January 15, 2016: Spring 2016 Previews: A New ALFA Course and a Request

[Next week brings a new semester, the last of my 11^th year at Fitchburg State University. So this week brings a series of spring 2016 preview posts, this time focused on the texts we’ll be reading in my spring courses. I’d love to hear about your spring syllabi, and other spring plans, in comments!]

I’ll be teaching another section of our graduate program’s Intro to Literary Theory course this spring, but as that hyperlink indicates I’ve blogged about that one before and remain comfortable with its readings. On the other hand, I’ll be teaching another new Adult Learning in the Fitchburg Area (ALFA) course as well, and as with the fall’s contemporary short story course this is one for which I’m still developing the readings. So I’d love your input!

I like to alternate more literary ALFA courses with more historical/AmericanStudies ones, so it’s time for the latter. This time I’m planning to focus for the course’s five weeks on under-remembered histories and stories behind periods and events we generally remember well; so, for example, we have many collective memories of the American Revolution, but for that week I’ll ask us to read and analyze figures like Quock Walker and Annis Stockton, to consider both what they can help us see about the Revolution and what other histories and issues they add to the conversation.

I know I want that week on the Revolution, and one on the Civil War (probably focusing on Chinese American Civil War soldiers, although I’m open to suggestions!). But honestly, the course’s other three weeks remain open—I’m thinking one pre-Revolution and two post-Civil War, but those are just starting points, and ones for which I haven’t narrowed down the list of possible figures and histories either. The course starts on Friday, January 29^th, so I’ll need to make my decisions pretty quickly—but again, I’d love to hear any suggestions or ideas of yours as I do so! Help make my Spring 2016 semester that much more fresh and meaningful, please!

Special NeMLA preview this weekend,

Ben

PS. What are you teaching/reading this spring? Other spring plans you’d share?