From the Arab American National Museum website:

"Through a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the AANM presents a free three-day summer workshop to enhance educators' knowledge of the Arab World, Arab Americans and Islam."

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.

At this workshop, educators will be joined by immigration scholars and public health historians, visit related historic sites in New York City that vividly tell the story of immigration in the early part of the 20th century, and investigate Ellis Island's unrestored hospital buildings with an architectural historian to uncover their significance. This workshop will specifically address the impact of the 1891 immigration legislation mandating health as a criterion for admission to the U.S., precipitating construction of the U.S. Public Health Service hospital on Ellis Island to screen and treat arriving immigrants.