Message from the Project Directors

Dear Teachers:

The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center is pleased to invite 3rd-12th grade teachers from around the country to apply to participate in our summer 2021 NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture teacher online workshop: Mapping a New World: Places of Conflict and Colonization in 17th-Century New England. We will use maps, other primary sources, and historical landmarks to explore the landscape of 17th century New England from the perspective of English settlers and multifaceted Native communities.

While we originally planned for a residential program based in Boston, we are excited to employ the distance learning tools and strategies we have all become expert in over the past year in creative ways to meet the learning outcomes of the workshop. Together we will explore this time period using maps and a geographic lens, unlearn/relearn this history of colonization, and center Native perspectives to more fully teach our nation’s history. We are working closely with our scholars and partners at the workshop’s Landmark sites—Plimoth Patuxet Museums (formerly Plimoth Plantation), the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston—to translate place-based experiences into meaningful virtual engagements.

The course will be a blend of synchronous/asynchronous learning and we will be making every effort to ensure different time zones are accommodated and that sessions are engaging. You will finish the week with a sense of how place shaped the history of colonization in New England and with strategies for using place as a lens for exploring the history of your own community.

We welcome you to apply and tell us why you are excited to dig deeply into this topic and what you will bring back to your teaching. The deadline is March 1, 2021 to apply. We look forward to reading your applications.

Yours,
Michelle LeBlanc & Elisabeth Nevins
Project Co-Directors