Tuesday, July 27, 2021

July 27, 2021: AmericanStudiers to Highlight: Christina Proenza-Coles

[This past weekend’s tribute to Daniel Immerwahr’s book reminded me that it’s been a while since I highlighted fellow AmericanStudiers. So this week I’ll share a handful of such voices and texts—I’d love to hear more scholars and works you’d add to the mix!]

First things first: Christina Proenza-Coles’ book American Founders: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World (2019) is not only one of the best works of American historical scholarship of the last decade, but develops ideas at the heart of my last two books—an inclusive and a critical patriotic vision of both African American and American identity—as potently as I could ever hope to communicate them. You might think that could make me jealous, but when I had the chance to meet Christina in my hometown of Charlottesville a couple years back (where she was teaching in the UVa American Studies program, among other gigs), she was so generous and supportive and generally awesome that I was honored to share these ideas and interests with her. Can’t wait to see where her scholarship and writing take her, and us, next!

Next highlight tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? AmericanStudies scholars or works you’d share?

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