Program at a Glance
The Community College Humanities Association, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, will sponsor two one-week workshops for a total attendance of eighty K-12 teachers at the Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas, a site symbolic of courage, self-sacrifice and a monument to American expansionism of the mid-nineteenth century.
Each six-day workshop (June 21-26 and June 28-July 3, 2009) will be devoted to the new scholarship centered on the Alamo, the history, the material culture, the literature, and the symbolic importance of the struggle for personal and political independence. The workshops will feature five prominent scholars who will address the topics of Spanish expansionism and settlement; American expansionism and rugged individualism; the Texas Revolution and its implications for American history; mid-19th American social and political issues, including slavery, and the role of women on the frontier; the historical significance of architecture and preservation efforts, and the representations of the Alamo in popular culture.
Each week forty K-12 teachers will have the opportunity to conduct systematic, guided research using the documents housed in the Alamo collection and the University of Texas-Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, as well as the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, and to develop lesson plans and/or classroom materials for infusion into new or existing teaching modules.
Participants will be chosen through a nationally competitive process following the National Endowment for the Humanities guidelines. The application process will include: completion of the NEH online cover sheet, submission of a detailed resume and a letter of recommendation from your principal, department head of you teaching institution or the head of your home schooling association. Perhaps the most important part of the completed application is an essay of up to one-page doubled spaced page. This essay should include information about your professional background and interest in the Alamo, and its historical and intellectual importance to American history; your special perspectives, skills or experiences that would contribute to the Workshop; and how the experience would enhance your teaching or school service. Your completed application (3 copies) should be post marked no later than March 15, 2009, and should be addressed to:
Community College Humanities Association
Essex County College
303 University Avenue
Newark, NJ 07102-1798
The selection committee will include K-12 teachers, faculty and staff from the Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) and the Alamo and will review all applications to ensure a qualified, diverse group of participants.
Each participant will be awarded a stipend of $750.00 meant to cover some of the housing and program costs and a variable travel stipend for those traveling long distances for the week in San Antonio. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will receive written certification of their attendance and participation in all sessions.
The workshop will be directed by Carole N. Lester, Ph.D., Dean of Instruction, Academic Enrichment, and Professor of History and Humanities, Richland College (Dallas County Community College District), Dallas, Texas. In addition to administrative duties, Dr. Lester teaches American history and humanities at Richland, and for several years taught Texas History at the University of Texas at Dallas. She was Richland 's project director for three CCHA and National Endowment for the Humanities grant funded projects, "Advancing Humanities through Technology", "Faces of America," and "Landmarks of American History" workshops. Karen D. Marcotte, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, History and Humanities, Palo Alto College, San Antonio, Texas will serve again as co-facilitator and faculty mentor for the project.
For more information visit the CCHA website www.ccha-assoc.org. If you have additional questions, please contact:
David Berry, (973) 877-3577, or contact
Project Director Dr. Carole Lester, 972-238-6110
