Carleton’s Faculty of Public Affairs (FPA) held a living book event March 17 as part of its first annual research month.
Carleton professors and staff could be signed out for a period of 30 minutes to have face-to-face conversations about their research.
Living books included assistant criminology professor Lara Karaian—who discussed sexting— associate political science professor James Milner, and Graeme Auld, an assistant professor in the school of public policy and administration, who talked about environmental governance.
Melanie Adrian, an assistant law professor, was on the bookshelf for the day. She spent a year living and teaching in a ghetto outside Paris as part of her research.
She shared her research on Muslim communities in France and religious freedoms.
“Ideas are so interesting to scholars, but the general public, unless they are readers, don’t really know what we do,” Adrian said. “This is a way to put a human face behind a book.”
The FPA Living Books event is an extension of the Human Library, a global trend that unites people through conversation in a casual setting, according to their website.
The original human library took place in Denmark in 2000 with the goal of preventing tension and violence by encouraging community members to listen to each others’ stories, their website states.
Karin Abma, a recent graduate student from Carleton’s Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, helped co-ordinate the event.
“I think it’s really encouraging to the whole faculty,” Abma said. “It just makes them feel like their research is being valued.”
Abma said the opportunity highlights faculty research and allows students to learn beyond the classroom.
“I want the professors to know that their research is valuable and of interest,” she said.
Since Feb. 24, students and staff have been able to participate in a number of events that relate to all of the departments and institutes that make up the faculty over the month.
“This whole thing is basically a test run, a test drive just to see how everything is going,” Abma said. “We’ve had a really good pickup.”
