AmericanStudies: May 16, 2025: Spring Semester Reflections: Student Tributes to Dad

[About halfway
through the Spring 2025 semester, I
lost my Dad. While that was of course the semester’s most defining moment,
it also allowed me to reflect for the remaining weeks on my own teaching in
relationship to one of the most dedicated and talented teachers I’ve ever
known. So for this semester reflections series, I want to highlight one moment
from each class where I’d say I particularly felt my Dad’s presence.]

I did
teach one other course this semester, an Accelerated Online section of The Short
Story that started after Spring Break. But in lieu of a post focused on that
class, I wanted to use this last post in the series to highlight a few Bluesky
threads where folks—many of them former students—shared tributes to my Dad.

This
original one: https://bsky.app/profile/americanstudier.bsky.social/post/3ljgoh56ixk2y

This
follow-up: https://bsky.app/profile/americanstudier.bsky.social/post/3ljkjgk2xbs2b

and this
one from his former grad student Ryan Cordell: https://bsky.app/profile/ryancordell.org/post/3ljgpguto3224

He was
loved, as much as a teacher and mentor as he was as a husband, father,
grandfather, and man.

Preview
post this weekend,

Ben

PS. Spring
semester reflections you’d share?