Christmas Eve in the park near where I live...
Another year's round-up, this one rather short... Perhaps that's simply because I'm becoming more focused? (No, I didn't think so either, sigh.)
First, my job situation, which hasn't changed much: As I reported earlier (and despite what I said in my end-of-2021 post), I did remain as department chair, which at least is a familiar burden, but also a growing one, as the fiscal environment of public higher education continues to erode. On the bright side, it was terrific to return to (masked) in-person teaching this past semester; my students were impressively enthusiastic and engaged, especially compared to the general (and understandable) burnout, anxiety, and grief among students (and everyone else). I also gave my first invited talk in several years, on Batman and ethics at York College of Pennsylvania, where I'd last spoken in 2015—that too was a welcome return, in more ways than one.
My primary published output this year was A Philosopher Reads... Marvel Comics' Thor: If They Be Worthy, for which I wrote a few Psychology Today posts and appeared on a handful of podcasts with friends both old and new. (See my webpage for the book for more.) In addition, my chapter "Panther Virtue: The Many Roles of T’Challa" was published this year in Black Panther and Philosophy, edited by Edwardo Pérez and Timothy E. Brown, and I wrote a chapter on punishment and resources for The Oxford Handbook of Punishment Theory and Philosophy, edited by Jesper Ryberg, to be published in the near future.
As far as online writing is concerned, aside from a handful posts at Economics and Ethics and The Comics Professor, my main output was my continued work on The Virtues of Captain America Blog, which, after 4½ years and 460 posts covering over a thousand comics, is now on hiatus until next summer so I can focus on the revised and updated second edition of the book (plans for which I discussed last month on the Captain America Comic Book Fans podcast).
Looking ahead: In addition to the Cap revision, I have several other projects to complete over the year (or two), some of which I've mentioned before (and others that I'm more reticent about). I've never been a good scheduler, but I can't afford not to be now; I am relieved, however, that the projects are conveniently spaced out in time, assuming I can work on writing one while reading ancd researching for another (as well as teaching, chairing, and so on).
In the meantime, I wish all of you a happy New Year, whatever that means to you (and however you may find it), and I hope to have some news to report in a few months.
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