History and Social Studies

This Saturday symposium, held at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, will examine the 2024 election and provide strategies for helping students engage in constructive conversations about it. Through an exploration of the issues, the candidates, and the electorate, specialists from UVA’s Department of Politics, the Miller Center, and the University of Richmond’s New American History project will highlight key facets of the coming contest. They will also highlight ways to facilitate difficult conversations across the partisan divide, an important skill in an increasingly polarized political environment.

In order for this program to give attendees enough activity hours to count towards recertification, we are asking you to do the following Pre-program exploration:

Before attending the program, please spend an hour exploring this interactive map, Electing the President. We will work with the map during the day, alongside a suite of free learning resources designed to engage your students as they investigate the history of presidential elections. Please come prepared to share your questions and ideas about using the map in your classroom.

 We look forward to seeing you!

Organizer:

Marc Selverstone - UVA Miller Center; CLA Project Director; Professor and Director of Presidential Studies and Co-Chair of the Presidential Recordings Program

Presenters:

Jennifer Lawless - Chair, UVA Department of Politics; UVA Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy; Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor of Politics and Professor of Public Policy

Mary Kate Cary - UVA Department of Politics; Adjunct Professor

Annie Evans, MEd - Director of Education & Outreach, New American History, University of Richmond

Agenda:

• 10:00 - 10:30 Registration, coffee/breakfast
• 10:30 – 10:35 Welcome and Introductions by Prof. Marc Selverstone
• 10:35 - 11:20 "Teaching Election 2024: What could possibly go wrong?", Prof. Mary Kate Cary and Prof. Jen Lawless
• 11:20 - 11:50 Q&A with Prof. Mary Kate Cary and Prof. Jen Lawless
• 11:50 - 11:55 Bathroom break
• 11:55 - 12:10 "Where do we go from here?" - Debrief scholars' session/resources Annie Evans, MEd
• 12:10 - 12:50 Lunch
• 12:50 – 1:50  "Visualizing the Presidency" - Explore purposeful ways to employ data literacy in the humanities via OER digital scholarship tools and resources. Annie Evans, MEd
• 1:50 - 2:00 Evaluation, goodbye

Additional Resources:

UVA Miller Center

UVA Miller Center Election Blog

UVA Miller Center U.S. Presidents

This event was hosted on September 21, 2024 - 10:00am at the UVA Miller Center of Public Affairs, 2201 Olde Ivy Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22903

This half-day symposium, held at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in Charlottesville, will forefront how Black Virginians utilized the judicial system to defeat Massive Resistance and expand democracy and civil rights in education. The commemorative event will also use the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board and 1964 Griffin v. Board decisions as entry points into a broader consideration of how Civil Rights Era collective memory permeates education today. 

This symposium is especially relevant for K-12 educators teaching Virginia Studies, US I, US II, VA-US History, and VA-US Government. Participating teachers will engage in collaborative discussions on how to use personal narratives associated with these cases as primary sources in their classrooms and will receive a certificate of completion at the conclusion of the conference. 

"Resisting Massive Resistance" is supported by various partners, including the President's Office, Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American & African Studies; the Center for Liberal Arts, Center for Race & Public Education in the South; Center for the Study of Race & Law; Division for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion; The Equity Center; Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, and the Memory Project at the Karsh Institute of Democracy.

Background:

May 2024 will mark not just the 70th anniversary of Brown, but also the 60th anniversary of the pivotal but less publicly remembered Griffin decision. Considered one of the Court’s most consequential post-Brown education rulings, Griffinsafeguarded U.S. public education by outlawing Massive Resistance privatization policies used by segregationists to defund and close public schools. 

Resisting Massive Resistance will look both at the history and memory of the Civil Rights struggle for equal education, and toward the future. At a time when support for U.S. public education feels more precarious than ever, this symposium will bring together educators, scholars, and Brown and Griffin descendants, to examine the past and future of race, law, and equal education.

Speakers and Participants:

Dr. Derrick Alridge, Founding director, UVA Center for Race & Public Education in the South

Joan Johns Cobbs, Brown v. Board student plaintiff and sister of 1951 Moton Student Strike co-leader, the late Barbara Johns Powell (featured on the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial on Virginia’s Capitol Square)

Dr. Candace Epps-Robertson, professor of English, UNC Chapel Hill; author, Resisting Brown: Race, Literacy, and Citizenship in the Heart of Virginia

Leslie “Skip” Griffin Jr., Griffin v. Board student plaintiff and son of the late Rev. L. Francis Griffin Sr. (featured on the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial on Virginia’s Capitol Square) 

Justin G. Reid, Visiting scholar, UVA Memory Project; nephew of Griffin v. Board plaintiff Warren Reid 

Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, Founder & director, UVA Education Rights Institute; director, UVA Center for the Study of Race & Law 

Dr. Jalane Schmidt, Director, UVA Memory Project

Dr. Jeanne Theoharis, Political science professor, Brooklyn College; author, A More Beautiful & Terrible History: The Uses & Misuses of Civil Rights History 

Dr. Amy Tillerson Brown, History department chair, Mary Baldwin University; state education chair, Virginia NAACP

Cainan Townsend, Executive director, Moton Museum; great-grandson of Brown v. Board parent plaintiff John Townsend

Dr. Anna Yonas, Curriculum, instruction & special education, UVA School of Education

Agenda:

• 9:00 - 10:00 Coffee & Continental Breakfast
• 10:00 - 10:15 Welcome, Opening Remarks & Keynote Introduction
• 10:15 - 11:00   Keynote/Q&A: Jeanne Theoharis
• 11:00 - 11:15 Break
• 11:15 - 12:45 Introduction and Panel/Q&A on history, memory & myths; Moderator: Derrick Alridge
• 12:45 - 2:00 Lunch and K-12 Educator Roundtables; Facilitator: Anna Yonis
• 2:00-2:50 Introduction and Closing Panel/Q&A: Kimberly Robinson in conversation with Joan Johns Cobbs & Leslie Griffin Jr.
• 2:50 - 3:00 Closing Remarks 

This event was hosted on May 4, 2024 - 9:00am at the Jefferson School - African American Heritage Center, 233 4th St NW, Charlottesville, VA 22903

A free in-person professional development program for teachers

How can sports help us teach central moments and concepts in US history? This in-person program, at Charlottesville’s celebrated Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, featuring scholars from the University of Virginia and elsewhere, will focus on the role of sports in the history of desegregation in Virginia. Multimedia resources will be demonstrated, discussed, and made available. The program is free for all middle and high school teachers, with breakfast and lunch provided - please register to attend.

Agenda:

• 8:45 - 9:15 Registration, coffee, pastries
• 9:15 - 9:30 Welcome + Short video of late Dr. Robert Johnson
• 9:30 - 9:45 Introduction: Derrick Alridge, Project Director Education, Philip J. Gibson Professor of Education, Affiliate faculty member in the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, University of Virginia.
• 9:45 - 10:30 No Playbook - School Integration During Massive Resistance https://noplaybook.albemarlehistory.org, Tom Chapman, Executive Director, Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, Lorenzo Dickerson, Documentary film-maker, Abby Farson Pratt, Web Studio Director for The Journey Group
• 10:15 - 10:30 Break
• 10:30 - 11:15 Desegregation of tennis in Virginia, including excerpts from film, Robert Johnson, Historian, Grandson of late Dr. Robert Johnson, former tennis coach and mentor of Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson.
• 11:15 - 12:00 National context for desegregation of sports in Virginia, Bonnie Hagerman, Associate Professor, Women, Gender & Sexuality, University of Virginia
• 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
• 1:00 - 1:45 Thinking about sports and race in contemporary classrooms, Paul Harris, Founder, Integrity Matters, LLC
• 1:45 - 2:30 Using No Playbook: Nora Grabcheski, ACHS Public History intern, Annie Evans, Director of Education and Outreach, New American History
• 2:30 - 2:45 Coffee Break
• 2:45 - 3:45 Concluding session: Takeaways, next steps, evaluation form, Annie Evans, Director of Education and Outreach, New American History

This program is sponsored by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

This event was hosted on November 11, 2023 - 8:45 at the Jefferson School - African American Heritage Center, 233 4th St NW, Charlottesville, VA 22903

This workshop will be 100% virtual. Participants will be provided with a Zoom link before the event.

** There will be a pre-workshop reading and a short response for all participants - this work combined with the actual virtual workshop, will satisfy the 5-hr requirement to be used for recertification. **

BONUS: Every attendee will receive a copy of My Monticello in the mail after the program, for free!

Presenters:

Moderator:

Special Guest:

Tentative Agenda:

• 9:00 - 9:10 Welcome, greetings.
• 9:10 - 10:10 “Notes on the Fate of Virginia (and our Public Schools)” Annie Evans & Julian Hayter, Includes Q&A/discussion
• 10:20 - 10:40 “Prepping for UVA’s 1st Year Curriculum” Lisa Woolfork, Includes Q&A/discussion
• 11:00 - 12:00 “Teaching Hard History: American Slavery: Reports from the Field” Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn + Teachers, Includes Q&A/discussion
• 12:05 - 12:45 Lisa Woolfork and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson Conversation on My Monticello
• 12:45 - 1:00 Closing, evaluation, goodbye

This event was hosted on April 11, 2023 - 9:00am on Zoom

A collaborative effort between the University of Virginia Center for Liberal Arts, Miller Center, Democracy Initiative, and Karsh Institute of Democracy

A free in-person workshop for middle and high school teachers

We invite teachers from across Virginia to attend this workshop to explore strategies for incorporating lessons about and for democracy in the classroom.

Through morning discussions and afternoon working sessions, workshop attendees will help to shape curricular resources on the teaching of democracy through five distinct units: The Presidency; Realizing the American Dream; Living Democratically; Governing America; and Civic Rights, Responsibilities, and Opportunities. These materials will be disseminated throughout the Commonwealth for the coming academic year.

The workshop is a central component of the year-long UVA Democracy Biennial Fellows program, through which five middle and high school teachers are developing these educational resources. The program kicked off in the fall of 2021 as part of the UVA Democracy Biennial, which was a production of the University’s new Karsh Institute of Democracy.

Organizers:

Marc Selverstone, Associate professor, Miller Center, UVA

Stefanie Georgakis Abbott, Director of programming, the Karsh Institute of Democracy, UVA

Alfred Reaves IV, Faculty and Program Coordinator, Miller Center, UVA

Speakers & Moderators:

Paula McAvoy, Associate Professor of Education, NC State

Neeley Minton, Albemarle County Public Schools, Lead Coach - Social Studies (K-12)

Jessica Kimpbell Johnson, Research Director and Lab Manager

Cluny Brown, Clover Hill High School (Chesterfield)

Kimberly Dove, Wilbur S. Pence Middle School (Dayton)

Allen Robinson, Charlottesville High School (Charlottesville)

Joseph Servis, Appomattox High School (Appomattox)

Christina Takach, UVA Doctoral Student and Freelance Curriculum and Test Developer - Mark Twain Middle School (Fairfax)

Agenda:

• 10:00 – 10:15 Welcome and Introductions - Marc Selverstone - Location: Forum Room
• 10:15 – 11:00 Session 1: Education for Democracy - Speaker: Paula McAvoy - Moderator: Neeley Minton - Location: Forum Room
• 11:05 – 11:50 Breakout session 1 - Locations: Forum Room, Forum Anteroom, Commons Room, Library, Situation Room   
• 11:50 am – 12:45 Lunch - Location: Forum Anteroom
• 12:45 – 1:30 Session 2: The Civic Health Index and Democracy - Speaker: Jessica Kimpell Johnson - Moderator: Stefanie Georgakis Abbott - Location: Forum Room
• 1:35 – 2:20 Breakout session 2 - Locations: Forum Room, Forum Anteroom, Commons Room, Library, Situation Room
• 2:20 – 2:30 Break
• 2:30 – 3:15 Session 3: Presentations and Final Discussion - Location: Forum Room - Speakers: Cluny Brown, Kimberly Dove, Allen Robinson, Joseph Servis, Christina Takach
• 3:15 – 3:20 Closing Remarks - Forum Room

Speaker Bios

Paula McAvoy earned her PhD in philosophy of education in 2010 at UW-Madison’s Department of Educational Policy Studies. Since then, she has worked as an assistant professor at Illinois State, an associate program officer at the Spencer Foundation and as the Director of the Center for Ethics and Education at UW-Madison. Prior to this, she taught high school social studies for 10 years at the Foothill Middle College Program in Los Altos, California.

Dr. McAvoy is the PhD coordinator for the Social Studies Program Area of Study.

Her research focuses on philosophical and empirical questions concerning the relationship between schools and democratic society. She addresses two broad questions:

1.   What educational aims and practices are most appropriate for preparing young people for living within a non-ideal democratic society (e.g., structural inequalities, political polarization)?

2.   How should teachers and administrators make professional judgments about the dilemmas they face given non-ideal conditions? For example, what ethical challenges do teachers encounter when they engage students in discussions of controversial political issues?

Neeley Minton has taught World History and U.S. History in Albemarle County Public Schools and has served as an instructional coach at middle schools and high schools in the area. She served as coordinator of K-12 Social Studies curriculum and instruction in Charlottesville City Schools and is currently serving in a similar role in Albemarle County Public Schools.

Neeley founded the division-wide K-12 Changing the Narrative initiative designed to build educators’ capacity to explore the historical roots of modern-day inequities and teach through rigorous, anti-racist/anti-bias instruction. Members of the Changing the Narrative cohorts collaborated with teachers from across Virginia to write anti-racist/anti-bias and culturally responsive inquiry-based units in K-12 Social Studies. These units are intended to prepare K-12 students for membership in a multi-racial democracy and to provide opportunities for students to engage in justice-oriented citizenship.

As Lead Coach for Social Studies and Coordinator of Elementary Reframing the Narrative for Albemarle County Schools, she partnered with James Madison’s Montpelier and other community organizations to build the capacity of K-12 educators to design anti-racist/anti-bias and culturally responsive inquiry-based units that will be available open source on C3 Teachers.

Neeley has presented at statewide conferences on anti-racist/anti-bias instructional practices, teaching through inquiry, scaffolding for inquiry, and providing comprehensible input to increase the accessibility of inquiry-based instruction for multilingual learners.

Jessica Kimpell Johnson is the Director of Research for the Karsh Institute of Democracy and Manager of the Nau Lab on the History & Principles of Democracy with the Democracy Initiative at UVA. She received her doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Truman Scholar. Prior to teaching and working at UVA, she taught at Columbia University in the Department of Political Science for eight years. Her work has been published in the European Political Science Review, European Journal of Political Theory and on OpenDemocracy.net. She has edited and annotated a collection of the works of Thomas Paine and has written opinion essays for various media outlets. Her teaching and research interests are largely in the history of political thought and contemporary political theory, specializing in democratic thought and republicanism. Before her doctoral studies, she received an M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University and worked as a journalist covering the U.S. Congress for Congressional Quarterly (CQ) in Washington, D.C. Her B.A. is in Political Science from the University of Minnesota.

Marc Selverstone is an associate professor in Presidential Studies at the Miller Center and chair of the Center’s Presidential Recordings Program. He earned a BA degree in philosophy from Trinity College (CT), a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, and a PhD in history from Ohio University. A historian of the Cold War, he is the author of Constructing the Monolith: The United States, Great Britain, and International Communism, 1945-1950 (Harvard, 2009), which won the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam (Harvard, 2022). He is the general editor of The Presidential Recordings Digital Edition, the primary online portal for transcripts of the tapes, published by the University of Virginia Press, editor of A Companion to John F. Kennedy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), and co-editor of the Miller Center’s “Studies on the Presidency” series with UVA Press.

Stefanie Georgakis Abbott is the director of programming at the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia. Before joining the Karsh Institute of Democracy, she served as the associate director of presidential studies at UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs from 2014 to 2022, where she also co-directed the Hillary Rodham Clinton Oral History Project. Previously, Stefanie taught courses on political science and international relations at Virginia Tech and Radford University and supported project management for the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security. She is the co-editor of Crucible: The President’s First Year (with Michael Nelson and Jeff Chidester) and Addressing Integration and Exclusion: Democracy, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Intervention (with Yannis Stivachtis). She has published journal articles and book chapters on immigration and nationalism, EU integration, the American presidency, and international relations theory. Stefanie holds a BA degree in international studies and a BA degree in French from Virginia Tech, an MA degree in nationalism studies from Central European University, and a PhD in public and international affairs from Virginia Tech.

This event was hosted on October 22, 2022 - 10:00am at the University of Virginia Miller Center, 2201 Old Ivy Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904

A Free Online Program for K-12 Teachers  

Through this online program, we aim to provide a safe and trusting platform to share practical skills, language, strategies, and resources to teach truth during this challenging time. In addition to hearing from well-respected experts, scholars, and educators, Teaching Truth in Challenging Times will also include a panel of public and private high school students sharing their experience with the heightened challenges to their learning. 

Organizer:

Lisa Woolfork, Co-Director, Center for the Liberal Arts, University of Virginia.

Speakers:

Ed Ayers, Executive Director, New American History and Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities, University of Richmond

Annie Evans, Director of Education and Outreach, New American History, University of Richmond.

Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, Assoc. Director, Learning in Schools, Learning for Justice, Southern Poverty Law Center.

Maureen Costello, Exec. Director, Center for Anti-Racist Education, Stand for Children Leadership Center.

Sally Hudson, Delegate (District 57), Virginia General Assembly. Asst. Professor of Public Policy, University of Virginia 

Taisha C. Steele, Ed.S., Director of Human and Civil Rights, Virginia Education Association

Alexis Mason, Instructional Coach, Charlottesville High School.

Yahusef Medina Associate Director of Community Initiatives, Virginia Humanities.

Agenda:

• 9:00 - 9:15 Registration --Zoom opens, Participants enter. Add name/grade level/location in the chat (optional)
• 9:15 - 9:30 Opening Remarks
• 9:30 - 9:45 Q&A Session: Questions, establish where we are as a group.
• 9:45 -10:30 Teaching Through - and With - Historical Tensions - Ed Ayers, Annie Evans  
• 10:30-10:45 Break/Q&A Session
• 10:45 - 11:30 Advocating for the Teaching of Honest History: What Teachers Can Do - Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn  
• 11:30 - 11:45 Break/Q&A Session
• 11:45 - 12:30 Teaching Social Studies in Anxious Times - Maureen Costello
• 12:30 - 12:45 Break/Q&A Session
• 12:45 - 1:30 LUNCH
• 1:30 - 1:45 Welcome Address - Sally Hudson  
• 1:45 - 2:30 Honesty in Education: Protecting the Truth - Taisha C. Steele, Ed.S.  
• 2:30 - 3:30 Student Panel Discussion - Alexis Mason, Yahusef Medina
• 3:30 - 4:00 Teacher Sharing/Resource Review
• 4:00 - 4:15 Closing Remarks

This program is sponsored by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

This event was hosted on April 9, 2022 - 9:00am on Zoom

A Free Online Program for K-12 teachers in Charlottesville Public Schools and Albemarle County Public Schools

This online program is a collaborative effort between The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American & African Studies and The Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD). 

The Woodson-ASWAD African & African Diaspora Teacher-Training Institute aims to provide cutting-edge, accessible African and African Diaspora scholarship to K-12 educators. Through engaging and informative discussions, practical suggestions for curricular implementation, and resource guides, the Institute will help K-12 educators to accurately and effectively teach their students the rich histories and cultures of African and African-descended peoples. 

Speakers:

Kia Lilly Caldwell, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs & Diversity, Washington University in St. Louis.

Anne Rotich, Assistant Professor of Swahili, The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies, University of Virginia.

Katrina Spencer, Librarian for African & African American Studies, University of Virginia.

Robert Trent Vinson, Director and Chair, The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies, University of Virginia. President, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD).

Agenda:

• 9:00 - 9:15 am Welcome remarks by Robert Trent Vinson
• 9:15 - 10:15 Session I: Teaching Global Africa Part 1 - Robert Trent Vinson
• 10:30 - 11:30 Session II: Teaching Global Africa Part 2 - Anne Rotich
• 11:30 - 12:30 LUNCH BREAK
• 12:30 - 1:30 Session III: Teaching the African Diaspora in Latin America: Making the Experiences of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Communities Visible - Kia Caldwell
• 1:45 - 2:45 Session IV: Digital Resources Beyond the Required Curriculum - Katrina Spencer
• 2:45 - 3:00 Closing Session, Remarks, Post-workshop Evaluation Survey

This event was hosted on October 16, 2021 - 9:00am on Zoom

A Free Online Program for K-12 Teachers 

This free professional learning virtual event will focus on providing teacher-centered content with practical outcomes that can easily be implemented in virtual and in-person classrooms. The program will feature extraordinary resources, Teaching Hard History, New American History, and materials that are developmentally and psychologically appropriate for younger grades (K-5th).

Participants will experience hands-on research and interactive exercises to address obstacles in teaching Anti-Racist History. There will be ample time for breakout sessions and teacher-led discussions. This program is a follow-up to previous workshops we offered in 2018 and 2019 With the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance program and is open to both returning participants and new allies.

Participants who attend 3 or more sessions will receive a Certificate of Attendance which may be used to earn relicensure points. During each session, participants will use the chat as a backchannel to help process new content and share resources/ideas for best practices. Throughout the program, we ask participants to keep track of any steps they might take or have taken in their own classrooms or school divisions.

Agenda:

• 8:30 - 8:45 Registration - Zoom opens, Participants enter, add name/grade level/location in the chat. (opening music/Fralin image on screen)
• 8:45 - 9:00 Art & Grounded Looking (AGL). Use a work of art as an anchor to ground your learning experience in mindful awareness. Facilitated by Fralin Museum of Art educators, we’ll begin the morning and afternoon sessions with a series of prompts that support observation, active listening, and self-reflection.
• 9:00 - 9:15 Opening Remarks 
• 9:15 - 9:45 Let’s Go! -- Breakouts led by teachers selected in advance to address expectations/concerns. Each group will have a question that they work through together.
• 9:45 - 10:30 “Virginia, We Need to Talk” - Michelle Cottrell-Williams & Antoinette Dempsey-Waters,
• 10:30 - 10:45 Reflective Journaling
• 10:45 - 11:30 “Developmental Readiness for Culturally Responsive/Antiracist/Hard History"  - Johari Harris
• 11:30 - 11:45 Trivia Break -- An interactive group exercise 
• 11:45 - 12:45 "Complicating Slavery: Adding the Indigenous Experience" - Maureen Costello, former director of SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance, Executive Director of the Center for Antiracist Education (CARE)
• 12:45 - 1:30 Lunch
• 1:30 Remarks from UVA Executive Vice President and Provost Liz Magill
• 1:40 - 2:00 Art & Grounded Looking (AGL). Use a work of art as an anchor to ground your learning experience in mindful awareness. 
• 2:00 - 2:45 “Teaching The Truth: Implementing the Work of The African American History Education Commission” in the Classroom - Ed Ayers & Annie Evans, New American History
• 2:45 - 3:30 “Place-Based Antiracist Learning Resources and Activities” - Justin Reid, Meredith Howard, Chris Mathews
• 3:30 - 4:30 Action Steps for Moving Forward: a Teacher-Led Discussion -- At the start of the session, we asked teachers/participants to keep track of steps they might or have taken in their own classrooms or school in response to this material. We will close the program by listening to these reflections and contributions.  

This event was hosted on March 13, 2021 - 8:30am on Zoom

We are sorry; this event has been postponed.

The University of Virginia is suspending all university-sponsored events that involve more than 100 people. 

Please stay tuned for updates.

This year, we aim to increase teacher engagement by crowd-sourcing compelling learning resources developed by teachers, for teachers. All registrants will have access to a shared folder that will stay "live" at the program, and we will be asking you to submit resources and to share your experiences, success stories, and challenges.

Registration is open!

Agenda:

• 9:00 - 9:45 Registration
• 9:45 - 10:00 Opening remarks –Patrice Grimes, Curry School of Education and Human Development
• 10:00 - 10:45 “Virginia, We Need to Talk”-- Michelle Cottrell-Williams and Antoinette Dempsey-Waters, History Educators, Wakefield HS, Arlington Co. Public Schools
• 10:45 - 12:00 “Who’s Afraid of Teaching Hard History?” –Maureen Costello, Teaching Tolerance
• 12:00 - 12:45 “Coffee and Conversation”: small group sessions--teachers discuss/post to Resource Bank 
• 12:45 - 1:30 LUNCH
• 1:30 - 2:30 “Local Stories as Antiracist History”— James Perla, UVA Carter G. Woodson Institute; Justin Reid, Virginia Humanities; Lisa Woolfork, UVA English Department 
• 2:30 - 3:30 “Imagining a New American History,” Edward Ayers, University of Richmond
• 3:30 - 4:15 “Coffee and Conversation”: small group sessions--teachers discuss/post to Resource Bank 
• 4:15 - 5:00 Final Panel: Action Steps for Moving Forward

This event was hosted on March 28, 2020 - 9:00am at Zehmer Hall 104 Midmont Lane Charlottesville, VA 22904

Joint Program with Teaching Tolerance

This free program will feature three extraordinary resources, Teaching Hard History, The Illusion of Progress, and American Panorama. Participants will receive hands-on experience in using them, consider strategies for implementing them in classes, and address obstacles to such implementation. The program is a follow-up to the one we offered in 2018 and is open both to those who were not at that earlier program and those who were.

• Maureen Costello and Monita Bell of Teaching Tolerance will present new elements of the Teaching Hard History resources and accompanying framework.
• Renowned historian Edward Ayers will present related elements of the stunning mapping analysis program American Panorama.
• James Perla and Lisa Woolfork of the University of Virginia will present some pedagogical applications for the Carter Woodson Institute’s remarkable The Illusion of Progress: Charlottesville’s Roots in White Supremacy, a hyper-local interactive site. 

These initial sessions will thus move from the national to the local. They will be followed, after a free lunch buffet provided to all participants, by:

• break-out sessions for teachers by grade level, focused on specific classroom uses of the resources presented in the morning sessions;
• the day will conclude with candid discussion of barriers and assets that affect implementation.

Participants will receive certificates of attendances and teaching materials associated with the resources. Registration open now at www.virginia.edu/cla

Agenda:

• 8:15 - 8:45 Registration, coffee, pastries (free parking)
• 8:45 - 9:00 Introductions, context, and charge: Patrice Grimes, Curry School of Education, UVA
• 9:00 - 10:45 Teaching Hard History—new resources: Monita Bell and Maureen Costello, Teaching Tolerance
• 10:45 - 11:00 break
• 11:00 - 11:45 American Panorama: Edward Ayers, University of Richmond
• 11:45-12:30 The Illusion of Progress: James Perla, Carter Woodson Institute; Lisa Woolfork, UVA Department of English
• 12:30 - 1:30 Lunch
• 1:30 - 2:45 Breakout groups, classroom implementation, development of classroom resources
• 2:45 - 3:00 break
• 3:00 - 4:00 Teaching hard history in and about Richmond, Charlottesville, Virginia, and the United States, moderated by Patrice Grimes

Offered by the University of Virginia’s Center for Liberal Arts, in cooperation with the VA General Assembly African American Cultural Resources task force, and funded by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, this program features participants from the Carter G. Woodson Institute, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance Project, the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab, the University of Virginia English Department, and the Curry School of Education.

This event was hosted on March 23, 2019 - 8:15am at the University of Richmond, Alice Haynes Room, Tyler Haynes Commons

Teaching Hard History and The Illusion of Progress

A free program for K-12 Teachers

This free program will introduce teachers to two extraordinary new resources, provide hands-on experience in using them, and offer strategies for implementing them in classes. Teaching Tolerance will launch at this program its new Framework for Teaching American Slavery in association with the detailed analysis in its report Hard History: Teaching About American Slavery. The online framework allows students to draw connections between historical events and concurrent struggles for racial equality, and to contextualize how the world they inhabit was shaped by the institution of slavery and its ideological progeny, white supremacy: the tool proceeds era by era, with each section ending with pragmatic answers to the question “How can I teach this?” It has been carefully designed for use at every level of instruction. After learning about Hard History, which focuses on national and global issues, teachers will be introduced to the UVA Carter Woodson Institute’s The Illusion of Progress: Charlottesville’s Roots in White Supremacy, a hyper-local interactive site that attempts to broaden the focus beyond the Confederate monuments increasingly the subject of public debates and protests to the deep structures of white supremacy and the persisting inequities there into show the consequences of these structures in Charlottesville, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the nation.

After a free lunch provided to all participants, representatives from Teaching Tolerance and Carter Woodson will lead a round-table discussion about classroom uses of these new and already essential materials. Participants will receive certificates of attendances and teaching materials associated with the resources.

Agenda:

• 8:30 - 9:00 Registration, coffee, pastries (free parking)
• 9:00 - 9:15 General introduction
• 9:15 - 11:15 Teaching Hard History:Monita Bell and Maureen Costello, Teaching Tolerance
• 11:15 - 11:30 Break
• 11:30 - 1:00 The Illusion of Progress: James Perla, Carter Woodson Center; Lisa Woolfork, UVA Department of English
• 1:00 - 2:00 Lunch
• 2:00 - 3:15 Roundtable discussion on classroom implementation
• 3:15 - 3:30 Conclusion, evaluations

This program is offered by the Center for the Liberal Arts, the Carter Woodson Institute, and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance Project with funding from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.

This event was hosted on March 17, 2018 - 8:30am at the University of Virginia

A History Workshop for Virginia Teachers

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the 1964 Freedom Summer project, faculty and fellows from the Carter G. Woodson Institute and the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia will conduct a day-long workshop entitled “Teaching Freedom Summer” on September 20, 2014. In 1964, civil rights organizations, citizens of Mississippi, and student volunteers from across the country came together to challenge segregation in one of the nation’s most racially oppressive and violent states. They registered African American voters who had been denied the right to vote, established Freedom Schools, organized Freedom Votes and created the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, dedicated to unseating the whites-only Mississippi delegation for the Democratic National Convention of 1964. It was a strategic experiment that rocked the nation and fundamentally challenged white supremacy in the South. Drawing on film, music and primary sources, the morning session will examine the history of Freedom Summer, its impact, contradictions and legacy. The afternoon session will provide pedagogical tools and strategies for teaching Freedom Summer 1964, and discuss links to the History and Social Sciences Standards of Learning for the Virginia Public Schools. 

Agenda:

• 8:30 – 9:00 Registration and Refreshments
• 9:00 – 9:15 Welcome & Introductions
• 9:15 – 9:35 Session I: New Directions in Teaching Civil Rights History - Derrick P. Alridge – Professor of Leadership, Foundations & Policy, Curry School of Education
• 9:35 – 10:30 Session II: “Freedom is a Constant Struggle”: The Mississippi Project of 1964 - Nicole Burrowes & LaTasha Levy – Fellows, Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies
• 10:30 – 10:45 Break
• 10:45 – 11:35 Session II Continued
• 11:35 – 12:15 Session III: “From Civil Rights to Hip Hop”: Message in the Music - Derrick P. Alridge
• 12:15 – 1:00 Lunch
• 1:00 – 1:30 Session IV: Revising the Narrative: Rethinking Civil Rights Through the Lens of Freedom Summer, Nicole Burrowes and LaTasha Levy
• 1:30 – 2:30 Session V: Pedagogical Applications & the Virginia Standards of Learning - Stephanie Van Hover – Associate Professor, Department Chair of Curriculum, Instruction & Special Education

This program is sponsored by the Center for the Liberal Arts, Carter Woodson Institute for African-American Studies, and Miller Center of Public Affairs

This event was hosted on September 20, 2014 - 8:30am at the Miller Center, University of Virginia

Athens and America

We offer this workshop to teachers interested in democracy, ancient and modern. We will begin with Athenian democracy, how it was put together structurally, what it thought of itself, and then what ancient contemporary states thought of it. Athens was the first to develop a democracy as we understand it, and, when "power goes to the people," what obligations fall upon "the people" and individual citizens? We will examine this question, a question raised (and answered?) from Plato to Locke and Jefferson and still relevant today.

We want participants to contribute to the discussions with their own knowledge of American democracy, and we also want them to have a chance to raise questions that they may long have had: what was the role of women in the Athenian political and social system? Did the Athenians have gun control? Did Athenians have the right of free speech and free assembly. What were their military obligations? Why did they, in a very democratic process, execute Socrates? We offer an afternoon panel to respond to these kinds of questions and any others you may have and to initiate discussion of them. We don't promise definitive answers, but we are always ready to talk about these things.

Agenda:

• 9:30 - 10:00 Registration
• 10:00 - 11:00 Nuts and Bolts of Athenian Democracy: Illustrated - Jon Mikalson, Professor of Classics, UVA
• 11:00 - 12:00 Athenians and their Democracy, as the Spartans saw them - Ted Lendon, Professor of History, UVA
• 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
• 1:00 - 2:00 "Consenting to Obey in Ancient and Modern Democracies" - George Klosko, Professor of Politics
• 2:00 - 3:30 How did the Greeks do it? - Panel, attempting to respond to any and all questions about Greek political life, social life, economy, military operations, and other such things.

This event was hosted on April 20, 2013 - 9:30am at the University of Virginia

Agenda:

• 8:30-9:00 Registration
• 9:00-9:15 Welcome by Sheila Blackford
• 9:15-10:30 "Teaching the American Presidency: Lessons from Mr. Jefferson's Tombstone" by Professor Russell Riley
• 10:30 - 10:45 Break
• 10:45 - 12:00 "Does it Matter Who's President?" by Professor Barbara Perry
• 12:00-1:00 Lunch
• 1:00- 1:30 Introduction to Presidential Classroom by Sheila Blackford
• 1:30- 3:30 Roundtable Discussions - Facilitated by John Baran, Colin Haller, Bonnie Hagerman, Sheila Blackford, Michael Greco

This program is sponsored by the Miller Center's Presidential Classroom and the Center for the Liberal Arts with Support from The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Are Proud to Present the The John R. Sims, Jr. Civic Education Symposium

This event was hosted on December 8, 2012 - 8:30 at the Miller Center, University of Virginia

This workshop examines the successes and failures, symbols and images, and historical views of John F. Kennedy's presidency, a half-century after his wife applied the Camelot label to her husband's truncated administration. We will not only examine JFK's one thousand days in office, but also the Kennedy family and the impact of his presidency to the development of the modern executive office.

Agenda:

8:30 - 9:30 Registration

9:30 - 9:45 Welcome and introductions - Sid Milkis and Barbara Perry

9:45 - 11:00 "JFK's Roots: The Kennedy and Fitzgerald Families' Political Dynasty" - Barbara Perry

11:00 - 11:15 Break

11:15 - 12:30 JFK's Foreign Policy - Marc Selverstone

12:30 - 1:30 Lunch

1:30 - 2:45 JFK and the Modern Presidency - Sid Milkis

This program is sponsored by the Center for the Liberal Arts and Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

This event was hosted on April 21, 2012 - 8:30 at the Miller Center, University of Virginia

• 8:30 - 9:00 Registration and Refreshments
• 9:00 - 9:10 Introductions and Opening Remarks - Bonnie Hagerman, Associate Director of CLA
• 9:20 - 9:30 Film Interview of Julian Bond, Professor of History, UVA; Chair Emeritus, NAACP
• 9:30 - 11:00 Maureen Costello, Teaching Tolerance Director, Southern Poverty Law Center:

• 11:00 - 11:15 Break
• 11:15 - 12:15 Lisa Woolfork, Associate Professor of English, UVA:

"Thanks for The Help?" - Woolfork will discuss the controversies of Kathryn Stockett's novel, The Help, and will explore the implications of those tensions.

• 12:15 - 1:00 Lunch
• 1:00 - 1:50 Kent Germany, Associate Professor of History, Univ. of South Carolina:

• 1:50 - 2:00 Break
• 2:00 - 3:00 Stephanie Van Hover, Associate Professor, Curry School of Education, UVA

This program is sponsored by the Center for the Liberal Arts and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

This event was hosted on November 19, 2011 - 8:30 at the Miller Center, University of Virginia

Agenda:

Monday, July 12 - Replacing France

Herring, America's Longest War, 3 - 87.

McMahon, Major Problems, 1 - 119, 274-283.

Tuesday, July 13 - Commitment

Herring, America's Longest War, 89 - 129.

McMahon, Major Problems, 12 - 154, 283 - 291

Wednesday, July 14 - Escalation

Herring, America's Longest War, 131 - 169.

McMahon, Major Problems, 155 - 197.

Thursday, July 15 - The Big War

Herring, America's Longest War, 171 - 268.

McMahon, Major Problems, 198 - 235, 291 - 356, 401 - 409.

Friday, July 16 - Vietnamization

Herring, America's Longest War, 271 - 368.

McMahon, Major Problems, 357 - 400, 410 - 435.

Saturday, July 17 - Legacies

McMahon, Major Problems, 512 - 540.

Group Presentations

Readings

Herring, George C. America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975, 4th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 37. 81.

McMahon, Robert J. Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War,4th ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 2008), $66.99.

This program is sponsored by UVA's Center for the Liberal Arts and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

This event was hosted on July 12, 2010 - July 17, 2010 at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia

James Blight and Janet Lang, of Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, will conduct a day-long workshop on March 21, based on their more than twenty years of research on the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The morning session will focus on the significance of empathy (and its absence) between the Americans and Vietnamese communists, leading to the escalation of the war in Vietnam.

The afternoon session will consider how presidential leadership can lead a nation into war, or keep a nation out of war, by comparing the decision-making of Kennedy. Johnson and George W. Bush. Blight and Lang will draw on several documentary films with which they have recently been involved, including Errol Morris' "The Fog of War" (2004), and Koji Masutani's "Virtual JFK" (2008).

This program is sponsored by the Center for the Liberal Arts and Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

This event was hosted on March 21, 2009 - 8:45 at the Miller Center University of Virginia