What is In Progress?

For over a decade, the thing that brought me (Fitz) the most joy (outside of family and friends, of course) was blogging and publishing commentary on religion, culture, and politics. But then, at some point, this kind of writing began to feel laborious, even harmful. I always felt like I had to comment on everything, and it wasn’t good. So I quit and went and got a PhD. But the thing is, there was a lot of good that I threw out with the bad—I loved connecting with people who were thinking about the same issues and I made a lot friends—actual IRL friends—through writing and responding. “In Progress” was the name of my very first blog, the place where I fell in love with blogging, so I wanted to bring it back, hoping to rekindle the old flame. But, instead of a blog, it’s a newsletter, and I’m really interested to see how this more intimate format might allay some of the issues I had with blogging.

Importantly, I’m not doing this alone. I’m very happy to share this platform with my friend and colleague Jason Clemence. You can read more about Jason below, but suffice it to say that the community and connection I reference above begins before a post is even published as we read and workshop each other’s essays. We hope you’ll subscribe and engage with us.

Who is Jonathan D. Fitzgerald?

First off, you can call me Fitz. I'm a writer and an Assistant Professor of Humanities at a small liberal arts college outside of Boston. My writing has appeared in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, The Boston Globe Magazine, and others. I’m also the author of Not Your Mother’s Morals: How the New Sincerity is Changing Pop Culture for the Better. On the academic side of things, I teach, research, and write about literary journalism, 19th century American literature & culture, digital humanities, moral philosophy, and religion. I have a PhD in English literature from Northeastern University.

You can read more about me (and see my CV, if you’d like) at my website. There you can also read a selection of my previous publications. Also, my book is on Amazon.

Who is Jason Clemence?

Like Fitz, I’m an Assistant Professor of Humanities — at the same small college, in fact. I teach writing, literature, film studies, and pedagogical practices. My public-facing writing focuses on the intersections of mass-circulating rhetoric and politics. My academic writing focuses on film and critical theory. My work can be found in a variety of film studies anthologies, as well as Cultural Politics, Solstice Literary Magazine, Boston Magazine, WBUR Cognoscenti, and Medium. I’m excited to begin contributing regularly to …In Progress.

You can read my essay on the Boston Marathon Bombings here.

My Medium essays can be found here.

My Cognoscenti essays can be found here.

Twitter handle: OhTheHumanities (@jason_clemence)

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A review of religion, culture, and technology by Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

People

Writer and Assistant Professor of Humanities teaching, researching, and writing about literary journalism, media, ethics, and religion. #firstgen
What I have written, I have written.
I write about politics, rhetoric, literature, film, and the general discord and contradictions of modern life.