The Common Read is one of EHD’s signature community-building traditions. Each year, students, faculty, and staff from across programs, departments, and disciplines come together around a shared text that sparks meaningful conversations and connections. Through engaging events and discussions both inside and outside the classroom, the Common Read invites our community to explore new perspectives, exchange ideas, and reflect on how diverse experiences shape our understanding of the world. It’s an opportunity to learn together and celebrate the power of dialogue.
The 2026–2027 Common Read
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
This compelling family drama and psychological thriller explores moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence. After a fatal crash involving a semi-autonomous vehicle, the Cassidy-Shaw family is forced to confront difficult questions about accountability, equity, privilege, technology, and the unintended consequences of innovation. Through an engaging narrative, the novel invites readers to consider how emerging technologies are reshaping our relationships, our institutions, and our understanding of responsibility.
The committee selected Culpability because it is a thought-provoking, accessible, and highly engaging novel that creates a shared starting point for conversations about artificial intelligence, ethics, privilege, responsibility, and the ways emerging technologies are shaping our lives, our work, and our communities. It invites broad participation while raising questions that resonate across education, psychology, public policy, technology, health, human performance, and beyond.
We invite you to join us in reading this book! Our shared reading will be enriched throughout the year through various events (facilitated discussions, guest speakers, etc.). Together, these experiences will provide opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to explore the complex issues raised in the novel while building connections across our EHD community
Print, e-book, and audio formats are widely available. We have multiple e-book copies of the book accessible through the library and we will have complimentary hard copies available for interested readers to pick up in the Dean’s Office.
Content warning: The book contains descriptions of trauma, grief, and loss
