Register for “How To Read, Honey” here.
Donate to Sameer Project here (suggested donation $60 USD).

In a world where an increasing amount of our lives are mediated through technology, understanding how to critically read media is more important than ever. In this interactive workshop, students will join Steven Thrasher, the (currently suspended) chair of social justice in reporting at the Medill School of Journalism and author of the "Journalism as a Front of War" column at LitHub, in learning how to read traditional and social media with a critical eye.

Breaking down such key concepts as Critical Theory, Hallin's Spheres of Consensus, the Overton Window and Chomsky and Herman's Propaganda Model (aka the Five Filters of Manufacturing Consent), participants will leave the workshop with concrete tools for more deeply reading literature, Twitter, Instagram, TV, holiday movies, Christmas music, and "news use can actually use.”

Steven W. Thrasher, PhD, holds the Daniel Renberg chair at Northwestern University, the first journalism professorship in the world to focus on LGBTQ Issues. He is also a faculty member of the Institute of Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing.

His debut book The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll when Inequality and Disease Collide was an New York Times Paperback Editors Pick, named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2022 by Kirkus Reviews, was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Literature, and won the 2023 POZ Award for Best in Literature. He holds a PhD in American Studies from NYU and his new book The Overseer Class will be published by Amistad Book in 2026.