Thursday, December 22, 2016

December 22, 2016: Wishes for the AmericanStudies Elves: Colleagues



[Each of the last few years, I’ve made a number of holiday wishes to the AmericanStudies Elves, things I’d love to see happen in the coming year. As you might have always known, the Elves are really all of us—so let’s work to make these and other great things happen in 2017! I’d love to hear your wishes, and causes or individuals or projects I can support as well, in comments!]
Two years ago, I highlighted a handful of FSU colleagues as part of my wishes series, both because they make FSU English Studies exactly the kind of place I’d wish to work, and because I wish for all the success for their own writing and work. I’d reiterate those sentiments and wishes here, not least because all of them—Steve Edwards, DeMisty Bellinger-Delfeld, Elisabet Takehana, and Heather Urbanski, along with our online magazine Detour and my former student Harrison Chute’s blog—have continued to do so much meaningful and inspiring work in the years since.
But we’re a big department with lots of other great folks too, so here are five more whose work and voices are well worth your engagement and support:
1)      Kisha Tracy, whose work with technology and pedagogy is reflected in this Guest Post but who is also a hugely talented medievalist;
2)      Joe Moser, who likewise has contributed a great Guest Post and whose upcoming second project on post-World War II films is one of my most eagerly anticipated scholarly books;
3)      Doris Schmidt, who has single-handledly kept our newspaper The Point going and who just retired to pursue vital environmental activist writing and work out West;
4)      Katy Covino-Poutasse, one of two new faculty I’ve helped hire in the last two years, and as dynamic an educator and scholar of education and literacy as I’ve known;
5)      And Diego Ubiera, the other new faculty member I helped hire, a teacher and advisor who’s become a huge influence on our students in his first semester, and a Latin American lit specialist from whom I’ve already learned a great deal.
Special holiday weekend wish tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Wishes or causes you’d share?

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