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Prospectus #1

Prospectus #2

Prospectus #3

Sample Focus on Teaching Proposal #3

Introduction

The first presenter, [name removed], is an Assistant Professor of History and Director of African-American Studies at [university removed]. He will discuss Slavery to Reconstruction and will also serve as the Moderator for the session. The second presenter, [name removed], is an Associate Professor of History, at [university removed] and will discuss the African Diaspora since Reconstruction. The final presenter, [name removed] a doctoral student at [university removed] and currently [position removed], will discuss tracking African-American Women through history using maps. 

Abstract

This proposed session, is a collaborative effort of the [university removed] and [university removed]. At the April 1997 meeting of the OAH in San Francisco, Dr. Gerald Danzer and Dr. Mark Newman of the University of Illinois at Chicago developed a session to discuss "Maps Telling Stories: Cartographic Challenges To The Teaching Of History." The purpose of the session was to draw attention to the numerous ways in which maps could be used to teach history. It also served as an opportunity to teach teachers how to use maps in their classes at the primary, secondary and post secondary level. This, proposed session will use a similar approach to discuss how the African Diaspora can be integrated into the standard history curriculum, at the primary, secondary, and post secondary level. It will also demonstrate how through using maps, the diaspora can be more effectively taught in African-American History classes.

An immediate objective of this session is to raise awareness of the importance of maps to the teaching and documenting of the African Diaspora. To accomplish this, the session utilizes both historical and contemporary maps of the African experience to document the movements, contributions and current state of people of African descent in the Americas. The history of America is one of the merging of three primary cultures: Native American, European, and African. It is also the story of the fusing of these three cultures along with recent immigrants, who through this fusion have created American culture which is different from all others. Through maps we can document this fusion and interaction and help students of history to better understand the African Diaspora.

The six major goals of this session are to: 

1. to encourage increased awareness of the importance of maps in teaching the African Diaspora, 
2. to discuss the role of maps in the researching and documenting of the history of African Peoples, 
3. to increase awareness in the profession of the various uses of maps, 
4. to inform educators of practical ways to integrate maps of the African Diaspora into the standard curriculum, 
5. to engage teachers and scholars in geographic discourse using the five themes of geography: location, place and relationships within places, movement, connections, and regions, as they pertain to urban, rural, suburban, and Southern, Northern, and Western areas in the U.S., the Caribbean, and Central and South America, and finally 
6. to engage teachers and scholars in historical geographic discourse, on the form (accuracy and quality), setting (Who What, When, Where, and Why), individuality, (use over time, place of origin), and basic readability of new maps dealing with the African Diaspora soon to be available.