[The Fall
2014 semester is coming to a close, and as usual I wanted to end the
semester with some reflections on my courses and other conversations, leading
up to a weekend post on some anticipations of spring (and not just the season;
although, yes). I’d love to hear some of your Fall 2014 reflections in
comments!]
Three other
quick thoughts on aspects of my fall semester (not including the De Lange
conference, about which see this
week’s series of posts!):
1)
I Have A Lot to Learn about Canada: My two book
talks in Toronto went incredibly well, largely due to the very gracious hosts at each site. And they
left me with numerous aspects of Canadian history and identity into which I
need to look further, both for the many ways they interestingly parallel U.S.
histories and identities and for many provocative differences. To name one
interesting such duality: Canada has its own Chinese Exclusion
Act (1923), one that parallels the U.S.
law in most respects; but because Canada only became fully independent from
England in the late
20th century, many of its overall histories of immigration,
citizenship, and related legal and social issues are hugely distinct from those
of the U.S. I look forward to learning more!
2)
Strategic Planning Matters: Sure, I knew in an
abstract way that FSU’s
Strategic Planning process, on which I had the chance to work this fall as
part of the Academic Values Working Group, represented a significant series of conversations
and documents. But here’s an example of a far more tangible product of my
Working Group’s efforts than I was expecting: we decided to make support for
faculty work (both research and service) one of the values we believe FSU
should embody, and so recommended
specific and substantive improvements to the university’s release-time
policies to provide such support. We’ll see whether and how that becomes part
of the overall Strategic Plan—but our own conversations and statements (which
are on the record) represent an important contribution in any case, it seems to
me.
3)
My Colleagues Rock: Like the lesson about public
school teachers I highlighted in yesterday’s post, this is something
I’ve known for a
long time. But this fall I felt it anew, for lots of reasons but I’ll
highlight this one: two of my FSU English Studies colleagues, Joe
Moser and Frank
Mabee, were on sabbatical, pursuing their own next projects and enjoying
some well-deserved rejuventation time. I hope they’ve been great semesters for
both (maybe they’ll share some details in comments!), but I’ve missed them
greatly, and I’ll sure be glad to have them back come January.
Spring plans
this weekend,
Ben
PS. What stands
out from your semester or fall?
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