The Area Studies Book Club was started in winter 2020 by Chelsie May (PhD candidate, NELC) and Dr. Thomas Maguire (Associate Director, CMES) with sponsorship and funding from the Chicago Center for Teaching, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies, and the Center for East Asian Studies. As a graduate student fellow at the Chicago Center for Teaching during academic year 2019-2020, Chelsie started the book club in order to foster discussion around how developing an understanding of the history and politics of area studies disciplines and departments in the United States can foster more inclusive, committed, and student-centered pedagogy for graduate students and professors. Over the course of three meetings during winter 2020, book club participants will discuss Lara Deeb and Jessica Winegar’s Anthropology’s Politics: Disciplining the Middle East. In addition to participant driven discussions, the club will also develop practical pedagogical strategies to take away from each meeting.