Cosumnes River College’s OneBook project has invited students and faculty alike to read “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and convene at designated events to discuss its themes.

The events this semester include a lecture on the power and ideology of race on Feb. 13 in the CRC Recital Hall and a film viewing on Feb. 20 in the Learning Resource Center.

Each year, OneBook selects a different book for its participants to read. Speakers of various academic disciplines, such as psychology and sociology, hold lectures and meetings that approach each book’s content from various viewpoints of those disciplines.

Ethics is a major theme examined in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”

“Some of the events are lectures, some of them are films, some of them are little workshops,” said Maureen Moore, professor of humanities and founder of OneBook CRC. “Some of them are small, 10 or 12 people. Some of them are big, 300 people.”

Students are invited to further involve themselves with OneBook student speak outs.

“Students, once they’ve read the book, can go and talk on a panel in the bookstore,” Moore said. “They [students] get to talk about their ideas and interpretation of the book.”

James Frazee, professor of psychology at CRC and an avid participant of OneBook, expressed his own excitement in attending lectures from professors of other disciplines.

“It’s a neat thing, that the students are getting cross-disciplinary exposure,” Frazee said. “I want to be able to facilitate that, and personally, frankly, I love being able to get that.”

CRC president and OneBook project participant Deborah Travis expressed her desire to see the project grow further as time goes on.

“It creates a community, and that to me, is a very important value of Cosumnes River College,” Travis said.

Through times when the project seemed like it might not pick up, its creators, especially Moore, worked hard to pull it off. Moore’s perseverance maintained confidence in the project’s growth, Travis said.

If students are interested in participating but don’t find motivation in lectures and meetings, Frazee said they have other means of encouraging students to attend events.

“We have really cool schwag we give out,” Frazee said. “Students can sign up for drawings and they get gift cards for the book store.”