Founded by Spanish Franciscans in southeastern Texas in 1722, la Mission Nuestra Señora de la Bahía del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga was meant both to colonize and convert the local Karankawa people and to stand guard against the French in Louisiana. The central mission compound still stands near what later became (in 1835) the Goliad... Continue Reading →

Here's what's left of Fort Phantom Hill, about 12 miles north of Abilene, Texas. Built in 1851, the fort was badly planned and located too far from adequate water or timber. It never saw fighting; U.S. soldiers stationed here traded with nearby Comanches, Lipans, Wichitas, Kiowas, and Kickapoos. The fort was abandoned in 1854 and... Continue Reading →

The next potential road trip spot (particularly for residents of DFW or OKC) is Fort Washita, Oklahoma. Located in the Chickasaw Nation (south-central Oklahoma, just west of Durant), Fort Washita was built in 1842 in what was then the United States' extreme southwest. The fort's mission was to watch over land promised to and settled... Continue Reading →

As the pandemic (slowly) recedes into rearview mirror, many of you will likely be looking to travel, while perhaps remaining reticent to cram yourselves into the uncertain air of crowded indoor settings. A road trip to open-air historic sites may have a unique appeal in the summer of 2021. As it happens, I have a... Continue Reading →

Athwart Magazine recently published an essay of mine that emerged as a byproduct of my ongoing dissertation-writing on the poet-philosopher Benjamin Fondane. I have enjoyed reading the thoughtful exchange of ideas facilitated by Athwart, and I am excited to join in that conversation with this piece. https://www.athwart.org/words-like-windows-and-nettles-postmodern-poetry-and-the-crisis-of-reality/

My two previous blog posts have just been rendered mostly irrelevant -- and I couldn't be happier about this turn of events. As reported by Clare Roth, Janelle Lawrence, and Janet Lorin for Bloomberg, "The U.S. backed down from a high-profile confrontation with Harvard University, MIT and hundreds of other colleges over foreign-student visas, ending... Continue Reading →

D Magazine kindly undertook to post my letter with the aim of raising local awareness of the need to combat ICE / SEVP's recent policy changes affecting international students:

To all my friends who – by virtue of birth, naturalization, cosmic accident, Providence, or whatever – happen to be American citizens, my international student friends could really use your help. Why am I asking you? International students do not have the privilege of voting in the United States. It is up to us as... Continue Reading →

Ulysses impresses and disturbs. With each re-reading, I am impressed by the sheer meticulousness with which James Joyce artfully assembles such a sprawling mass of details. I am disturbed by a case of literary paranoia. If every novel must be both this grand and this banal, then Joyce's literary genealogy leads ultimately to something like... Continue Reading →

« La mort, nous n’y sommes pas habitués. » [“To death we are not accustomed.”][1] With this bleak pronouncement Maurice Blanchot begins his 1973 collection of fragments Le pas au-delà. Giorgio Agamben has described Maurice Blanchot as the writer who answered for the survivors of World War II a question raised afresh in every generation: Is writing... Continue Reading →