[On August 15th, this AmericanStudier celebrated his 46th birthday. So as I do each year, here’s a series sharing some of my favorite posts from each year on the blog, leading up to a new post with 46 favorites from the last year. And as ever, you couldn’t give me a better present than to say hi and tell me a bit about what brings you to the blog, what you’ve found or enjoyed here, your own AmericanStudies thoughts, or anything else!]
Here they
are, 43 favorite posts from 2019-20 on the blog:
August 23:
Cville Influences: Satyendra Huja: It was fun to learn more about and
share the story of a quietly pivotal figure from my Cville childhood.
September
2: Academic Labor: Adjunctification: In place of my annual fall preview
series, for my sabbatical I wanted to think through the (now even more) crucial
issues around academic labor, starting with the most fraught and fundamental such
issue.
September
7-8: Academic Labor: Hire Jeff Reyne!: Sometimes the blog gets especially
personal, and this was one such example. I stand by every word!
September
9: Slave Rebellions: The Stono Rebellion: This whole series was one of those
from which I learned a great deal through the research and writing, and that
was doubly true of the South Carolina revolt that provided the anniversary
around which the series centered.
September
26: AmericanStudy a Banned Book: Heather Has Two Mommies: Some of
my favorite posts are those on topics I literally had never thought about (at
least not in an analytical context) until the series called for it. This one on
a ground-breaking 1989 children’s book fits that description to a T.
October 2:
Recent Reads: There There: Let’s just say this post’s main point, about
necessary challenges to my critical optimism, has come to feel all too
prescient as 2020 has unfolded.
October
21: The 1850 Women’s Rights Convention: Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis: I’m not
sure how I went so long without knowing that the first national women’s rights
convention was held in Worcester, but it was a lot of fun to learn about that
convention and some of its pivotal figures.
October
26-27: Ariella Archer’s Guest Post: My Scary Thoughts: The Evolution of Three
Horror Genres: Guest Posts remain my favorite part of the blog, and Ariella’s
made for perfect Halloween week reading!
November
6: 9 Years of AmericanStudier: Sharing Your Voices: Speaking
of, some anniversary week reflections on the best part of the blog (and how you
can add your voice to it!).
November
16-17: Kent Rose’s Guest Post: How I Got to Nelson Algren: And the
Guest Post trifecta concludes with singer-songwriter Kent Rose on an under-appreciated
American novelist.
November
23-24: Teaching Local Color: Between fall sabbatical and the clusterfuck
that was spring 2020, teaching has sure felt different over the last year—but
it remains a key focus of my AmericanStudying, as of every aspect of my career
and life.
December
11: 50s Musical Icons: Patti Page: Did you know that Page was the 50s
top-charting and best-selling female artist? I didn’t until researching this
fun post.
December
16: Book Talk Recaps: Temple Graduate English Program: My whole
fall of We the People book talks was
wonderful, but this return to my grad program was a special treat.
December
20: Book Talk Recaps: The Boston Athenaeum: But just as special in its own way
was the chance to talk in this beautiful, historic space.
January 6:
AmericanStudying Unbelievable: Sexual Assault: I’ve watched a ton of great TV over
the last year, but at the top of the list is this Netflix original police show
that’s also so much more.
January
25-26: 21st Century Voices of Civil Rights: I loved
the chance to highlight a handful of the many activists, writers, and scholars
who inspire my work every day.
January
31: Sports and Politics: The Nationals at the White House: Ah,
those halcyon days when a controversial appearance by the World Series champs
seemed like big news.
February
3: Immigration Laws: 19th Century Origins: Another
of those whole series from which I learned a ton and which helped me continue
thinking through a topic of central interest (to me and all of us).
February
15-16: Fantasy Stories I Love: African Fantasy: Although
my spring semester didn’t go the way I hoped (to understate the case), it was
still great to read and teach Kai Ashante Wilson’s Sorcerer of the Wildeeps as part of my larger engagement with
African and African American fantasy.
February
22-23: Crowd-sourced Non-Favorites: Always one of my favorite posts of
the year, and this year’s didn’t disappoint!
February
24: Leap Years: 1816: I was 42 years old when I learned about the
Year without a Summer, but, as with everything I write about on the blog,
better late than never!
March 2:
Boston Sites: The Freedom Trail: The series led to some interesting,
ongoing conversations with both the various historic sites and my old friend
Nat Sheidley, now CEO of Revolutionary
Spaces!
March 9:
Last Week Recaps: SSN Boston and 2020 in Massachusetts: I had no
idea the first week of March would be the last “normal” week of the year for
me, but it was also a wonderfully full week for events, including this vital
part of SSN Boston’s ongoing work.
March 18:
StoweStudying: New England Local Color: I’ve strayed pretty far from my
first book and my English PhD roots, but many of those subjects remain central
to my AmericanStudying nonetheless. This post offers a great example!
March 23:
AmericanStudying the Deuce: Lori, Emily Meade, and Exploitation: Some
posts practically write themselves, and that was the case with this exploration
of one of my favorite TV characters and performances of the last few years.
April 4-5:
Dolemite is … the Subject of This Post: Another wonderful character and
performance, and a lot of important cultural and American history to boot.
April 10:
Poets We Should All Read: Robin Jewel Smith’s Suggestions: My
favorite post in my National Poetry Month series was this group of contemporary
poetry suggestions from one of our most talented young poets!
April
18-19: 21st Century Arab American Writers: Along
those same lines, I ended my National Arab American Heritage Month series by
highlighting a handful of our many talented and vital contemporary authors.
April 22:
Models of Critical Patriotism: “Eulogy on King Philip”:
Critical patriotism is a central subject of my next book, and I know few better
examples than William Apess’s stunning speech.
May 5:
American Epidemics: Yellow Fever: My first series to address directly
our new 2020 realities, and a post on how such realities have influenced
America since our origins.
May 11:
Spring 2020 Tributes: Lisa Gim and My English Studies Department: I
replaced my annual Spring semester recaps with a series of heartfelt tributes
to those who helped me get through this toughest semester of my career—none
more heartfelt than this one.
May 16-17:
Spring 2020 Reflections: And I ended that series with a few of my own
thoughts on teaching during COVID-19, which I hope might be useful for all of
us as we continue navigating those uncharted waters.
May 19:
LibraryStudying: The Boston Public Library: Did you know that a French
ventriloquist was a key factor in the development of the BPL? Me neither until
I researched this post!
June 4:
MassMedia Studying: The March of Time and Newsreels: The
prominence and influence of early 20th century newsreels remain
under-appreciated, and I hope this post (like the new book I cite in it) might
help change that conversation.
June 12:
Portsmouth Posts: The Black Heritage Trail: A rare locked-down road trip with my
sons led me to this series on the many histories and stories around the
Portsmouth (NH) waterfront.
June 22:
BoschStudying: Harry: One of my most recent TV binges was Amazon’s
original cop drama Bosch, which
inspired this series on the show’s five central characters.
July 4-5:
Patriotism’s Contested Histories: Update on Of Thee I Sing!: A July
4th series on the subject of my next book concludes with an update
on that
forthcoming project (now with a beautiful cover pictured above!).
July 6:
Presidential Medals of Freedom: 1963 Recipients: It was
fun to look back through the 50+ year history of our highest civilian honor,
starting with this post on some of the first recipients.
July 13:
AmericanStudying Watchmen: Tulsa: When I finally got to watch HBO’s Watchmen, it more than led up to the
hype, and it was fun to revisit the show for this week of posts.
July
18-19: AmericanStudying Watchmen: Student Perspectives: And
especially fun was the chance to share a few of my Spring 2020 Sci Fi/Fantasy
course’s many great student takes on the Watchmen
graphic novel!
July 30:
Great Movie Speeches: Jaws: I try to remain open to where historic
anniversaries might take me—and the anniversary of the USS Indianapolis tragedy led me to this series on great movie
speeches, featuring Quint’s masterful monologue.
July 31:
Great Movie Speeches: The American President: But also featuring one of the
clearest and most inspiring statements of critical patriotism I’ve ever
encountered, President Andrew Shepherd’s riveting press conference speech.
August 5:
Military Massacres: Balangiga: Chances are most of my readers haven’t heard
of this Philippine American War massacre, which speaks to a large problem of
collective memory that I hope posts like this can help address.
Next
birthday post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. You
know what to do!
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