ACRE Undergraduate Reading Groups
ACRE reading groups consist of weekly meetings lead by ACRE-affiliated UCA professors. Students may apply to both reading groups, but are only eligible to participate in one group per semester. Student who fully participate over the course of the program will be awarded a $400 Scholarship. Students who do not actively participate each week, are consistently tardy, or are absent without legitimate reason will be ineligible for the scholarship. Books, meals and materials are also provided at no charge.
Use the form below to submit an application.
Spring 2026 Reading Groups
“Wait, I Might be Wrong?”
Why do decent people become divided by political, moral, or legal issues—and how can society survive these divisions? This reading group explores two works in conversation: Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind and Jonathan Rauch’s Kindly Inquisitors. Haidt shows how morality “binds and blinds,” pulling us into teams and narratives that feel sacred, narrowing our ability to see the good in others or question our own assumptions. Rauch argues that a liberal society depends on the opposite impulse: the willingness to admit we might be wrong, to let criticism flow freely, and to “kill our hypotheses rather than each other.” Together, these books challenge us to understand why we believe what we believe, why we so often demonize the other side, and why free inquiry—sometimes messy, frequently offensive, and always essential—is the only reliable way to seek the truth. Join us as we explore how our moral instincts shape our viewpoints, and why protecting free inquiry and criticism is essential in a world where it’s easy to take offense and hard to change our minds.
This reading group is facilitated by Dr. Jacob Held and will meet on Wednesday evenings from 5:30 – 7:30 pm, beginning January 28, 2026.
Want to check out our past reading group topics? Click here! Or watch the below video to get an idea of what an ACRE reading group could be like for you.