Throughout the 2026-2027 academic year, the Randolph-Macon Honors Program will explore the idea of “social friction,” through various campus collaborations, including a common read. 

The Honors FOCUS theme of social friction was selected to bridge larger campus conversations on pluralism by asking us how we, as a society, handle intellectual friction. The common read for this topic is Tim Hamilton’s graphic novel adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. 

Each year, the selection of a theme and its associated book invites the larger campus community to connect with one another while exploring an idea. Fahrenheit 451’s classic dystopian story details a world that eliminates friction to create a smooth, painless existence, and enforces its low tolerance for discomfort with the extreme censorship of book burning. Among other themes and ideas, the Honors Program will explore how friction can actually be an engine of progress in a pluralistic society.