November 20, 2023: Thankful for Scholarly Communities: Fitchburg State

[For thisyear’s Thanksgiving series, I wanted to express thanks for a handful ofopportunities I’ve had to connect with scholarly communities this Fall. Leadingup to a special tribute to my two most important scholarly influences!]

Here in my19thyear at Fitchburg State, there is of course no shortage of communities andinfluences I could highlight as important to my work and career. But I want tofocus for this post on two very distinct but complementary examples from thisFall semester in particular. In September, I was invited to give a talk onexclusion & inclusion in the American Founding as part of our excellent ConstitutionDay (really Constitution Week) series, and in the audience were currentstudents of mine, my academic Dean, and our institutional Director ofCommunications and Public Affairs. Talk about feeling supported in ourindividual work! And in October, I took part in a panel of faculty from acrosscampus who are part of our new DigitalMedia Innovation program, a great example of evolving FSU communities thatboth feature my work and can help me continue thinking (as I did on this panel)about what it means to be a digital and online public scholar. Two of so manyongoing examples of FSU’s communities and influences in my career and life!

NextThanks-giving tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Communities(or anything else) you’re thankful for this year?