[I’ve long been
a fan of book
talks, but since my most recent book, We
the People: The 500-Year Battle over Who is American, is intended to be
my most public yet, I’ve redoubled my dedication to talking about it anywhere
and everywhere. Since I’m on sabbatical this fall and even more flexible, I
wanted to take this week to highlight some of my prior and upcoming talks, as
examples that I hope can lead to more such opportunities! I’ll travel and talk
anywhere and am happy to pay my own way for the chance to share these stories
and histories!]
On three
distinct, complementary early audiences with whom I developed the book’s ideas
and arguments.
1)
A New
Hampshire reading group: As I highlighted in that post, the first public
space in which I talked about the concepts of exclusion and inclusion which
would become the core of We the People
was the restaurant in Jaffrey’s Monadnock Inn, where a group of adult learners
were holding their monthly reading/discussion group. Adult learning programs
and related conversations (such as the Women’s
Circle Breakfasts at the Southgate community) have become one of the most
consistent settings for my public American Studies scholarship and teaching, and
for good reason—no audiences provide more thoughtful, careful, experienced,
challenging perspective and responses than these, and no conversations have
better modeled for me the kinds of dialogues I hope to help create and
participate in everywhere. There’s no adult learning space or discussion group
I wouldn’t be happy to join to talk more about We the People!
2)
The
Gardner Museum: A few months later, as I discussed in that post, I continued
to develop my ideas at this wonderful historical
and cultural museum in Gardner, Massachusetts. Ever since my phenomenal fall
2013 experience talking about my Chinese Exclusion Act book at
New York’s Museum of the Chinese in America (MOCA), I’ve been trying to
find more such museums and historic/cultural sites in which to share my work
and thoughts. One such possibility for this book is the American Writers Museum in
Chicago (for which I served as a scholarly advisor for many years while it was
in development), and I’ll keep you all posted if that possibility develops as I
very much hope it will. But in any case, I’m open to any and all other
suggestions for museum and sites, as they provide an ideal backdrop and context
for discussing these histories and stories.
3)
Fitchburg State University’s Harrod
Lecture: Building on those and other early talks, the ideas for We the People came together most fully
in an academic setting, my February 2018 talk in FSU’s Harrod Lecture series. I’ve
given more book talks in academic settings (both as separate lectures and to
particular classes) than for any other audience, and for good reason—as I argue
in the
Introduction to that aforementioned Chinese Exclusion Act book, public
scholarship is very parallel to teaching in its ideal forms, and my own ideas
(including these) have developed in and through my teaching in central and
crucial ways. So at the risk of repeating myself, there are literally no
academic spaces, settings, or classes in which I wouldn’t be willing and happy
to come share We the People and its
histories and stories.
Next book talk
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Ideas or
suggestions for future talks, in-person or online? I’d love to hear them!
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