Hi folks,
It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
If you’re still subscribed or even just in the habit of occasional checking this space out, I just want to say thank you for your patience and patronage over the past ten months or so I have spent away from this blog.
In fairness, this past year has not been idle—instead of typing words for my books I have been writing memos and letters for my program, and in lieu of reading history articles and monographs I have been learning more about the world of prison education. Plus, the year has had more than its share of ups and downs: we bought a new house (and did a lot of work on it to fit our family’s needs), sold the old one after several long months on the market, dealt with a major surgery within the family, and started training for our chauffeur license as we now have a First Grader to drive around town to play dates, parties, and soccer games. These might all sound like excuses—writers are supposed to write, after all—but I feel like I have greater perspective now on what I actually want to write.
As some of you may know, we are launching our new Humanities MA (HUX) program at CSUDH this week, and I’m thrilled that it is getting so much attention. Several media outlets have done and are continuing to do stories about what we have put together over the past several years, and it is exciting to see such a positive response to the news.
Of course, the work continues with the launch, and there are more problems to solve than there are laurels to rest upon. But one of the things I hope to start doing with this blog is to talk about what we are doing at HUX. While I appreciate the coverage and the attention we have been getting, I plan to use this space to more thoroughly articulate our work, our mission, and hopefully in time our accomplishments.
I will also continue writing about history, but my interests have become a bit narrower and perhaps more focused over the past few months. Lately I’ve been interested in “hoosegows,” both as a place and as a word, and I will be piggybacking a possible article off of my History of American Punishment (HUX 527) readings list this fall. I remain interested in visual depictions and recordings of the 1856 San Francisco Vigilance Committee as well, and I hope to someday write that book.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Know that several pieces are in the pipeline, and once I have a little more time to spare on such projects I will hopefully start riffing them out here. In the meantime, thanks again for sticking around!
