Exploring Identity Through Memory and Story

On Friday, February 6, during Advisory, sophomores extended their English memoir unit by welcoming guest speaker Dr. Charles Fanning, an author, historian, and longtime professor whose work explores Irish American immigration and the power of storytelling to preserve history, identity, and community. Raised in Norwood, Massachusetts, in a close-knit Irish American neighborhood shaped by family narratives and local tradition, Fanning went on to study at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania before teaching at the university level for decades and founding the Irish and Irish Immigration Studies program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His books and scholarship connect closely to our memoir unit, inviting students to consider the nature of memory, how we make meaning from the past, and the risks and responsibilities of telling stories that involve other people. During his visit, Dr. Fanning read an excerpt from Mapping Norwood: An Irish American Memoir, which uses memory and family history to explore what it means to grow up in an immigrant community, and students followed the reading with a thoughtful Q and A about writing, memory, and the stories we inherit and choose to tell.