NEH Teaching Native American Histories 2017

  • Hyannis Beach
    Applications for 2017 are no longer being accepted.

Teaching Native American Histories
July 16 to July 28, 2017

Application deadline: March 1, 2017

You are invited to apply for Teaching Native American Histories, a two-week Summer Institute for Teachers sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.  We will meet on Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, from July 16-28, 2017.  Each participant will receive a $2,100 stipend to cover the cost of books, meals, travel, and lodging expenses.

The program is organized around five key concepts:

  • place matters -- what we call “grounded history” -- exemplified by the Summer Institute’s location in the Wampanoag homeland on present-day Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard;
  • identity is a contested space, encompassing how people see themselves, how they are seen by others (representation), and the consequences thereof;
  • indigenous identities are intimately connected to land, from stories about creation to current environmental and legal challenges;
  • historical trauma is an important factor to consider, both in terms of past events and how those events are taught, or not, in schools today; and
  • teachers can enhance their ability to find and evaluate classroom resources about Native Americans for themselves.

For two weeks, we will live and work together in a rigorous program that meshes experiential learning, research, and critical thinking, examining concepts that bring life to the bland histories of generic “Native Americans” still taught in our schools today. View the Program and Week 1 and Week 2 activities.

Teaching Native American Histories builds on more than twenty years of innovative collaboration among college and university-based scholars, K-12 teachers, and regional Native American communities through the Schools Partnership program at Five Colleges, Incorporated, a non-profit consortium of five campuses—Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Among Five Colleges’ many curriculum programs, its Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) program includes some of the leading NAIS scholars in the United States, several of whom will participate in our NEH Summer Institute.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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