December 30-31, 2023: December 2023 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

December4: Board Game Studying: Scrabble: A series for Scrabble’s 75thanniversary kicks off with three of the moments and stages through which ahomemade game becomes an icon.

December5: Board Game Studying: Monopoly: The series continues with point,counterpoint, and counter-counterpoint when it comes to a complex game of capitalism.

December6: Board Game Studying: Careers: What my sons and I learned about Americansociety by playing two earlier iterations of Careers, as the series plays on.

December7: Board Game Studying: War Games: Three board games through which a youngAmericanStudier learned a lot about war histories and stories.

December8: Board Game Studying: Collaborative Games: The series concludes with themost common form of collaborative board game, and a unique and beautifulalternative.

December9-10: Crowd-sourced Board Game Studying: My first crowd-sourced post in awhile, and a really full and fun one!

December11: Boston Tea Party Studying: Causes: A series for the Tea Party’s 250thanniversary kicks off with a few key 1773 moments along the way to thatDecember protest.

December12: Boston Tea Party Studying: The Adams Boys: The series continues withhow the two famous cousins complemented each other at the Tea Party.

December13: Boston Tea Party Studying: Playing Indian: How the Tea Party connectsto a fraught and frustrating American tradition, and one other layer.

December14: Boston Tea Party Studying: The Peggy Stewart: What differentiates theAnnapolis Tea Party, and what it adds to the Boston story.

December15: Boston Tea Party Studying: The Shoemaker: The series concludes with whywe should all read a great narrative history about one of the Tea Party participants.

December16-17: A Tribute to BostonStudiers: I couldn’t share a series on the BostonTea Party without paying tribute to some of the many folks from which I’velearned a great deal about such histories!

December18: Fall Semester Finds: Nguyen’s Novel in Capstone: For this semester’sreflections series I wanted to highlight new texts & ideas I encountered,starting with Eric Nguyen’s Things WeLost to the Water in my Capstone course.

December19: Fall Semester Finds: Espada’s Poem in Ethnic American Lit: The seriescontinues with a bracing and vital poem I rediscovered in my Ethnic AmericanLit course.

December20: Fall Semester Finds: New Music in Writing I: A couple examples of howmuch I always learn from a First-Year Writing assignment, as the seriesreflects on.

December21: Fall Semester Finds: A New Take on Hughes in Am Lit II: How a Bluesmusician student opened up new layers to a very familiar poem in my onlineAmerican Lit survey.

December22: Fall Semester Finds: Douglas Stuart from an MA Thesis: The seriesconcludes with a new author to whom I’ve been introduced by a great currentGraduate student.

December23: Spring Semester Previews: The first of two weekend follow-ups to theseries, on three courses I’m looking forward to in Spring 2024.

December23-24: Hamza Suleiman’s Guest Post on Mohja Kahf: And I’m so excited toshare another great Guest Post from one of Robin Field’s King’s Collegestudents!

December25: Christmas Stories: “A Visit from St. Nicholas”: For a particularlysentimental holiday series this year, I wanted to highlight Christmas stories Ishared with my sons over the years, starting with the classic poem celebratingits 200th anniversary this December.

December26: Christmas Stories: The Father Christmas Letters: The series continueswith three distinct ways to contextualize Tolkien’s classic Christmas texts.

December27: Christmas Stories: The Night Before the Night Before Christmas: A delightfulnew Christmas classic from the legendary Richard Scarry, as the series readson.

December28: Christmas Stories: Ezra Jack Keats and the Snowy Day: On the birthdayof my favorite early childhood educator, a tribute to one of the mostinfluential children’s books of all time.

December29: Christmas Stories: A Christmas Carol: The series, month, and yearconclude with two vital lessons from one of the most enduring Christmasstories.

New Year’sseries starts Monday,

Ben

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