[I think we could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities and conversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted to share one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals. Leading up to this special post on what I’m looking forward to in the Spring!]
Three
Spring courses that make me (somewhat) excited to come back from the holiday
break.
1)
Graduate English Research: I’ve been teaching courses
in our MA program since the end of my first year at FSU (Summer 2006!), and
have been the Chair of the program as well for the last 3+ years. But somehow,
in all that time and across all these courses, I’ve never had the chance to
teach our one required class, Graduate English Research. This Spring I’ll
finally have that chance, and am so excited for two specific units: one where
we’ll read a ton of Langston
Hughes’s Collected Poems and think about different research and analytical
lenses on them; and one where we’ll read a number of short stories from the Best
American Short Stories 2018 anthology
and do the same with more contemporary texts. One key to teaching at a place
for 20 years is keeping things fresh, and this course promises to do that for
me in Spring 2025 for sure.
2)
Honors First-Year Writing II: This is another
class I’ve never had the chance to teach—it won’t be quite as new for me as the
Graduate one, as I’ve taught First-Year
Writing II every year and have also taught our Honors
Literature Seminar many times; but this will still be a variation on those
more familiar themes, and a chance to work with our phenomenal Honors students
which is always a profound pleasure. And maybe I’ll have a chance to recruit
one or two or all of them to add a Minor in English Studies (if they’re not
already English Studies Majors, which most of them won’t be)…
3)
Major
American Authors of the 20C: This upper-level literature course will
include a lot of such Majors and Minors already, although I also always get a
number of students from across the university in my lit courses which makes for
a great balance. Some authors/texts have been present every time I’ve taught
this class and will remain so this Spring, including opening with Dreiser’s
Sister Carrie (1900) and working with multiple poems from both the
aforementioned Langston Hughes and Sylvia
Plath in two mid-semester units. But I’m especially excited to conclude
this class with a favorite novel that I’ve taught many times but never on this
syllabus: Jhumpa
Lahiri’s The Namesake (2003). Every time I come back to this novel I
see different things, and I’m sure this setting will open it up in new ways
still. Not rushing the break, but also, I can’t wait!
Year in
Review posts start Monday,
Ben
PS. What
are you looking forward to?
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