September 1, 2025: Fall Semester Previews: Honors Lit

[Thisweek, I start my 21st year at Fitchburg State! So as usual, I’lloffer some previews of the semester ahead, this time focusing on individualmoments I’m looking forward to in each class. Leading up to a weekend update onmy plans for season 2 of my podcast!]

It’s beena few years since I had the chance to teach my Honors Literature Seminar onAmerica in the Gilded Age, so I’m very excited for every moment in this longstandingfavorite course offered for our phenomenal community of Honors Program students(many of whom I taught in my Spring2025 Honors First-Year Writing section). But since I’m drafting this seriesin mid-June, with the Los Angeles protests unfolding as I write, I’m particularlylooking forward to beginning the class with our first long text, Helen HuntJackson’s Ramona.Besides being a multilayered historical novel that teaches really well, Jackson’snovel reminds us that Southern California (like all of America, but in particularlystriking ways) has always been incredibly diverse, and that those who want to “return”to a homogeneous white America are quite simply fantasists.

Nextsemester preview tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo y’all have coming up?