[As another
semester begins, so too does my annual Spring previews series, this time
focused on individual texts I’ll be teaching in spring courses. I’d love to
hear what your spring looks like and holds!]
On my next book
talk, my broader goals, and how I’d love your help.
It was nearly a
year ago that I had the chance to give my
first talk on my next book (still in progress), Exclusion & Inclusion: The Battle to Define America; since then
I’ve given additional versions of the talk at
other local spaces, as well as highlighting different pieces of it as part
of adult
learning courses and in public scholarly writings such as this
one on Yung Wing. But this February, on Valentine’s Day no less, I have the
chance to deliver a new book talk at a very exciting setting: I’ll be giving a
Fitchburg State University Harrod Lecture, which is a biannual university-wide series
devoted to highlighting the great work being done by our FSU faculty. I had the
chance to give a Harrod Lecture back in October 2008, on the topic that would
become my second
book Redefining American Identity,
and found the experience, the audience response and conversation, and the
setting to be among the most inspiring I’ve encountered in all my years in
academia. I’m honored and excited to be part of the Harrod series once more,
and am sure that I’ll once more get a great deal of continued inspiration for
the book in progress (and beyond) from the experience.
At the same
time, though, my goal for Exclusion &
Inclusion—and the
reason I’m working with an agent, Cecelia Cancellaro of Word Literary
Services—is that it be the most public of all my books and projects to date.
And while the FSU Harrod Lectures are open to community members from beyond the
campus, most of the folks in the audience will indeed be colleagues, students,
and others from the academic setting of FSU. So as I finalize the book
manuscript over the next couple months, and hopefully move toward securing a
publisher and bringing this project into the world, I would love the opportunity
to share it with more non-academic and public audiences as well. My year-plus
of book talks for The
Chinese Exclusion Act offered me a model for connecting to those kinds
of settings and audiences, and of course I’ll be reaching out to those and
similar institutions and spaces; but in truth, I believe that any individual’s
perspective and connections are too limited to truly achieve the kinds of
public engagement for which I’m hoping and working. To quote Bruce, “you got to
have help.” So I would greatly appreciate any ideas you all might have about
spaces, places, groups, or other opportunities to share a talk on “Exclusion
& Inclusion: The Battle to Define America.”
Finally—and I
hope it goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway—I’d love the chance to reciporate,
here or otherwise. So let me know about any upcoming talks, projects, work of
yours, in comments or by email,
and I’ll make sure to spread the word as well!
January Recap
this weekend,
Ben
PS. Thoughts on
this post? Spring previews of your own to share?
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