January 1-2, 2022: December 2021 Recap

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

November 27-28: Emily Lauer’s Guest Post on Afrofuturism in Museums: The month started with my latest great Guest Post, from multi-Guest Poster and longtime friend of the blog Emily Lauer!

November 29: Project Gutenberg at 50: American Indian Stories: For this wonderful web archive’s 50th birthday, I wanted to highlight texts you can read for free there, starting with Zitkala-Ŝa’s collection.

November 30: Project Gutenberg at 50: Ramona: The series continues with Helen Hunt Jackson’s historical and political romance.

December 1: Project Gutenberg at 50: The House of the Seven Gables: Speaking of historical romances, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s under-rated second novel, as the series reads on.

December 2: Project Gutenberg at 50: The Squatter and the Don: I’ve written many times about Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s historical romance, and it remains a must-read for all 21st century Americans.

December 3: Project Gutenberg at 50: The Marrow of Tradition: The series concludes with my favorite American novel!

December 4-5: Crowd-sourced Project Gutenberg Reading List: My latest crowd-sourced post, featuring suggestions for other online archives and collections—add yours in comments, please!

December 6: Pearl Harbor Histories: The Attack: A Pearl Harbor 70th anniversary series kicks off with three little-known histories that add to our understanding of the attack.

December 7: Pearl Harbor Histories: The Conspiracy Theory: The series continues with the conspiracy theory that doesn’t hold up but is illuminating nonetheless.

December 8: Pearl Harbor Histories: The Tokyo Trials: The complex question of whether and when a military attack is also a war crime, as the series rolls on.

December 9: Pearl Harbor Histories: The Varsity Victory Volunteers: A post-Pearl Harbor group who embody the best of the war, Hawai’i, and America.

December 10: Pearl Harbor Histories: The Film: The series concludes with the uses and abuses of history in Michael Bay’s most serious blockbuster.

December 11-12: Pearl Harbor Histories: Remembering Infamous Days: A special weekend post on the challenging and crucial question of how we remember our most infamous days.

December 13: Fall Semester Recaps: First Year Experience Seminar: A series of reflections on good moments in a very difficult semester kicks off with a discussion that exemplified the goals of this new course.

December 14: Fall Semester Recaps: Honors Lit Seminar: The series continues with an unplanned discussion that turned into one of my favorites in any class.

December 15: Fall Semester Recaps: English Studies Capstone: An inspiring chat with Kevin Gannon and my Capstone students, as the series reflects on.

December 16: Fall Semester Recaps: Online American Lit Survey: How small follow-ups with students can make a big difference, especially in online classes.

December 17: Fall Semester Recaps: Adult Learning Class on the 1920s: The series concludes with a particularly eye-opening conversation in one of my latest adult ed classes.

December 18-19: Spring Semester Previews: A special weekend post on three of the many things I’m looking forward to in Spring 2022, uncertain and fraught as it may be.  

December 20: Wishes for the AMST Elves: Higher Ed Funding: My annual holiday wishes series kicks off with an urgent wish for my longtime professional community.

December 21: Wishes for the AMST Elves: Digital Yoknapatawpha: The series continues with my wishes for my Dad’s newest and most impressive digital humanities project.

December 22: Wishes for the AMST Elves: Ilene Railton’s Novel: My wishes for the debut novel from my favorite creative writer, as the series wishes on.

December 23: Wishes for the AMST Elves: A Developing Debater: My wishes for one of the new activities and talents of my awesome younger son.

December 24: Wishes for the AMST Elves: A New Driver: The series concludes with my wishes for safety and success for my older son, 16 yesterday and about to start driving!

December 25-26: Wishes for the AMST Elves: A Special Holiday Wish: But wait, one more—a wish for all of us to move toward critical optimism and patriotism, and a few models of those vital perspectives.

December 27: Year in Review: The Braves: A series on things I liked in 2021 kicks off with my childhood baseball team and the need to move past nostalgic names and rituals.

December 28: Year in Review: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The series continues with two strikingly thoughtful AmericanStudies layers to the hit Marvel show.

December 29: Year in Review: Ted Lasso: How the smash show challenges our narratives of both optimism and anti-heroes, as the series reviews on.

December 30: Year in Review: James Bond: A subtle but striking (and SPOILER-y) moment that demonstrates how Daniel Craig’s Bond films have helped the franchise evolve.

December 31: Year in Review: New Novels: The series and year conclude with three wonderful novels I read this year!

New Year’s series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topics you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to share? Lemme know!