Each year the Honors College selects an important book – fiction or non-fiction – as its One Read. The major theme or themes of the book then becomes the focal point of Honors community activities, programming, and even courses and academic units of study, all intended to extend the discussions and the impacts of the ideas and lessons for our lives.

The impact of these works on our students and their academic performance cannot be understated; students have gone on to win awards with their essays based on these works and they have even changed their plans for academic study after coming into deep contact with the issues raised.

2026 Honors One Read: Defiant Dreams: The Journey of an Afghan Girl Who Risked Everything for Education

“Defiant Dreams” is a memoir written by Sola Mahfouz and Malaina Kapoor that records Mahfouz’s life growing up in Afghanistan, with a focus on her passion for learning and fight against educational restrictions. She was self-educated and eventually immigrated to the United States, where she became a quantum computing researcher with the Tufts University Quantum Information Group.