Tomorrow my 100th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes & conversations, new & forthcoming books will drop. I was trying to think of how to celebrate a centennial of sharing y’all’s amazing work, & then it hit me:
I started these threads because I saw so much great work & I was worried it was getting lost in the flood. Hopefully the threads have helped highlight the goodness week to week, but it’s still sometimes too easy for all those vital words to come and go. So:
Here’s a Google Doc sharing all 99 of my #ScholarSunday threads to date. I’ll pin it; dip in when & where you’re able, share if you can, & revisit all this amazing work from well more than two years of public scholarly goodness:
I’ll keep adding the new threads to that doc, & I hope it can become a significant repository of all (or at least a whole lot) of the amazing public scholarly work y’all have done for these two years & continue to do so importantly & inspiringly.
Tomorrow we finally get to #ScholarSunday thread 100, & despite all the things, here on Twitter & everywhere, I’m so glad to have the chance to keep sharing all y’all’s work & voices & conversations. It’s become one of my very favorite things!
PS. This is why I can't quit Twitter, not unless I feel there's no choice. This place, the community & conversation, have been quite literally a saving grace for these last couple years. The worst of us has always been here, but so has been the best. Fighting for that still.
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Teaching a bunch of poems by the amazing Frances E.W. Harper in 19C Af Am lit today, including the three I talked about in this blog post, & I was in a bit of a mood. Which led to one of my favorite things I've said in a class in my 22 years of teaching.+ americanstudier.blogspot.com/2020/04/april-…
After a student presentation on Harper, one of the most multi-talented & impressive Americans in our history, I added: "In this political & divisive moment, here's my request for y'all. Any time you hear someone complain about antiracism, 'CRT,' teaching race, etc, ask them this:
'Tell me everything you know about Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.' If they know even one damn thing, then maybe they have a toe to stand on. If they don't, then they need a hell of a lot more education, on all those topics & a lot more." What else is there to say?
I've debated whether I have anything to add to all the thoughtful & righteously frustrated responses to the tone-deaf AHA presidential comments. But I think I do, & it comes courtesy of a key element to our tenure & promotion process at Fitchburg State (& all the MA State Unis):
For the Continuing Scholarship category in our T&P process, an option candidates can select (& I always advise folks to check this box instead of any others) is Contributions to the Content of the Discipline. That can include publications, of all kinds, but isn't limited to 'em.
& isn't that what we're all trying to do? To contribute, to the content & the conversations alike? To academic communities for sure, but also to so many other parallel & connected communities? Is there really any single phrase that better captures why we do the work?
The countdown to 100 continues with my 98th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes & conversations, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians
I’m not gonna link to that horrific, fascist @FDRLST article about the need for right-wing revolution & “blunt” use of government in defense of “American values,” but you’re damn right I have a response. Quick thread:
In this Fall semester preview blog post, I wrote about my newest adult learning class: “Our boasted civilization is but a thin veneer”: How White Supremacy Erodes the American Ideals It Claims to Love.
The first version of that class concludes today (teaching it again for a different program in a few weeks), & the conversations have helped me continue thinking about that fundamental American contradiction.
Most days in my 19C Af Am Lit course we have one author in front of us, but occasionally we have to double up to get through everyone I want on the syllabus. & today that means a one-two punch of amazing figures & voices: Martin Delany & Henry Highland Garnet!
I wrote about Delany & his vital & inspiring meeting with Lincoln in this post:
Here it is, my 97th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes & conversations, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below & enjoy, all! #twitterstorians