June 3-4, 2023: May 2023 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

May1: Hemispheric Histories: The Organization of American States: On the 75thanniversary of the founding of the OAS, a series on hemispheric historiesstarts with three of the conferences that helped create the organization.

May2: Hemispheric Histories: Glissant and Creolization: The series continueswith the scholar and concept that help us grapple with hemispheric connections.

May3: Hemispheric Histories: The Monroe Doctrine: The limits and possibilitiesof a signature foreign policy idea, as the series rolls on.

May4: Hemispheric Histories: José Martí: The cross-cultural experiences,ideas, and collective meanings of the legendary Cuban activist.

May5: Hemispheric Histories: The Panama Canal: The series concludes with threetreaties across 130 years that together help tell the story of the famouswaterway.

May6-7: Hemispheric Studies Scholars: A special weekend post highlighting ahandful of the many scholars doing awesome hemispheric studying work!

May8: Spring 2023 Surprises: Hawthorne & History in The American Novel:For this year’s Spring semester reflections series, I wanted to highlight pleasantsurprises in this challenging semester, starting with lessons from a greathistorical novel.

May9: Spring 2023 Surprises: Akata Witch in Intro to Sci Fi and Fantasy: Theseries continues with a contemporary Afrofuturist fantasy novel my studentsreally got into.

May10: Spring 2023 Surprises: Barbie and Joe in First-Year Writing II: How 80sads helped us have important contemporary conversations, as the series reflectson.

May11: Spring 2023 Surprises: Ruiz de Burton in Multi-ethnic American Literatures:Why finally getting to teach a full novel by a favorite author was worth thewait!

May12: Spring 2023 Surprises: Contemporary Short Stories in Adult Ed: Theseries concludes with a trio of wonderful contemporary short stories I got toread and share in an adult learning class.

May13-14: Fall Mini-Previews: The Spring might have just concluded, but I wasalready looking forward to a few of my Fall 2023 courses!

May15: Watergate Figures: Sam Ervin: For the 50th anniversary ofthe Senate Watergate hearings, a series on telling figures from that momentstarts with a complex and contradictory Democratic Senator.

May16: Watergate Figures: Howard Baker: The series continues with a RepublicanSenator who both challenged and abetted Nixon.

May17: Watergate Figures: John Dean: The White House lawyer turnedwhistleblower who has continued to blow the whistle on GOP extremes, as theseries reflects on.

May18: Watergate Figures: Archibald Cox Jr.: The Watergate special prosecutorwho went on to an influential career fighting DC corruption.

May19: Watergate Figures: Jill Wine-Volner: The series concludes with theinvestigator who should be better remembered for her legal acumen than herapparel.

May20-21: Our Watergate: A special weekend post on a few contemporary echoesof the scandal (and the first that was marked as “sensitive content” byblogspot!).

May22: Great American Screenplays: Lone Star: For this year’s Memorial Daymovies series, I wanted to support the WGA by sharing past posts on some of myfavorite screenplays, starting with two exchanges in my favorite film thatcapture the complexities of collective memory.

May23: Great American Screenplays: Chinatown: The series continues with aclassic film noir that’s also pitch-perfect historical fiction.

May24: Great American Screenplays: Affliction and A Simple Plan: Winter’s andAmerica’s possibilities and limits in two dark and powerful films, as theseries writes on.

May25: Great American Screenplays: The Opposite of Sex and You Can Count on Me:The importance of depicting nontraditional families in children’s books andindependent films alike.

May26: Great American Screenplays: Memento: The series concludes with thedark, cynical, and unquestionably human final words of a contemporary Americanclassic.

May27-28: Barrett Beatrice Jackson’s Guest Post on Norman Rockwell, Robert Butler,and her Grandfather: My latest Guest Post, featuring wonderful reflectionson Americana, art, race, and much more!

May29: Remembering Memorial Day: My annual Memorial Day series kicks off withwhat we don’t remember about the holiday, and why we should.

May30: Decoration Day Histories: Frederick Douglass: The series continues withone of the great American speeches, and why it would be so important to add toour collective memories.

May31: Decoration Day Histories: Roger Pryor: An invitation and speech thatmark two frustrating shifts in American attitudes, as the series commemorateson.

June1: Decoration Day Histories: “Rodman the Keeper”: A moving short story thathelps us remember a community for whom Decoration Day’s meanings didn’t shift.

June2: Decoration Day Histories: So What?: The series concludes with three waysto argue for remembering Decoration Day alongside Memorial Day.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

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