On two broader
takeaways from my fall of travels and talks.
I’ve written
a lot in this
space about the
book talks that
I’ve added to
my public scholarly
work, goals, and
life. No, really, a
lot. I won’t reiterate what I said in those posts, nor will I write follow
ups to each of the great events that have followed the most recent such post;
although I do have to thank all the folks at the Him Mark Lai Branch of the San
Francisco Public Library; Kate Tranquada and the
Waltham Public Library; Gabriella
Ibieta, Heidi West, and everybody at Drexel University; and Katy
Fuller, David Nathans, and the Martha’s
Vineyard Museum (along with Jack
Shea and the MV Times) for all
that they did to make those wonderful events happen. All the support and
generosity and collegiality I’ve encountered makes me that much more excited
for the spring’s slate of
talks and the individuals, institutions, and communities they’ll help me
connect to!
Speaking of such
institutions, one of my broader takeaways from these talks has been a fuller
recognition of the amazing collection of museums, historic and cultural sites,
and other such resources we have in this country. To cite one that I haven’t
mentioned in other posts yet (but will come back to in a future series on San
Francisco): the Chinese Historical Society of
America, led by Executive
Director Sue Lee. Like every institution I’ve visited and connected to, the
CHSA is doing vital, irreplaceable, historical and cultural and intellectual
and public work—work in its community, but work for all American communities
and audiences and conversations. And also like every institution I’ve visited,
the CHSA needs more support—which is of course partly about our national and
political priorities when it comes to funding, but also very much about
awareness and engagement with the existence and efforts of these institutions.
So check out the CHSA’s website (linked above) and work, visit if you’re in San
Fran, and please spread the word on it—and any and all such institutions with
which you’re familiar (like here in the comments!).
The second
broader takeaway from these talks is just my optimistic sense of my fellow
Americans. The audiences for the talks have been hugely diverse, from students
and colleagues to community members in places as varied as San Francisco and
New York’s Chinatowns, Martha’s Vineyard, Harrisburg, rural Maine, and Waltham.
To a degree of course they’ve been self-selected (by choosing to attend the
talk, I mean), although in many cases they’ve come as part of a class, group,
or program. And in any case, they’ve consistently—indeed, always—been interested
and engaged, sharing their perspectives and voices but open to learning more,
passionate about questions of identity and community but not myopic or rigid in
their understandings of such core themes. It’s easy to despair about the
seemingly irreversible divisions that plague American society and life these
days, and I don’t want to minimize those problems—but traveling to give these
talks has also reminded me of the striking and powerful things that we share,
that connect rather than divide us. Makes me that much more excited to envision
a career as a public scholar, adding my voice to those communal, connecting conversations
in any and every way I can.
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Responses to
this post? What else from your fall would you recap and share?
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