WELCOME!

Greetings from your Faculty Fellows in Residence at the new Residential College at Broome Street. We're excited to have you with us for this inaugural year.

Over the coming months we hope you'll have the chance to participate in the range of programs we offer. Along with your RAs, the Faculty Affiliates attached to your streams, your CDE and the rest of the Res College team, we aim to make your learning/living experience as vibrant and rewarding as possible.

Here are a few things to keep in mind over the first few weeks of school. Check back here regularly for updates as well.

• Our major intellectual event of the fall semester, one in which you’ll all participate, is the first of what will be an annual tradition: a Res College Common Read, selected over the summer, which will form the basis for several events by mid-semester. This year we’ve purchased copies of Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Cosmopolitanism for all residents. (You should receive a copy when you check in.) Appiah, a philosopher at Princeton University, explores possibilities for cultural interaction that move beyond liberal multicultural “tolerance” toward a model of culture based on the realities of cross-cultural transmission and blending, what he celebrates as “contamination.” His ideas will serve us well and bring together several of the areas of inquiry encouraged by the residential college, from philosophy to gender studies to urban living. When you receive your copy of the book, pay closest attention to the introduction, chapter 1, and chapters 7-10, though you’re encouraged to read the other chapters as well. More information will follow on where and when you’ll participate in small group discussions of the book, followed (we hope) by interactions with the author. We plan to use our discussions of the Common Read to give us common ground for ongoing discussions about the promises and possibilities of living in a diverse community like the one we hope to foster in the coming year.

In the more immediate future, don't miss these FFiR events:

• Wednesday, August 29, 7pm: Becoming Jane movie outing with Brad and Jo. Email joanne.rendell@nyu.edu if you'd like to reserve a ticket.
  
• Sunday, September 2, 12-2pm: Waffle Brunch with Bryan, Stephanie, and family in apartment 712. This is our open house event for the semester, and we hope to meet as many of you as possible!
  
• Tuesday, September 4, 4pm: Meet in the lobby for a Sweets and Cheap Eats Walking Tour of the Lower East Side. From the best of the 5/$1 dumplings to stop at the Doughnut Plant, this walk aims to orient you toward the affordable and tasty side of our nearby neighborhoods.
  
• Wednesday, September 5, 8:30-10pm: Professor & Pie Open House with Brad, Jo, and Benny. Come hungry for pie to Apartment 412 and meet this half of the FFiR team!

Stay tuned for more information on coming events, including the kick-off of Brad and Jo's well-established Cafe Broome tradition (9/9), and a harbor sail on the historic schooner Pioneer (9/21). Also watch out for information on a Broome Street Blog organizing meeting, for those of you who'd like to contribute writing and reviews this year.

From all of us at the FFiR program -- welcome! We hope you have a great year.

Bryan and Stephanie
Brad and Jo