scholars Program
- Marcia Ochoa, Feminist Studies
- Andrew S. Mathews, Anthropology
Over 4 weeks, read and explored Margaret Atwood’s book with the Deep Read community.
Here’s what we did:
Email Explorations
We produced 4 weekly emails that reflected on a different aspect of the book, guided by this year’s Deep Read scholars.
- Week 1: Welcome to Gilead
- Week 2: Feminist Intersections
- Week 3: Toxic Bodies
- Week 4: Atwood Answers
Salon
On March 10, 2020, we hosted a Salon at the Cowell Hay Barn. Students, faculty, staff, and local community members came out to discuss the The Testaments. Moderated by Laura Martin of Porter College, we heard a heady cross-section of UC Santa Cruz scholars discuss Atwood and her novel from a wide range of disciplines.
Speakers
- David Draper, Statistics, Director of the College Scholars Program
- Marcia Ochoa, Feminist Studies
Andrew S. Mathews, Anthropology - Moderator: Laura Martin, Porter College
David Draper started the discussion by framing The Testaments and its characters as examples of Bayesian statistical analysis. Andrew Mathews saw Atwood’s writing as an ecological red flag—a cautionary tale to warn us of what might be waiting just around the corner. And Marcia Ochoa placed the novel within the larger scope of feminist history and intellectual approaches.
These disparate takes on the novel show that there’s no one way, or correct way, to read deeply. Nevertheless, there are many possibilities and ways in. The salon-style conversations were informative, enlightening, and set the perfect tone for the Deep Read.
Scott Rappaport wrote about the Deep Read Salon for UC Santa Cruz, and THI reflected on the event.
View photos of the Salon:
The Class
In Winter Quarter 2020, a Porter College course, offered in conjunction with the College Scholars Program, is exploring The Testaments and other works by Atwood. Students will attend the Santa Cruz Salon as part of their quarter-long engagement with Atwood’s work. Taught by UC Santa Cruz Literature Lecturer, Laura Martin, the course will inform the curriculum for the Deep Read community. Material developed for the course was shared via community emails and online.
The Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture Series is a lively forum for the discussion and exploration of ethics-related challenges in human endeavors. The Ethics Lecture is made possible by the Peggy Downes Baskin Humanities Endowment for Interdisciplinary Ethics which enables the Humanities Division to promote a dialogue about ethics and ethics related challenges in an interdisciplinary setting. The endowment was established in honor of Peggy Downes Baskin’s longtime interest in ethical issues across the academic spectrum.
The Deep Read is an annual year-long program of The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz. We invite curious minds to think deeply about books and the most pressing issues of our contemporary moment with the help from scholars at UC Santa Cruz.
The Deep Read Program is made possible through the generous support of the Helen and Will Webster Foundation.