Saturday, September 30, 2023

September 30-October 1, 2023: September 2023 Recap

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

September 4: Fall Semester Previews: Ethnic American Literature: For this semester’s previews series I focused on ongoing challenges, starting with teaching Ethnic American lit & history in 2023.

September 5: Fall Semester Previews: English Studies Capstone: The series continues with how to frame and teach a future-focused class in a moment when the future is so fraught.

September 6: Fall Semester Previews: First-Year Writing I: Teaching writing in the age of ChatGPT, as the series previews on.

September 7: Fall Semester Previews: American Lit Online: A continued challenge of online-only teaching, and one for which I’d love ideas and perspectives!

September 8: Fall Semester Previews: Departmental Program Review: The series concludes with ongoing departmental work for the year and why it matters so much.

September 9-10: Update on My Current Book Project: And speaking of ongoing work, a semi-update on and request for connections with my new book project.

September 11: AmericanStudying The Rising: “Into the Fire” and “The Rising”: A September 11th series on Springsteen’s amazing cultural response to that tragedy starts with two complementary but also contrasting ways to see firefighters and their families.

September 12: AmericanStudying The Rising: “Paradise” and “Worlds Apart”: The series continues with two very different ways that The Rising pushes past stereotypes of Muslims.

September 13: AmericanStudying The Rising: “You’re Missing” and “Mary’s Place”: A pair of couplets that reflect two sides of loss and griefs, as the series rises on.

September 14: AmericanStudying The Rising: “The Fuse” and “Let’s Be Friends (Skin to Skin)”: In response to a frustrating current controversy, two Bruce songs that remind us of the vital role of cultural works about sex in challenging times.

September 15: AmericanStudying The Rising: “My City of Ruins” and “Superman (It’s Not Easy)”: The series concludes with two accidentally resonant songs that highlight how art can radically change meaning alongside unfolding histories.

September 18: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: Two Fires: For the 150th anniversary of its starting point, a series on the Panic of 1873 kicks off with two disasters that helped set the stage for that crash.

September 19: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: The Coinage Act: The series continues with a controversial 1873 law and the causes and contingencies of history.

September 20: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: Two Panics: What was quite similar and what importantly distinct about two 19th century Panics, as the series rolls on.

September 21: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: The Railroad Strike: How a hugely important national labor action was influenced by the Panic, and vice versa.

September 22: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: Anti-Chinese Prejudice: The series concludes with the Panic’s key role in three stages of the evolving anti-Chinese movement.

September 23-24: AmericanStudying the Panic of 1873: 2023 Connections: A special weekend post on one overt and two more subtle (but perhaps even more important) echoes of the 1870s.

September 25: Cultural Falls: Young Adult Lit: An autumn series on cultural images of falls kicks off with two young adult novels that fractured my innocence alongside that of their protagonists.

September 26: Cultural Falls: American Pastoral: The series continues with Philip Roth’s masterful historical novel which embodies both the extreme and the poignant 60s losses of innocence.  

September 27: Cultural Falls: The Body and Stand By Me: A novella and film adaptation that, in their divergent portrayals of the loss of innocence, also reflect the complexities of adaptation, as the series falls on.

September 28: Cultural Falls: Presumed Innocent: The legal thriller and film adaptation that exemplify the multiple layers of revelations about innocence and guilt in the best mystery fiction.

September 29: Cultural Falls: “American Pie”: The series and month conclude with the straightforward and subtler sides to the famous ballad about individual and cultural losses of innocence.

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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