January 31, 2013: January 2013 Recap

[The football-inspired series concludes tomorrow, but today, here’s a recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

January 1: AmericanStudying Our Biggest Issues: Climate Change: A series for the new year starts with how AmericanStudies can help us respond to our most serious ongoing issue.

January 2: AmericanStudying Our Biggest Issues: The Debt: The series continues with a post on the histories and narratives of debt in America.

January 3: AmericanStudying Our Biggest Issues: Education Reform: A post on how inspiring American figures and stories can help us emphasize what’s most important in education reform.

January 4: AmericanStudying Our Biggest Issues: Poverty and Inequality: The series concludes with a post on issues we AmericanStudiers (and Americans) don’t like to talk about—but need to.

January 5-6: Crowd-sourcing Our Biggest Issues: A space where you can share your own thoughts on AmericanStudying our biggest issues.

January 7: American Homes, Part One: A series on American homes kicks off with Cooper and promise and perils of returning home after years away.

January 8: American Homes, Part Two: On Stephen Foster’s fake and troubling yet nostalgic and compelling musical images of home.

January 9: American Homes, Part Three: The series continues with a post on the dark, cynical, and human portrayals of home in two Robert Frost poems.

January 10: American Homes, Part Four: The layers of American meaning to Home Alone, as the series rolls on.

January 11: American Homes, Part Five: The series concludes with a Guest Post from a colleague and one of the best scholars of American homes, Elif Armbruster.

January 12: Crowd-sourcing American Homes: A couple responses to the week’s series and posts—add yours, please!

January 13: Lincoln Redux: Having finally seen Spielberg’s historical film, I share a few AmericanStudier responses to its limitations and achievements.

January 14: Back to School Hopes, Part One: Three ways I hope digital resources can contribute to my American Lit surveys, as a series on spring hopes kicks off.

January 15: Back to School Hopes, Part Two: The series continues with a post on the inspirations I’ve received, and hope to receive again, from my Ethnic American Literature student projects.

January 16: Back to School Hopes, Part Three: On my expectations for my own work with graduating English Majors in our senior Capstone course.

January 17: Back to School Hopes, Part Four: Recent and ongoing changes to our profession and how our department continues to evolve as well, as the series rolls on.

January 18: Back to School Hopes, Part Five: The series concludes with my longer-term hopes and ideals for adjunct faculty members, in our department and around the world of academia.

January 19-20: Crowd-sourcing Back to School Hopes: A couple responses and Retweets of the week’s posts and themes—add your spring hopes please!

January 21: The Real King: My annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day post!

January 22: Second Terms: George Washington: An Inauguration week series on second terms begins with the precedents set by our first president and first second term.

January 23: Second Terms: Abraham Lincoln: Some of the best and worst elements of our most tragically abbreviated second term.

January 24: Second Terms: Woodrow Wilson: The series continues with a post on some of the worst sides (in my opinion!) to Wilson’s controversial second term.

January 25: Second Terms: The Runner Ups: A handful of briefer takes on other interesting American second terms.

January 26-27: Crowd-sourcing Second Terms: An important response to my Wilson post. Add your takes on presidential second terms, present and past, won’t you?

January 28: Football in America, Part One: A Super Bowl-inspired series begins with a post on Rob Parker, RGIII, and race in America!

January 29: Football in America, Part Two: The series continues with a post on PEDs, cheating to win, and the American way.

January 30: Football in America, Part Three: The American resonances of Jim Brown and Barry Sanders, as the series rolls on.

Football series concludes tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Thoughts on American stories, histories, or connections related to football (or other sports)? You can still share ‘em for the weekend post!