January 17, 2014: Spring 2014 Previews: The Book Talks Resume

[As my spring semester gets underway, a series on courses and other events to which I’m looking forward. Share your spring previews for a forward-thinking crowd-sourced weekend post, please!]

On three new places, literal and philosophical, to which my spring book talks will take me.

1)      Our Northern Neighbor: In a couple weeks, I’ll be in the Toronto area, giving a talk at Waterloo’s Wilfrid Laurier University (and hopefully one at a public library in Toronto, although this is still in flux). My goal for this talk will be to connect my book, and the histories of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinese Americans on which it focuses, to their parallels in Canadian history—which has, I have only recently learned, its own Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923. Given that one of my favorite American authors, Sui Sin Far, spent most of her childhood and early adulthood in Montreal and considered herself a lifelong Eurasian Canadian, I’m excited to pursue these connections and see where they take me!

2)      Across the Pond: In late February, I’ll travel for the first time to the UK, where I’ll be a featured speaker at a March 1^st seminar on Law, Race, and Culture in the Americas. The seminar, organized by the UK scholarly organization Race in the Americas, will thus be transnational on multiple levels: focused on comparative analyses of its topics across the Americas; and featuring the work and perspectives of mostly British scholars and students. My plan is to give the standard version of my talk, since it’s what I know best—but I can’t wait to hear all the other talks and topics, and to learn from all these transnational connections and conversations.

3)      Back Home: In late March, I’ll get to return to my hometown of Charlottesville ,Virginia, not only to sample some of that home cookin’ (although yes) but also and most importantly to participate in the city’s annual Festival of the Book. I’m very excited to get to talk about my book in that setting, not only because of the personal connections but also because it will force me to take my public scholarly goals to another level, focusing entirely on what makes these histories and stories and topics relevant and interesting and meaningful to any and all readers and audiences. Obviously I believe that’s true, but this’ll be a chance to make the case, and see how an audience responds. I can’t wait!

Crowd-sourced post this weekend,

Ben

PS. Last chance to share some spring previews of your own for that weekend post!

PPS. The Canadian talks have been pushed back to Fall 2014--but will still happen, and I look forward to making those connections at that point!