16 May 2022 Dear Everyone: Here we are, the last week of spring semester, and here I am, writing my final “dear everyone” Monday email! First and always, thank you for the generous ways you’ve received and responded to these missives, which have done much to keep me grounded and aware of the filaments of connection that… Read More

9 May 2022 Dear Everyone: I so enjoyed being with so many of you on Friday, both for the program meeting (for current faculty and students earlier in the day) and the open awards and prizes celebration later in the afternoon. In the earlier, we talked the substance and substantive future of the program and… Read More

2 May 2022 Dear Everyone: Undoubtedly because the year is coming to a close, there is a profusion of events to report, so I’m devoting this week’s message toward those instrumental ends. I suspect there might be more to come, so please keep an eye out for the more! First, though, hearty congratulations to the… Read More

25 April 2022 Dear Everyone: Just a few weeks left of spring term! I know it can be difficult to regain momentum after spring break, and/but hope you were able to step away for a bit, to recoup what energies you could and will need to see your way through to the end — I’m rooting for you/for us all through… Read More

11 April 2022 Dear Everyone: Not an iota of surprise that last Friday’s Forum, featuring remarks by the marvelous Wayne Koestenbaum and Cindi Katz, in conversation with the also marvelous Eric Dean Wilson on his wonderful(ly discomfiting) book After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Cooling, was so full of lively intellect and… Read More

4 April 2022 Dear Everyone: Here we are in April! A month introduced by the cherishing of fools! I gave a lecture last week on the subject of Asian Americanist pedagogy, and in the Q&A, was asked why I was so optimistic about the work we can do in and through the academy despite, well,… Read More

28 March 2022 Dear Everyone: By my count, we’ve just about six weeks to go of the semester, including the week of spring break — absurdly late in the term as ever. It all might feel especially something of a slog right now — appropriate to mud season, perhaps — and given that, I’m particularly… Read More

21 March 2022 Dear Everyone: This is a message full of things to know — or at least, things I think you might find of interest or useful somehow. The last week has featured information coming down from various corners of CUNY; you’ll find those several items below, in addition of course to the things… Read More

14 March 2022 Dear Everyone: These bright, sunny days promising spring, punctuating the winter cold that seemingly won’t let go — appetite-whetting teasers! The springing-ahead-lose-an-hour is for some more a tormenting reminder that warmth will return than an appealing promise, perhaps, though as a hard-wired early riser, I admit I do rather enjoy the longer… Read More

7 March 2022 Dear Everyone: When my older child was wee, he was allergic to peanuts. He started school and his teachers dutifully and helpfully circulated to his classmates’ parents a request that things with peanuts in them not be sent to school with their kids. A few of them grumbled about the inconvenience of… Read More