The Society of Early Americanists seeks proposals for the 2027 Common Reading Initiative. Begun in 2021, the Common Reading Initiative aims to create a community of teachers and learners around a single book leading up to and at the 2027 conference. The Common Reading Initiative committee will work together to select a book from member nominations and to facilitate a virtual seminar on teaching the book in fall 2027 as well as panels at the conference in spring 2027. Our hope is that early Americanists can incorporate the Common Reading into our curriculums through course work, independent study, and book clubs, creating a shared conversation across our individual campuses and at the conference. We also hope to create opportunities for students from our different campuses and communities to participate in the SEA conversations about the book.
We ask SEA members to nominate books that take up the early Americas formally, narratively, or in other ways. Books should be conducive to reading and teaching in a wide range of classrooms, institutions, and communities and should open up new insights or questions about the early Americas. Nominations should be submitted through the portal linked here and should include the book’s title and author, your name, and a short rationale or explanation for why you feel the book you are nominating is a good fit for the Common Reading Initiative: how does the book help us understand the early Americas and their archives in deeper or unexpected ways? How is it ideal for introducing critical insights among students and teachers ahead of the 2027 conference? How might the book encourage SEA members to learn about topics, authors, or literary histories they have not previously considered?
We look forward to your nominations!
Nomination deadline: January 30, 2026
Past Common Reading selections have included:
2021: Honorée Jeffers, The Age of Phillis
2023: Toni Morrison, A Mercy
2025: Blaire Morseau, ed., As Sacred To Us: Simon Pokagon’s Birchbark Books in their Contexts