JQA at Stage West Deftly Asks This Question about The Past and Today In March of 2019, Aaron Posner directed the first production of his own 90-minute play about John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), the “other” Adams to serve as US President, like his father John Adams for only one term. That premiere at the Arena …
A hurricane is tearing up New Orleans and much of Louisiana, then spiraling north. COVID hospitalizations are spiking exponentially. Wildfires are tearing up the west coast. Chaos has reigned over the withdrawal from Afghanistan. And what are we humanities-oriented academics (especially English-Department and American Studies types) seemingly talking about most energetically on twitter and beyond? …
Continue reading Why Are Academics So Busily Writing About “The Chair”?
A Poignant Anniversary with Implications for Teaching Phillis Wheatley arrived in Boston from her African homeland 260 years ago this month, in July 1761. Though only about seven or eight years old, she was transported with other captives aboard the Phillis as part of an ongoing push to make slavery central to the economies …
I got a wonderful gift over the winter holiday. A former student, Amanda Davis Closs, wrote me about how a course I taught, and especially a project she worked on in the class--over a decade ago, long before I came to my current job at TCU--has remained important to her. She described how the community …
If once you have slept on an island You’ll never be quite the same; [....] You may sit at home and sew, But you’ll see blue water and wheeling gulls Wherever your feet may go. From a poem by Rachel Field Won’t you help to sing These songs of freedom ‘Cause all I ever have …
Continue reading Flying During Covid-19: Planes, Poems, and Virtual Journeys
Hanging side by side above the imposing entrance to the southwest hall of the Library of Congress (LOC), three large banners announce exhibits currently open there. One is a permanent fixture at the LOC. A recreation of Thomas Jefferson’s impressive home library allows visitors to enter a circle of shelves showcasing the beautiful leather-bound volumes …
Continue reading Revisiting Women’s Suffrage from an Intersectional Perspective
“This star I am wearing is for my husband, a member of the great Sioux Nation, who is a volunteer in Uncle Sam’s Army.” From Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala-Ša), writing in The American Indian Magazine, in an article on WWI Veterans Day—a day to honor all the women and men who have served as members of …
Continue reading Extending Veterans Day and Spotlighting Native Americans Who Have Served
One story offers a compare-contrast parallel between a student’s move from an out-of-state home to the TCU campus and her grandmother’s mixed-emotions relocation from a beloved house to assisted living. Another student author draws on an extended conversation with his father, describing episodes of the family’s extended period of homelessness during that dad’s growing-up years; …
Continue reading Family Ties: College Students’ Writing Connecting the Classroom to Home
Toni Morrison died last night—August 5, 2019—and her family shared news of her passing today, August 6. In the wake of more mass killings in America, we need her presence now. Even in her absence, her written wisdom can speak to us. Morrison and her writing have been much on my mind recently. In a …
Soon after When They See Us began streaming on Netflix, I saw an article by Doug Criss on CNN’s website. The lead grabbed me right away: “I tried to watch ‘When They See Us,’” Criss declared. “I couldn’t even get past the trailer.” Criss attributed his feeling overcome to a cluster of related causes: “the …
Sarah Ruffing Robbins 