November 27, 2013: Giving Thanks: Fitchburg State Colleagues

[A Thanksgiving series on some of the many things for which this AmericanStudier is thankful. Add your thanks-givings in comments!]

On a few of the many reasons why I’m thankful to be part of the Fitchburg State faculty community.

My English Studies colleague Joe Moser recently released his first book, Irish Masculinity on Screen: The Pugilists and Peacemakers of John Ford, Jim Sheridan, and Paul Greengrass (2013). Like Joe, the book is interdisciplinary on multiple levels: combining Film Studies with English Studies, Irish Studies with American Studies, political and social arguments with aesthetic analyses, and more. I’m definitely thankful to share an office suite with Joe, and to continue to learn and benefit from his perspective (and those of all my English Studies colleagues) on American culture, on film, on history, on politics, on teaching and service and community, and on what we do on every level.

My American Studies colleague (and member of the Economics, History, and Political Science Department) Kate Jewell is still hard at work on her first book; but in the meantime, she’s created a unique and impressive digital humanities project, a crowd-sourced oral history of the Boston Marathon bombings and their impacts, stories, and aftermaths. Like Kate, who experienced her own traumatic version of the bombings from pretty close to the finish line, the project is an inspiring combination of human and historical, personal and analytical, directed and open to response and evolution and growth. I’m very thankful to have been able to team-teach an Intro to American Studies course with Kate, and to learn a lot from her (and all her fellow EHPS colleagues) about America, the humanities and social sciences, scholarship, and interdisciplinary community and collaboration.

My FSU Liberal Arts and Sciences Council colleague (and member of the Biology/Chemistry Department) Chris Picone has plenty of research projects and collaborations ongoing; but what I’ve been most influenced and inspired by are Chris’s determined and optimistic efforts to make the FSU campus more green, more energy efficient and intelligent, and more a positive part of the local, regional, and global communities and environments. Like Chris, these efforts are consistently thoughtful, friendly, and yet forceful, making sure that all of us at FSU think and act with these questions and issues as part of our perspectives—and that we feel inspired while doing so. I’m thankful to be part of a community that’s engaging with these issues, and to be inspired by Chris (and all my FSU colleagues) to be better at everything I do, at FSU and in the world.

Next giving of thanks tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Who or what do you thank?