TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama Honors College has selected “Birding to Change the World” by Trish O’Kane for its Common Book Experience in 2024/2025.
Harper Collins Publishers describe “Birding to Change the World” as an uplifting memoir and how a professor and activist shares what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment.
Trish O’Kane is an accidental ornithologist. In her nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist, she’d never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin.
Enter a scrappy cast of feathered characters—first a cardinal, urban parrots, and sparrows, then a catbird, owls, a bittern, and a woodcock—that cheered her up and showed her a new path. Inspired, O’Kane moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue an environmental studies PhD. There she became a full-on bird obsessive—logging hours in a stunningly biodiverse urban park, filling field notebooks with bird doings and dramas, and teaching ornithology to college students and middle-school kids.
When Warner Park—her daily birdwatching haven—was threatened with development, O’Kane and her neighbors mustered a mighty murmuration of nature lovers, young and old, to save the birds’ homes. Through their efforts, she learned that once you get outside and look around, you’re likely to fall in love with a furred or feathered creature—and find a flock of your own.
In “Birding to Change the World”, O’Kane details the astonishing science of bird life, from migration and parenting to the territorial defense strategies that influenced her own activism. A warm and compelling weave of science and social engagement, this is the story of an improbable band of bird lovers who saved their park. And it is a blueprint for muscular citizenship, powered by joy.
The Honors Common Book is chosen by a campus-wide committee composed of faculty and staff. It is read by all first-year students in the Honors College, and is discussed by freshmen, faculty and mentors, both inside and outside of the classroom.
“In ‘Birding to Change the World’, Dr. O’Kane demonstrates how transdisciplinary studies can be practiced in our everyday lives in and out of the classroom,” said Dr. Anne Franklin Lamar, Director of Honors Year One. “For O’Kane, studying of birds helps us make meaning of the world around us and our place in it. As we read the common book together, we’ll explore how identity and place are woven into our understanding of the world and creatures around us and what we have to learn from them.”
To learn more about Trish O’Kane and this fascinating book, click here.
The Honors College at The University of Alabama enhances the undergraduate curriculum. Its foundation is the Honors Experience, which provides students with an enhanced academic curriculum and the ability to work with their peers and outstanding faculty members in an enriched academic environment.