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Saturday, October 3, 2020

October 3-4, 2020: September 2020 Recap

 

[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

August 31: Fall Semester Previews: A Policy of Care: A preview series for a Fall semester unlike any other starts with a new syllabus statement to reflect that new world.

September 1: Fall Semester Previews: Open-Access Texts: The series continues with an impressive open-access resource, and a broader question for us all moving forward.

September 2: Fall Semester Previews: Ungrading: My tentative embrace of a radical pedagogy, and a question that remains, as the series rolls on.

Special Post: The Rock Springs Massacre and Working-Class White Supremacist Violence: I wanted to share here this piece that didn’t end up getting published for my Saturday Evening Post column.

September 3: Fall Semester Previews: Zoom: One thing I’ve learned about teaching in a new format, and what I still haven’t figured out (although I’m getting there as the semester unfolds!).

September 4: Fall Semester Previews: What Doesn’t Change: The series concludes with some continuity and clarity at a chaotic and uncertain time.

September 5-6: Crowd-sourced Fall 2020: Thoughts, plans, concerns, and solidarity from many of my friends and colleagues—add yours in comments!

September 7: History through Games: War Games: One of my more fun series ever kicks off with three board games through which I learned about war histories and stories.

September 8: History through Games: The Oregon Trail: The series continues with three takeaways from the pioneering video game.

September 9: History through Games: Careers: A piece I wrote for the Fitchburg Historical Society newsletter on learning history through the 1970s update of the classic board game.

September 10: History through Games: Video Game Action and Inaction: How two action-packed and one decidedly less active game portray the past, as the series plays on.

September 11: History through Games: History Adventures: The series concludes with a new, interactive digital book series that extends the Choose Your Own Adventure genre to new media.

September 12-13: History through Games: Reacting to the Past: A special weekend post on a few voices from whom I’ve learned about the pedagogical games.

September 14: Nazis in America: Madison Square Garden: Ahead of Project Paperclip’s 75th anniversary, a NaziStudying series starts with the February 1939 NYC rally.

September 15: Nazis in America: Ford, Lindbergh, and Coughlin: The series continues with three famous figures who reflect the depth and breadth of US Nazism.

September 16: Nazis in America: The Plot against America: Three telling and compelling layers to Philip Roth’s alternate historical fiction, as the series marches on.

September 17: Nazis in America: Wernher von Braun: Three striking and smart lines from Tom Lehrer’s satirical song.

September 18: Nazis in America: Neo-Nazis and Charlottesville: The series concludes with how to respond to a resurgent, but not at all new, neo-Nazi movement.

September 19-20: Nazis in America: Project Paperclip and Hunters: For the project’s 75th anniversary, a more historical and a more fictional side to how the Amazon show portrays those histories.

September 21: Legends of the Fall: Young Adult Lit: An AutumnStudying series kicks off with two iconic YA novels that fractured my innocence alongside that of their characters.

September 22: Legends of the Fall: American Pastoral: The series continues with a quiet scene that embodies the loss of innocence far more than the novel’s over-the-top moments.

September 23: Legends of the Fall: The Body and Stand by Me: A novella that’s explicitly about the loss of innocence and a film adaptation that’s decidedly less so, as the series peeps on.

September 24: Legends of the Fall: Presumed Innocent: The multiple levels of revelations about innocence and guilt built into the best mystery fiction.

September 25: Legends of the Fall: “American Pie”: The series concludes with the straightforward and subtler sides to a beloved ballad about the loss of innocence.

September 26-27: Crowd-sourced AutumnStudying: Another full and fun crowd-sourced post—add your AutumnStudying nominations in comments!

September 28: Sports Scandals: The Black Sox: On the 100th anniversary of a key turning point, three ways to contextualize the Black Sox kick off a series on sports scandals.

September 29: Sports Scandals: Rosie Ruiz: The series continues with three layers to the infamous marathon scandal beyond the headlines.

September 30: Sports Scandals: Lance Armstrong: Two broader implications of a scandal that’s easy to pin on an individual bad actor, as the series cheats on.

October 1: Sports Scandals: The Patriots: Two ways the record-breaking NFL dynasty’s scandals foreshadowed the age of Trump.

October 2: Sports Scandals: The Astros: The series concludes with one thing that’s definitely different about the first sports scandal of the 2020s, and the fundamental question of what’s next.

Next series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topics you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!

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