I started Interminable Rambling in August 2015. On this site, I provide reflections on African American, American, and Southern Literature, American popular culture and politics, and pedagogy. Interminable Rambling arose out of the blog I maintained for the Ernest J Gaines Center. There, I wrote about items in the center’s archives, Gaines’ works, and texts that related to Gaines and Louisiana. When I moved on from the center, I started Interminable Rambling as a way to maintain a writing schedule.

Latest Posts

Reading Jan Carson’s “The Fire Starters” While in Belfast

Whenever I travel, I always visit local bookstores. Even if I don’t purchase a book, I do this because I want to see what books they have available and I also want to see what books I may add to my to be read pile. During our study travel trip to Belfast, I must have…

Two Nations, One Struggle: Irish and Palestinian Solidarity

When preparing students for our trip to Belfast, I told them to pay close attention to the murals, graffiti, stickers, and the language that they would encounter during our walks through the cities. Specifically, I told them to pay particular attention to the ways that republicans present solidarity with global struggles around the world, specifically…

Language and the Crafting of Anger and Fear

Throughout Louise Kennedy’s Trespasses, language plays an important role in the ways that it defines individuals and creates divisions even where similarities exist. During a session with Michel Agnew and his friends, Cushla teaches them Irish. One of Michael’s friends, Victor, goads Cushla into teaching him the Irish words that would denigrate her as a Catholic,…

The Ways that the Past Impacts the Present: Personas and Identity

As I prepared to teach my study travel course on identity in Belfast and before I arrived, I had a preconceived notion, of course, about the places I would visit and what I would encounter. Most of these impressions, apart from the things that my daughter told me about her time in Belfast, came from either academics,…

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