About Roots 2008
Roots 2008: Teaching the African Dimensions of the History and Culture of the Americas (Through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade)
Sponsored By:
“Roots 2008: Teaching the African Dimensions of the History and Culture of the Americas (Through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade)”, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for Teachers, will be held at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH), Charlottesville, Virginia, from June 23 through July 25, 2008 (5 weeks). The Seminar has been designated a “We the People” project.
The director of the Seminar is Joseph C. Miller (T. Cary Johnson, Jr. Professor of History at the University of Virginia). Participants will include 15 teachers from all over the United States with teaching and/or professional responsibilities that they wish to enhance with greater knowledge of Africa, the Middle Passage, and the people who arrived here in North America in slavery. They will do so by developing projects of their own choosing involving early Atlantic history, literature, or culture up to and including the early nineteenth century.
Applicants may be classroom teachers at any grade level, supervisors with responsibility for curriculum development, media/library professionals, or others who make convincing cases for the relevance of the subject matter of the seminar and the opportunity for personal research that it will provide to their professional development and the opportunity for personal research that it will provide. Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. NEH guidelines accord preference to applicants who have not participated in NEH-supported seminars or institutes within the last three years or who would significantly contribute to the diversity of the group assembled. Applicants may apply to only one NEH seminar or institute in a given year.
Please see the section on Eligibility and Application procedures for additional details. Completed applications (ORIGINAL AND THREE COPIES-- no faxed single copies, no e-mailed attachments) must be post-marked no later than March 3, 2008, and should be addressed to the director at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 145 Ednam Drive, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-4629. A committee consisting of the director, a representative of the VFH, and an experienced teacher will identify fifteen initial invitees and list all other qualified applicants as alternates. All applicants will be notified of the committee’s decisions on April 1, and invited participants will have until April 15 to notify the director of their acceptance of the place in the Seminar offered them. For further information, including questions about possible areas of research that might interest you, contact the director at the address above or by e-mail: jcm7a@virginia.edu; FAX: (434) 296-4714; telephone (434) 924-6395.
Participants will receive stipends of $3,600, intended to contribute to travel and living expenses, books and other research expenses, for the 5-week period. The Seminar will have half of participants’ stipends available upon arrival, with the second half provided at the start of the Seminar’s third week. The NEH does not adjust stipends to cover actual expenses incurred by participants; any participant who, for whatever reason, does not complete the full tenure of the project will be required to refund the applicable pro-rata portion of the stipend to the NEH.
Neither the NEH, the VFH, nor the Seminar offers academic credit. I am willing to supervise credits taken through the University of Virginia Summer Session for participants wishing to take responsibility for whatever financial commitments may be involved (the NEH does not cover such costs, beyond the basic stipend given to all participants), on the basis of additional reading or research during the Seminar. Credits and grades will depend on completing a written project, to be worked out with the director during the first week of the Seminar, within the five weeks here in Charlottesville. If you wish to receive further details of these arrangements please contact the director.
Background and Objectives (pdf)
