NEW YORK,
NY (JUNE 9, 2006) – From June 12 through June
20, nineteen professors representing sixteen community
colleges across Virginia will attend a seminar called
Recent Scholarship in American History, at
the University of Virginia and Monticello. The seminar,
sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
History and the Virginia Community College System and
organized in partnership with the University of Virginia
and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, will be led by
Carol Berkin, Professor of History at Baruch College
and City University of New York Graduate Center. The
idea for creating the seminar came from Gilder Lehrman
Institute advisory board members Edward L. Ayers, Dean
of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
at the University of Virginia; and Daniel P. Jordan,
President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
“Community college history professors often represent
a student's critically important first - and sometimes
last - college level encounter with American history,”
said Lesley S. Herrmann, Executive Director of the Gilder
Lehrman Institute of American History. “Yet these
teachers often have little time to keep current with
the latest scholarship in the field or to discuss new
interpretations or methodologies with their peers.”
“Virginia Community College teachers of American
history are masters of the craft of the survey course,
yet often have little chance for reflection and discussion
on scholarship that revises and refines what they teach,”
said Cliff Haury, Professor of History and Dean of Humanities,
Fine Arts and Social Sciences at Piedmont Virginia Community
College.
“All of us who teach history need to engage new
ideas and test the durability of our older understandings,”
said Berkin. “New scholarship challenges old certainties,
offers unexpected insights, and opens up new avenues
for discussion with our colleagues and our students.
It is important to read recent scholarship, but it is
equally important to have a setting in which we can
debate the merits of these works with our peers.”
The seminar will focus on four recent books, each selected
in an effort to look at familiar survey course topics
in a new way:
- Carol Berkin's, Revolutionary Mothers: Women
in the Struggle for America’s Independence
demonstrates how attention to gender can revise teachers’
understanding of the American Revolution as a home
front war.
- Joanne Freeman's Affairs of Honor: National
Politics in the New Republic shows how careful
attention to political culture provides new insights
into the political conflicts of the early national
period. Freeman is Professor of History and Director
of Graduate Studies, Yale University.
- Peter Bernstein's Wedding of the Waters: The
Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation illustrates
the connection between technology and the emergence
of a market economy in the antebellum years. Bernstein
is a best-selling author and economic consultant.
- Ira Berlin's Generations of Captivity:
A History of African-American Slaves reconstructs
the regional differences and changes over time that
produced many variations of slavery in America. Berlin
is Distinguished University Professor, University
of Maryland.
In addition to sessions led by Berkin, Freeman, Berlin,
and Ayers, participants will study with Theodore J.
Crackel, Professor and Editor in Chief, Papers of George
Washington, University of Virginia; Holly Cowan Shulman,
Research Professor, Editor, Dolley Madison Digital Edition,
University of Virginia; Susan Purdue, Associate Editor,
Jefferson Library, Monticello; and Brian P. Murphy,
Gilder Dissertation Fellow.
Community colleges represented are: Blue Ridge Community
College in Weyers Cave, VA; Central Virginia Community
College in Lynchburg, VA; Germanna Community College
in Fredericksburg, VA; John Tyler Community College
in Chester, VA; J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College
in Richmond, VA; New River Community College in Dublin,
VA; Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Campus
in Annandale, VA; Northern Virginia Community College,
Loudoun Campus in Sterling, VA; Paul D. Camp Community
College in Suffolk, VA; Piedmont Virginia Community
College in Charlottesville, VA; Rappahannock Community
College in Warsaw, VA; Southwest Virginia Community
College in Richlands, VA; Thomas Nelson Community College
in Hampton, VA; Tidewater Community College-Portsmouth
Campus in Portsmouth, VA; Tidewater Community College-Virginia
Beach Campus in Virginia Beach, VA; Virginia Highlands
Community College in Abingdon, VA.
Seminar participants are:
Willis Betts
Rappahannock Community College
Warsaw, VA
Germanna Community College
Fredericksburg, VA
Randolph Boothe-Pharr
Paul D. Camp Community College
Suffolk, VA
Sara Combs
Virginia Highlands Community College
Abingdon, VA
Johnette Hill
Tidewater Community College-Virginia Beach Campus
Virginia Beach, VA
Ellen Johnson
Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Campus
Annandale, VA
Leonard Lewane
Blue Ridge Community College
Weyers Cave, VA
David McGee
Central Virginia Community College
Lynchburg, VA
John Paden
Rappahannock Community College
Warsaw, VA
William Paquette
Tidewater Community College-Portsmouth Campus
Portsmouth, VA
Rolande Phillips
Thomas Nelson Community College
Hampton, VA
Samuel Pincus
Piedmont Virginia Community College
Charlottesville, VA
Richard Poteat
Central Virginia Community College
Lynchburg, VA
Carolyn Quenstedt
John Tyler Community College
Chester, VA
J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College
Richmond, VA
Patrick Reed
Northern Virginia Community College, Loudoun Campus
Sterling, VA
Frederick Schmidt
Piedmont Virginia Community College
Charlottesville, VA
Henry Thill
Piedmont Virginia Community College
Charlottesville, VA
Joseph Windham
Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria Campus
Alexandria, VA
Brian Wright
Southwest Virginia Community College
Richlands, VA
Robert Young
New River Community College
Dublin, VA
Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
History promotes the study and love of American history.
Increasingly national and international in scope, the
Institute targets audiences ranging from students to
scholars to the general public. It creates history-centered
schools and academic research centers, organizes seminars
and enrichment programs for educators, partners with
school districts to implement Teaching American History
grants, produces print and electronic publications and
traveling exhibitions, and sponsors lectures by eminent
historians. The Institute also funds awards including
the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and George Washington
Book Prizes and offers fellowships for scholars to work
in history archives, including the Gilder Lehrman Collection.
###
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
19 West 44th Street, Suite 500
New York, NY 10036
www.gilderlehrman.org
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