Welcome to Your Favorite Prof
Welcome to Your Favorite Prof
Lots of Learning, No Homework!
Welcome to Your Favorite Prof, a newsletter for all of you who miss the rich and intellectually stimulating conversations from your favorite classes!
I’m Marcia Chatelain, a Professor of History at Georgetown. I wrote the book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. I’m the professor you heard on that podcast that one time. And, you definitely saw me in something about history on TV. I also look familiar because you were watching a news show recently. Yup, that’s me.
Boss: The Black Experience in Business (Stanley Nelson, 2019).
This newsletter is devoted to my three great loves:
Fast Food History: I wrote a WHOLE book about McDonald’s (which got some pretty nice accolades), and along the way I found out great pieces of fast food history about brands from long ago (Burger Chef, anyone?) and ideas that never quite took off (the Taco Bell Waffle Taco; it was exactly as it sounds).
Isn’t this cover amazing? Read more about the book in The New York Times.
Good Teaching: I love being an educator. I love teaching college, I really enjoy visiting high schools, and I’m pretty good with K-8 students. When I’m not teaching history classes at Georgetown, I work with schools on creating more inclusive classrooms and diverse curricula. In this newsletter, I’ll talk about teaching, and I’ll offer up some of the things that have worked over the years (and the ideas that went as well as offering waffles at Taco Bell—see above). This is me teaching in real life.
I adore a well-curated list of readings and such; check out my 2014 project #FergusonSyllabus.
Lifelong Learning: In the before times, I traveled about 40-50 times a year to offer lectures, participate on panels and roundtables, and present on my research, my teaching, and hot topics in the news. In the right now times, I do it on Zoom. In both settings, I always get questions about what books people should be reading about racial justice, the history of civil rights, and food writing. So, for each newsletter, I’ll also offer book recommendations, links to the best writing on the Internet, and reviews of documentaries and podcasts that will support your independent learning.
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Happy Black History Month,
Professor Chatelain