Message from the Dean
Recommended Reading
Dear Incoming Students,
The spirit of the Dean’s Summer Reading List is to offer a short, curated list of recommended summer reading that is insightful and not academic (these books are not required in our courses), but can jumpstart conversation about ideas, concepts, and philosophies as you prepare to study here at Pardee RAND. This year, we invite you to join us over the next several months as we come together for a Policy Reading Circle with a series of virtual events to discuss each of these books.
We’ve chosen five summer reading books with a lot of ideas in them — including on how private philanthropy exacerbates inequality in America; thoughts from a nationally-known Jesuit priest on the community he’s built to engage former gang members here in Los Angeles; a primer on how to be an “antiracist”; a history of modern disease surveillance with clear implications for how U.S. leaders should respond to COVID-19 as well as future pandemics; and a first-hand account of the pandemic’s earliest days in Wuhan, China. These books all have much to say about good policy research — what it is and how to do it.
We would like you to read at least two books from our reading list this summer before starting the program. The first, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, by Anand Giridharadas, is recommended for all; we will convene an online discussion of the book on Wednesday, July 1 from noon to 1:15 p.m. PT. We welcome everyone to participate. The second will be your choice from the four remaining titles; we are scheduling discussions of each later in the summer moderated by a member of the Pardee RAND community and possible community guests. The dean will be participating in all discussions.
The Dean’s Summer Reading List books were recommended by our faculty, students and staff; they range from very personal accounts to more traditional monographs. We will be back in touch with details about the Policy Reading Circle dates and times but I write now so you can start reading right away.
We look forward to your thoughts on these timely and provocative books as we begin our summer reading together.
Susan L. Marquis
Frank and Marcia Carlucci Dean, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Distinguished Chair of Policy Analysis
Vice President, Innovation, RAND Corporation
dean@prgs.edu |
