[The Fall
semester is just around the corner, so this week I’ll preview some of the
courses and plans for which I’m excited as a new semester gets underway. I’d
love to hear your own upcoming courses, plans, work, or whatever else has you
excited for Fall 2016!]
For my next Adult
Learning in the Fitchburg Area (ALFA) course, this time linked to a fall
ALFA field trip to Salem, I’ll be sharing a series of stories and histories
linked to my favorite Massachusetts city. Here are some of the many, many many,
posts and series that demonstrate why I feel that way and feature many of the
subjects I’ll share with the great ALFA students:
1)
The
Post of the Seven Links: One of the most fun parts (at least for me!) of
keeping this blog for nearly six years is the chance to see how my ideas and
perspective have evolved over that time. A case in point is this post, which
reflects the first moment when my interests in Salem and its many stories and
histories (and spaces) began.
2)
Series
on the 2012 NEASA Colloquium: Choosing to hold our second NEASA Colloquium
at the House of the Seven Gables both deepened my interest in Salem and helped
bring together a wonderful group of AmericanStudiers to consider the city and
its contexts. That hyperlinked concluding post illustrates both those effects,
as well as the many questions I still had and have about this complex American
place.
3)
Bad
Memories, Part One: It was in this post, that kicked off a series on how we
Americans remember some of our darkest histories, that I really began to
articulate why I love Salem’s Witch Trials Memorial (my favorite public site)
as much as I do—and really began to plan my fourth book, on which more
tomorrow, as well!
4)
House
Histories: Salem and the East: It was with this series, inspired by both
Hawthorne’s novel and the House that bears its name (or, y’know, vice versa),
that I really collected the body of Salem stories and histories that I hope to
include and have us talk about in the course of this fall’s ALFA class. The
students will have visited the House on their field trip, so they’ll have lots
of great starting points of their own as well!
5)
New
NEASA Books: A History of Spiritualism
and the Occult in Salem: I’d be remiss if I concluded a Salem post
without mentioning Maggi Smith-Dalton, the public scholar, educator, and
musician whose work and voice—along with those of the equally multi-talented Elizabeth
Duclos-Orsello of Salem State University—have been guiding lights for me in
my SalemStudying. I’ll make sure to mention them and their work to my ALFA students
too!
Last preview
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Thoughts on
this course? Other previews or plans you’d share?
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