Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 29

December 24, 2024: 2024 in Review: AI

[I wasinitially trying to decide whether to focus my annual Year in Review series on heavyor light topics, but then I realized this was 2024—we had it all, from the seriousto the surreal, the absurd to the awesome. So I’ll start with a couple toughsubjects and move toward some happier ones. I’d love your end-of-yearreflections as well!]

I harboreda brief plan to outsource the writing of today’s post to ChatGPT (and then tocomment on how the program did or, far more likely, did not live up to my loftygoals for my own writing, natch), but here’s the thing: generative AIprograms like that most famous one are not just shitty writers and thinkers(as that excellent hyperlinked post from the folks at the USC Libraries notes),they also are blatantly stealing fromothers’ work and, to follow up yesterday’s post (with a side of AI that Idon’t think nearly enough folks are aware of, or that at least I don’t see inour conversations about AI in higher ed nearly consistently enough), contributingdirectly to the climate crisis while they do so. (I believe that’s equallytrue for other, non-generative forms of AI, but I have far less experience withand knowledge about them.) When I talk with students about why I hope they’llavoid using generative AI for any part of their work and writing in my classes,I emphasize all those levels for sure. But I also come back to one main point,the same one I’ve always made when it comes to questions of plagiarism and thelike: I respect my students deeply, and I hope they will always likewiserespect their own work, their own time, their own money and investment of alltypes in their education, as well as our shared community together. To my mind,such respect demands at least that we talk together about AI any and every timeit might be in play—and at most, and ideally, that we avoid outsourcing anypart of our work and voice to these problematic programs.

Next 2024reflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? What stands out from this decades-long year?

December 23, 2024: 2024 in Review: The Climate Crisis

[I wasinitially trying to decide whether to focus my annual Year in Review series on heavyor light topics, but then I realized this was 2024—we had it all, from the seriousto the surreal, the absurd to the awesome. So I’ll start with a couple toughsubjects and move toward some happier ones. I’d love your end-of-yearreflections as well!]

What isthere to say about the climate crisis in late 2024, you might reasonably ask, otherthan a primal scream of sadness and terror and rage and etc. etc. etc.? Iwouldn’t disagree; the critical optimism I highlighted in this August2021 Saturday Evening Post Considering History column is, shall we say,trending more and more toward the critical side of that coin. In any case wecan’t and shouldn’t look away, so I couldn’t imagine creating a weeklong 2024in Review series without including the climate crisis as a subject. But I alsowanted to use today’s post to highlight two prior blog posts to express the twosides of this defining 21st century issue, at least as far as this AmericanStudieris concerned:

1)     Asheville:I haven’t had the chance to visit this famously beautiful North Carolina cityin the state’s mountainous Western region, so that post on native son Thomas Wolfe (and Wolfe’s demandingand beautiful writings themselves) are my connection to Asheville. But thatdidn’t lessen in the slightest my genuine horror and sadness at seeing what hurricane-and climate crisis-produced flooding didto that city and region earlier this year. I’m not sure how anyone can seethose stories and not feel compelled to do anything and everything to helpchange this trajectory we’re on, and I’ve got one particularly inspiring modelfor that work through my older son…

2)     Aidan:In that Fall semester preview post, I briefly mentioned the Environmental Litcourse that Aidan is taking as part of his first semester at Vanderbilt. He’snot only kicking as much ass as you would expect, but has enjoyed the coursesufficiently to add a Climate andEnvironmental Studies Minor to his Civil Engineering Major. When I thinkabout the world that we are passing along to folks his (and my younger son Kyle’s)age, well, the primal scream returns and intensifies. But if the optimism sideof the critical optimism concept has any chance with me these days, it’sbecause of what Aidan and Kyle both are doing and fighting for in their educational,professional, and personal lives and futures. Makes me that much more committedto doing whatever I can, in whatever time I have left, to fight for that futureby their sides.

Next 2024reflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? What stands out from this decades-long year?

December 21-22, 2024: Spring Semester Previews

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare 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!]

ThreeSpring courses that make me (somewhat) excited to come back from the holidaybreak.

1)     Graduate English Research: I’ve been teaching coursesin our MA program since the end of my first year at FSU (Summer 2006!), andhave 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 toteach our one required class, Graduate English Research. This Spring I’llfinally have that chance, and am so excited for two specific units: one wherewe’ll read a ton of LangstonHughes’s Collected Poems and think about different research and analyticallenses on them; and one where we’ll read a number of short stories from the BestAmerican Short Stories 2018 anthologyand do the same with more contemporary texts. One key to teaching at a placefor 20 years is keeping things fresh, and this course promises to do that forme in Spring 2025 for sure.

2)     Honors First-Year Writing II: This is anotherclass I’ve never had the chance to teach—it won’t be quite as new for me as theGraduate one, as I’ve taught First-YearWriting II every year and have also taught our HonorsLiterature Seminar many times; but this will still be a variation on thosemore familiar themes, and a chance to work with our phenomenal Honors studentswhich is always a profound pleasure. And maybe I’ll have a chance to recruitone or two or all of them to add a Minor in English Studies (if they’re notalready English Studies Majors, which most of them won’t be)…

3)     MajorAmerican Authors of the 20C: This upper-level literature course willinclude a lot of such Majors and Minors already, although I also always get anumber of students from across the university in my lit courses which makes fora great balance. Some authors/texts have been present every time I’ve taughtthis class and will remain so this Spring, including opening with Dreiser’sSister Carrie (1900) and working with multiple poems from both theaforementioned Langston Hughes and SylviaPlath in two mid-semester units. But I’m especially excited to concludethis class with a favorite novel that I’ve taught many times but never on thissyllabus: JhumpaLahiri’s The Namesake (2003). Every time I come back to this novel Isee different things, and I’m sure this setting will open it up in new waysstill. Not rushing the break, but also, I can’t wait!

Year inReview posts start Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatare you looking forward to?

December 20, 2024: Fall Semester Reflections: Women’s Circle Breakfast

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals.I’d love to hear about your Falls in comments!]

Since atleast theIntroduction to my 2013 book TheChinese Exclusion Act: What It Can Teach Us about America, I’ve been thinkingabout public scholarship as a form of teaching (in the best, most communal andconversation senses of that work). That’s one of many reasons (but high on thelist) why I seek out every possible opportunity to present my work to audiences,and oneof the settings to which I’ve returned most often are the Women’sCircle Breakfasts at Southgate. I had the chance to do so again this Fall,talking to them about the incredibly fraught and painful and important (now atleast as much as then) topic of eugenics in early 20th century Americansociety, culture, and history. As with every talk I get to give, and certainlywith every one I’ve been able to share with the Women’s Circle, I learned asmuch from the experience as any audience member could have; and in this case,as so often, I think we were all reminded of the worst of us and, I hope and believe,inspired to keep fighting for the best. I’ll take any and all of those moments!

Lookingahead to what’s next in the weekend post,

Ben

PS.Whattaya got?

December 19, 2024: Fall Semester Reflections: Online American Lit

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals.I’d love to hear about your Falls in comments!]

I have to imagineI’ve written about them since May2011, but that’s the post I found in a quick search, so: for a good whilenow I’ve been using creative questions for the longer/mini-essay portions of myFinal Exams. I always give students the option to write a more conventionalexam essay, but of course really enjoy when they take the creative option anddo things like imagine the voices of our class authors, of characters in ourreadings, and so on. I offered that chance to the students in my online sectionof American Literature II this semester, and those that chose the creative optionrose to the occasion as wonderfully as ever. If I had to pick one particular stand-out,I’d go with the student who put Calixta (the main character of KateChopin’s “The Storm”) in conversation with Sylvia Plath’s speaker from “Lady Lazarus”to think about women’s experiences, struggles, and why death and violence arenot the only possible paths. One of my favorite pieces of student writing ever,and a great reminder of the benefits of offering such creative options forstudent work of all kinds.

Lastreflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS.Whattaya got?

December 18, 2024: Fall Semester Reflections: Senior Capstone

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals.I’d love to hear about your Falls in comments!]

This one’spretty straightforward, but man did we all need it. My English Studies Senior Capstonecourse met T/Th at 2pm this semester, so on Halloween it was the end of the schoolday for both me and most if not all of the students in there. I was in costume (duh),a few of the students were too, one of them brought some refreshments as partof their costume, and we sat around and had the refreshments and talked aboutwriting opportunities, job and career paths, grad school options, the Eric Carle Museum, and more. It was one ofmy favorite hours on campus in a long time, and a great reminder of why online education(which I do every semester, as I’ll write about tomorrow) will never be able tofully or successfully substitute for that in-person, in-class experience andcommunity.

Nextreflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whattayagot?

December 17, 2024: Fall Semester Reflections: First-Year Writing

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals.I’d love to hear about your Falls in comments!]

I haven’tsaid much if anything in this space yet about AI, although I will be doing sonext week as part of my Year in Review series. As I’m sure everyone readingthis knows, it has become a central focus in the world of higher ed, andperhaps especially for those of us teach writing. I’ve actually seen the mostuse of programs like ChatGPT in my online-only literature courses, where ofcourse all the work is already happening online and where it’s harder to buildthe kinds of communal respect that allows us to talk together about suchfraught topics. I did see a few instances in my First-Year Writing sections thisFall, but what I wanted to highlight here is another product of that mutualrespect: when I identified this AI-driven writing with the individual students,they were willing and able to recognize why this wasn’t a good call, to hear myperspective, and to work together with me to help develop their own ideas andwriting for these assignments instead. If our job is to teach—and yeah, it sureis—then that’s how we should be approaching AI too, as another moment forteaching and learning and growth.

Nextreflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whattayagot?

December 16, 2024: Fall Semester Reflections: 20C Af Am Lit

[I thinkwe could all use some reminders these days of the best of our communities andconversations. So for this year’s Fall Semester reflections series, I wanted toshare one moment from each of my classes that embodied those collective goals.I’d love to hear about your Falls in comments!]

I’m goingto start this series by breaking my own stated rules slightly, but I think you’llagree that this counts as an inspiring moment, if one that we had to pay offevery day thereafter. At the first class meeting of my 20th CenturyAfrican American Literature course, I made a request for the first and so faronly time in my career: I asked them to stay off of their phones as much aspossible (recognizing that life happens and it’s sometimes necessary) in thecourse of our semester and discussions. We were gonna be talking about some consistentlychallenging and often fraught and painful texts and topics, and I wanted us to bein it together as much as we could. I was so proud of how much we honored thatrequest, and how fully we did stay in our collective space and conversations,leading to some of my favorite discussions and days in any class in my 20 yearsat FSU. I won’t make this request too often, I don’t imagine, but I’ll knowthat I can if and when it feels right, and as with everything I know our FSUstudents will rise to the challenge.

Nextreflection tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whattaya got?

December 14-15, 2024: Hawaii in American Culture

[150 yearsago this week, Hawaii’s King Kalākaua arrivedin Washington, DC for an extended series of events, a defining part of amore than two-month statevisit to the US. So this week I’ve AmericanStudied that visit and otherHawaiian histories, leading up to this special post on cultural representationsof the islands.]

1)     JamesMichener’s Hawaii (1959): I wrote a bit about Michener’s first trulyepic historical novel in that post, and would stand by my two assertions there:that his works are more period fiction than true historical fiction (in mydefinitions of the true concepts); but that their multi-period focus allows forgroundbreaking and important depictions of his chosen communities nonetheless. Ihaven’t read Hawaiii in decades, but that’s my sense of this book too,making it a cultural representation well worth returning to nearly 70 yearslater.

2)     Blue Hawaii (1961): Ihaven’t seen the first of what would be three Elvis Presley films shot inHawaii in a five-year period (a list that also includes 1962’s Girls! Girls!Girls! and 1965’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style), and I very much doubtit is likewise worth returning to in late 2024. And I think that’s actually ananalytical point—from what I can tell, these films were much more of an excusefor the singer and friends to visit the islands than compelling stories thatneeded the Hawaiian setting. If so, that helped establish a trend which has unquestionablycontinued ever since (50First Dates, anyone?).

3)     HawaiiFive-O (1968-1980): On the other hand, I don’t want to suggest that everycultural work set in Hawaii chooses that setting for such non-specific (or atleast non-artistic) reasons; some, like this groundbreaking and popular policeprocedural TV show, absolutely do connect to specific aspects of the islandsand their communities, cultures, and contexts. For example, two of the originalfour officers on whom the show focused were non-white, a striking percentage ina late 1960s program: Chin Ho Kelly, portrayed by Chinese American actor Kam FongChun (an 18-year veteran of the Honolulu Police Department); and Kono Kalakaua,portrayed by native Hawaiian actor . That’s the Hawaii Iknow, and I love that this popular show portrayed it as such.

4)     “Over the Rainbow/What a WonderfulWorld” (1990): If you’ve been to a wedding in the last three decades, you’veheard this ukelele-driven cover of two already-beautiful songs made even morebeautiful by native Hawaiian singer Israel “IZ”Ka’ano’i Kamakawiwo’ole. That beauty, combined with the very unique song ofIZ’s ukelele and voice alike, certainly explains the staying power of this combinatorycover song. But I really love its representation of a cross-cultural America,with two songs from Jewish American songwriting duos, the second made famous byan African American jazz trumpeter and singer, given new life and meaning by anative Hawaiian performer.

5)     Blue Crush (2002): Ican’t talk about cultural representations of Hawaii without getting surfing inthere somewhere, and of the surfing films I know, Blue Crush is one ofthe most overtly concerned with aspects of Hawaiian culture and community(including the presence of a romantic lead who is in town for the NFL Pro Bowl,which was hosted there for many years). On the other hand, its main characteris a very, very blond young woman (played by Kate Bosworth), and its moreethnic characters are relegated to supporting roles; that says more aboutHollywood in 2002 than it does about Hawaii, but it’s a reflection of thecontinued work we need to do in how we represent this hugely diverse place.

End of semesterseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Hawaiian histories or stories you’d highlight?

December 13, 2024: Hawaiian Histories: The Varsity Victory Volunteers

[150 yearsago this week, Hawaii’s King Kalākaua arrivedin Washington, DC for an extended series of events, a defining part of amore than two-month statevisit to the US. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that visit and otherHawaiian histories, leading up to a special post on cultural representations ofthe islands.]

On apost-Pearl Harbor group who embody the best of the war, Hawai’i, and America.

I learneda great deal while researching and writing my fifth book, We the People: The 500-Year Battle Over Who isAmerican (2019). I had a general sense of the exclusionary and inclusivehistories I wanted to highlight in each chapter, having talkedabout most of them in a number ofsettings over the lastcouple years; but in the course of working on each chapter I discovered newhistories related to those central threads, stories that surprised me yet alsoand especially exemplified my topics and themes. So it went with Chapter 7: EverythingJapanese Internment Got Wrong: I knew that I wanted to focus in that chapter onJapanese American World War II soldiers as a central, inclusive challenge tothe exclusionary histories and narratives of the internment policy and camps;but it was only when researching those respective World War II communitiesfurther that I learned about the amazing, inspiring, foundational story of the VarsityVictory Volunteers (VVV).

There werequite simply too many Japanese Americans in Hawai’i (and they were too integralto the community’s economy and society) for internment camps to be possible.But the island featured its own forms of World WarII anti-Japanese discrimination to be sure, and it was out of onesuch discriminatory moment that the VVV was born. The day of the Pearl Harborattacks, all of the island’s ROTC students were called up for active duty asthe newly constituted HawaiiTerritorial Guard (HTG). But when federal officials learnedthat Japanese American students were among those numbers, they dismissed thosestudents from service, deeming them 4C (“enemy aliens”) and thus ineligible toserve. Frustrated by this treatment, many of the students met with Hung Wai Ching, aChinese Hawaiian community leader who had become an ally to the group. On hisadvice they drafted a letter tothe territory’s military governor, Delos Emmons, whichread in part: “We joined the Guardvoluntarily with the hope that this was one way to serve our country in hertime of need. Needless to say, we were deeply disappointed when we were toldthat our services in the Guard were no longer needed. Hawaii is our home; the United States, ourcountry. We know but one loyalty and that is to the Stars and Stripes. We wishto do our part as loyal Americans in every way possible and we hereby offerourselves for whatever service you may see fit to use us.”

Emmonsaccepted the VVV’s offer, and in February 1942 they were constituted as a laborbattalion (attached to the 34th Combat Engineers) and assigned to SchofieldBarracks. Over the next year they would contribute both their labor andtheir presence to the community there, becoming such an integral part of itsoperations and society that when Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy visited inDecember 1942 (escorted by none other than Hung Wai Ching), he was struck bythe VVV in particular. Not at all coincidentally, in January 1943 the WarDepartment reversed its policy and allowed Japanese Americans to serve in thearmed forces; the VVV requested permission to disband so they could volunteer,and nearly all of the VVV members ended up in the 442ndRegimental Combat Team, the all-Japanese unit that would become the mostdecorated in American military history. I knew about the 442ndbefore I wrote the chapter and book, but I had never heard of the VVV—and Iknow of few stories that exemplify the best of American military, social, andcultural history more fully than does this post-Pearl Harbor, volunteerJapanese American student community.

Specialpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Hawaiian histories or stories you’d highlight?