20 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY beyond ourselves.12 Nussbaum and McCampbell identify one of the reasons a Great Texts course is an essential element of our PhD curriculum. In this first-year course, students engage with a plethora of readings from the ancient world to the present. The class features non-fiction works, such as the searing reflection by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in Night, and fictional works such as Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man. Students’ empathetic responses to texts produced by writers from various eras, ethnicities, and experiences, often surprise them. Might I suggest a reading challenge to you? At the end of 2023, many on social media posted images of novels they read over the course of the year. In 2024-25, you too could challenge yourself as a reader— what books might further awaken empathy within you? Do you need suggestions to get you started? Consider novels that might challenge your preconceived notions about the human experience. Here are a few suggestions: The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan An American Marriage: A Novel by Tayari Jones Gilead by Mariynne Robinson Silence by Shusaku Endo One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Invest a few minutes in fiction over the next week. Your followers may thank you! NOTES ¹ Tracy Brower, “Empathy Is the Most Important Leadership Skill According to Research,” Forbes, September 12, 2023, accessed February 8,2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2021/09/19/empathy-is-the-most-important-leadership-skill-according-to-research. ² Charles Figley, “‘Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized,’” American Psycho-
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