Wednesday, September 3, 2025

September 3, 2025: Fall Semester Previews: American Lit II in Person

[This week, I start my 21st year at Fitchburg State! So as usual, I’ll offer some previews of the semester ahead, this time focusing on individual moments I’m looking forward to in each class. Leading up to a weekend update on my plans for season 2 of my podcast!]

I’m teaching sections of my American Literature II survey class both in-person and online this semester, and so for these next two posts wanted to highlight a specific type of moment that is unique to each of those particular settings. For the in-person section, one thing I have kept consistent across my 20 years of teaching this course at FSU has been how we end the semester: with a couple days where the students share their own chosen authors/artists, people and works that have been important to their identities and perspectives. We do this in part because we’ve gotten up to the present moment in our readings, and of course all of us are also part of this present moment; and in part because it’s a great way to learn a bit more about each of us before we end our time and work together. But a very nice ancillary benefit is that I also tend to learn about at least a couple authors/artists I hadn’t heard of before, and that’s a great reminder of how much I still have to learn, here in year 21 and throughout my career!

Next semester preview tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do y’all have coming up?

No comments:

Post a Comment