The purpose of this one-week summer seminar is to explore a pivotal period in American history. After the uneven prosperity of the 1920s, the Great Depression of the 1930s was a human catastrophe. But the economic crisis also led to dramatic social and cultural change as Americans reacted to hardship and adversity. Above all, the rise of the New Deal under Franklin Roosevelt reshaped the modern state in ways that remain controversial and at the historical core of political debates today.

Participants in this workshop will travel throughout the Delta as they visit sites where significant events occurred. They will discuss and learn about issues involving civil rights and political leadership, immigrants' experiences in the Delta, the Blues, the great migration, agriculture, and the Mississippi River, among other things. They will sample Delta foods, visit local museums, and listen to the Blues. Field trips will roam as far as Greenville, Greenwood, and Memphis, with stops in between.

From the Newberry Library website:

"[This conference] will support teachers in the development of lessons using images from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Picturing America program.

Conferences will feature presentations by distinguished scholars and sharing of resources in workshop formats. We will use the Newberry Library’s collections as well as a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago and a walking tour of Chicago’s Loop to model ways for teachers to use local resources in their own communities."

This workshop will provide the larger historical and cultural context for understanding the Pearl Harbor attacks by illuminating one of the most important (if at times antagonistic) bilateral relationships in the 20th century—that between the United States and Japan—and the impact of that relationship on both nations' international affairs. Importantly, it will explore the multiple histories that converge at Pearl Harbor—including not only American and Japanese but also Hawaiian and diverse American experiences, especially those of Americans of Japanese ancestry—reminding participants that despite the mythic status of the Pearl Harbor story in American culture, there are in fact a number of "Pearl Harbors," with different impacts and memories for diverse Americans and for people throughout the world. During the workshop, participants will visit the Arizona Memorial and related attack sites in order to gain a sense of the time and place represented by these historic resources. Since the history of Pearl Harbor is still a living history, participants will also have the unique opportunity to meet with Pearl Harbor survivors, World War II generation residents of Hawaii, and Japanese Americans who spent the wartime years in internment camps, and to experience history "come alive" through their oral histories. Importantly, the workshop will model ways to teach collaboratively. Participants will engage in rigorous conversations with leading U.S. and Japanese scholars about the historical significance and meanings of the events surrounding the attacks and important cultural and historical issues that continue to shape national perceptions of Pearl Harbor. Through hands-on sessions, participants will work closely with the scholars as well as with a group of teachers from Japan and with one another as they explore issues of content and pedagogy in teaching Pearl Harbor and develop plans for collaborative projects and lesson plans that integrate materials from the workshop. In this way, the workshop will serve as a catalyst for creating a network of educators dedicated to ongoing scholarship, professional development, and collaboration.

This workshop will provide the larger historical and cultural context for understanding the Pearl Harbor attacks by illuminating one of the most important (if at times antagonistic) bilateral relationships in the 20th century—that between the United States and Japan—and the impact of that relationship on both nations' international affairs. Importantly, it will explore the multiple histories that converge at Pearl Harbor—including not only American and Japanese but also Hawaiian and diverse American experiences, especially those of Americans of Japanese ancestry—reminding participants that despite the mythic status of the Pearl Harbor story in American culture, there are in fact a number of "Pearl Harbors," with different impacts and memories for diverse Americans and for people throughout the world. During the workshop, participants will visit the Arizona Memorial and related attack sites in order to gain a sense of the time and place represented by these historic resources. Since the history of Pearl Harbor is still a living history, participants will also have the unique opportunity to meet with Pearl Harbor survivors, World War II generation residents of Hawaii, and Japanese Americans who spent the wartime years in internment camps, and to experience history "come alive" through their oral histories. Importantly, the workshop will model ways to teach collaboratively. Participants will engage in rigorous conversations with leading U.S. and Japanese scholars about the historical significance and meanings of the events surrounding the attacks and important cultural and historical issues that continue to shape national perceptions of Pearl Harbor. Through hands-on sessions, participants will work closely with the scholars as well as with a group of teachers from Japan and with one another as they explore issues of content and pedagogy in teaching Pearl Harbor and develop plans for collaborative projects and lesson plans that integrate materials from the workshop. In this way, the workshop will serve as a catalyst for creating a network of educators dedicated to ongoing scholarship, professional development, and collaboration.