Co-director Neal Salisbury is the Barbara Richmond 1940 Professor Emeritus in the Social Sciences at Smith College. He specializes in colonial-revolutionary North American history and Native American history. His scholarly interests center on indigenous Americans, particularly in the Northeast between 1500 and 1800. Salisbury's publications include Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1643 (Oxford, 1982); an edition of Mary Rowlandson: The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997; originally published in 1682) with related documents; two volumes of essays, A Companion to American Indian History, edited with Philip J. Deloria (Blackwell, 2002), and Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience, edited with Colin G. Calloway (Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 2003). He is the co-author of two textbooks: The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Volume 1: To 1877 (Wadsworth Cengage, 8th ed., 2013), and The People: A History of Native America (Wadsworth Cengage, 2007). Over the past quarter century, Salisbury has participated in several dozen workshops and Institutes for K-12 teachers, four of which were funded by NEH. He has served as Project Director for three Summer Institutes including The American Revolution and American Peoples: A Comparative Inquiry, funded by NEH in 2001-2002.
Core Faculty & Staff 2013
Co-director Alice Nash is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Columbia University (1997) where her doctoral research focused on the impact of gender and colonization on Wabanaki families in the Northeast. Nash has published numerous articles on northeastern Native American history including three in French translation in the leading Quebec journal Recherches amérindiennes au Québec. With Christoph Strobel, she co-authored Daily Life of Native Americans from Post-Columbian through Nineteenth Century America (Greenwood, 2006). In 2003-2004 Nash held the first Fulbright-Université de Montréal Distinguished Chair, during which time she taught a course on the Deerfield Raid of 1704 to Canadian students and brought them to Deerfield for the Tercentenary of the Raid on February 29, 2004. Nash has worked with K-12 teachers since her arrival at UMass Amherst in 1999.
Teacher-Facilitator Peter Gunn is Teacher in History at the Williston Northampton School and Lecturer in History at Smith College. He is an experienced teacher whose qualifications as Teacher-Facilitator include a Master’s Degree in Education from Harvard University (1988) and more than 25 years of experience teaching U.S. history, including Native American History, at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, MA. Since 2005, Peter has taught a seminar for secondary credential and MAT candidates at Smith College with a focus on curriculum development and methods for middle and secondary history classes. In 2012-13 he taught an advanced seminar at Williston on the history of the Connecticut River Valley, which included several sessions each led by Institute co-director Neal Salisbury and Institute guest presenter Kevin Sweeney of Amherst College. Peter provides knowledgeable help to teachers’ curriculum development, including the NEH Summer Scholars in this program.
Institute Coordinator Jessica Johnson is Outreach Director for the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a graduate of Brown University, where she earned a Ph.D. in American Studies (2013) and a M.A. in Public Humanities (2006). As Outreach Director for the UMass Amherst History Department, Johnson develops educational programs for public audiences. She works closely with teachers, schools and educational non-profits to serve K-12 teachers and students in Western Massachusetts and beyond.
Danielle Trevino was the institute assistant. She wrote a daily blog about the places the teachers went to and the topics they discussed.