[This Fall was another extremely exhausting semester, and first and foremost I’m proud of all of us for making it through. But it also featured moments that reminded me of why we do what we do, and in this recap series I wanted to highlight one such moment from each of my Fall classes. Leading up to this weekend post on a few of the things I’m looking forward to in Spring 2022!]
On three of the
many things I’m looking forward to in Spring 2022 (!):
1)
Du
Bois Redux: As that hyperlinked post illustrates, my Major Author course on
W.E.B. Du Bois, which concluded eight years ago this week, was and remains one
of my favorites across my 17 years at FSU. I’ve since taught an excellent Major
Author section focused
on Mark Twain, but when the course came back around to me for Spring 2022,
I knew that it was time to revisit Du Bois. I can’t wait to share the many,
many sides, genres, layers, and legacies of my favorite American with a new
group of students!
2)
19C Women Writers: A couple months back I
blogged about my new role as our English Studies Graduate Program director,
and my hope to draw more students from near and far (with your ideas, which I’d
still love to hear!) to help keep that wonderful program going. Every chance I
get to teach in that program reinforces its awesomeness, and I’m excited to
teach this Spring, for a second time, my grad seminar on 19th
century American Women Writers. From Catharine
Maria Sedgwick and Fanny
Fern to Frances
Harper and Ida
B. Wells, and with so so so many in between, this class features many of my
favorite American writers and texts, and it’ll be great to share them with a group
of fellow educators!
3)
Adult Learning and My Next Book: Work on my next
book, Two
Sandlots: Baseball, Bigotry, and the Battle for America, has been
stop-and-start at best in this challenging Fall semester. To help that work along,
and to share these histories and stories with some of my favorite communities
in the process, I decided to focus my Spring adult ed courses for both the ALFA
and WISE programs on the book. Excited to see what it helps me to emphasize,
and especially to see how these awesome classes and communities respond!
Holiday series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Other Fall
reflections or Spring previews you’d share?
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