Summer Institute for Community College Instructors
May 29 - 30, 2020
How do we interpret narratives about mass movements in the past? And how does that understanding across the distance of time compare to the actual, complex experience of participating in such a movement?
What are the features, uses, and histories of propaganda? What techniques have governments and political movements used to construct and convey messages? How is propaganda related to the construction of national (or other) identities? Is propaganda entirely culture-specific, or are there universal features of this mode of communication?
California's 2011 FAIR Education Act changed the state's education code to include the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful portrayal of the contributions and experiences of people with disabilities and people in the LGBT community in California and United States history and social studies courses. The 2019 ORIAS Summer Institute for k-12 teachers seeks to provide a global context within which to consider these topics.
World History courses often begin with a survey of river-basin societies, exploring the connection between agricultural surplus, irrigation projects, and centralizing power. Oceans and seas are conceived of as places in between - natural regional boundaries traversed only by merchants and military forces.
But what are the contours of a different World History – one with a view from the sea?
How would your curriculum change if your default historical subjects were women, rather than men?
How would you assess the importance of the agricultural revolution or Athenian democracy? Would property rights and marriage laws edge out professional status and voting rights in classroom discussions about power? How would you construct narratives of long-distance trade, imperial conquest, and industrialization? Do you imagine the core periodization and themes underlying your course would be altered?