NEH Increases Professional Development Opportunities in American History

Bruce Cole

I am delighted to share the news with OAH members that NEH professional development opportunities continue to grow in all areas of the humanities, and particularly in the realm of American history. The We the People initiative that started in 2003 has increased our ability to support outstanding programs for scholars and teachers, and the Division of Education Programs now offers a quite comprehensive series of grant programs to address the different needs of educators in elementary, secondary, and higher education.

Our Landmarks of American History Workshops program that began in the summer of 2004 has expanded significantly since its first season. So far, NEH has supported Landmarks Workshops for school teachers at thirty-two sites around the nation, bringing over 3,400 teachers to the places where history happened for intensive study of key texts and material evidence. Participants receive stipends and travel assistance grants to enable fully national representation at the workshops. Educators from all fifty states and the District of Columbia have participated, often creating vibrant, national networks that continue long after the workshops. The workshops are academically rigorous, and have involved outstanding scholars as lecturers or seminar leaders. Past Landmarks programs have included Pulitzer prize-winning historians Bernard Bailyn and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich; distinguished historian of technology and Leonardo daVinci Medal winner Ruth Cowan; Andrew Jackson Papers editor Daniel Feller; Jacksonian era historian Harry Watson; environmental and epidemiological historian Alfred Crosby; editor of the Thomas A. Edison Papers and Dexter prize winner Paul Israel, and many others of America's most distinguished historians as guest lecturers and presenters. Participating teachers have the opportunity to question and interact with scholars and with master teachers to help them develop lessons plans and other classroom resources.

While we continue to support these intensive, one-week programs for K-12 educators, we have added a similar set of programs for faculty at community colleges. This summer, there will be nineteen Landmarks Workshops for school teachers and seven for community college faculty at sites that range from George Washington's Mt. Vernon to the historical silver mines of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to the battlefield memorials at Pearl Harbor. The program is now titled Landmarks of American History and Culture to emphasize its embrace of the experience of our nation in politics, industry, immigration, war, literature, and art. The deadline for teachers interested in attending the programs offered in the summer of 2006 is March 15, 2006: the list of Landmarks Workshops with contact information will be posted soon on the NEH website. Scholars and educators interested in offering Landmarks programs in the summer of 2007 must apply to the Division of Education programs by March 15, 2006.

Each year, the Endowment's prestigious Summer Seminars and Institutes program includes a number of outstanding study opportunities in American history. Summer Seminars and Institutes range in length from two weeks to six weeks. Topics for college and university faculty include "The American Maritime People" at Mystic Seaport Museum; "African American Civil Rights Struggles" at Harvard University; and "The Appalachian Exemplar" at Ferrum College. Opportunities for K-12 educators include "Churchill and America" at Ashland University; "Thomas Jefferson" at Boston University; "Political and Constitutional Theory for Citizens" at the Center for Civic Education; "The Great Plains" at North Dakota State University; "African Dimensions of the History and Culture of the Americas" at the University of Virginia; "The Abolitionist Movement" at the Library Company of Philadelphia; "Hawthorne and Longfellow" at Bowdoin College; "American History Through Song" at the University of Pittsburgh. Participants receive stipends to offset the cost of travel and lodging. Educators interested in participating in one of the seminars or institutes this summer will find the programs listed, with contact information at <http://www.neh.gov/projects/si-school.html> (school teachers) and <http://www.neh.gov/projects/si-university.html> (college and university faculty). The deadline for applications to participate is March 1, 2006; the deadline for applications to direct a seminar or institute in the summer of 2007 is March 1, 2006.

Landmarks Workshops and Summer Seminars and Institutes draw on a national applicant pool. Our new Faculty Humanities Workshops program offers institutions the opportunity to create professional development programs to serve their own needs or the needs of a regional group of educators. There is no prescribed format for these grants: the programs can take place during the summer, or be spread over the course of an academic year. They can serve school teachers, college faculty, or home schooling parents, and NEH particularly encourages outreach to constituencies that have limited professional development opportunities. We have already seen some very exciting projects in American history in this category, including a workshop for California school teachers at the Huntington Library on Neoclassicism in America; "Visions of Slavery and Freedom" at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; "African Americans and the Mills of Gaston County" at Gaston College; and "American Indians in Montana" at the University of Montana, Billings. Although local in scope, these grants include funding for guest faculty, and outstanding scholars, including Carl Richard, Caroline Winterer, John Shelton Reed, and John Stauffer have contributed to these Faculty Humanities Workshops. The next deadline to direct Faculty Humanities Workshops is September 15, 2006.

OAH members who have worked with NEH staff know that an outstanding and dedicated group of program officers are eager to advise potential applicants how to strengthen their proposals. I am extremely proud of the projects we have funded to help educators deepen their knowledge and understanding of American history in all of its depth and complexity. q