Gateway to Learning Educator Workshops

 

Jun 13-17, 2022

Teaching Challenging Topics in the 21st Century Classroom

This workshop will offer participants resources to help develop new pedagogical skills for teaching challenging topics in the classroom. Professors from the Departments of English and History and the Marriott Library will offer historical context and new strategies for addressing difficult, sometimes contentious, texts and topics in the K-12 classroom, including LGBTQ+ representation and religious, ethnic, and racial diversity.

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Jun 20-24, 2022

When Utah was Mexico's Northern Frontier

Instructor: Raul Ramos, University of Houston

Prior to becoming America’s 45th state, the territory currently known as Utah, was Mexican frontier.  This workshop will employ a transnational lens to explore the history of Utah from a Spanish colony to independent Mexico, the long-standing implications of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and its echoes in the politics of immigration.   Teachers of U.S. History II, Utah History and U.S Government, Latinos In Action and Spanish will be able to apply the content and concepts from this workshop into their classes.

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July 11-15, 2022

Hands-on Engagement with Chinese Railroad Worker History

Instructor: Dr. Chris Merritt, Utah Historic Preservation Officer

This workshop will engage participants with newly developed teaching trunks based off theexisting lesson plan: Chinese Workers on the Transcontinental Railroad as well as a newlydeveloped Lesson Plan for a recent Archaeological Excavation at Terrace, Utah. Participantswill have the opportunity to consider how material culture and the things left behind by theChinese railroad workers can expand the ways students engage with Chinese culture and thecontributions of the Chinese to our state history.

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July 26-29, 2022

Illness, Disease, and Death in the Middle Ages and Beyond

Instructor: Professor Ginger Smoak, Honors College

 

Besides the Black Death and other epidemic and pandemics in history, people have lived with and died from a multitude of diseases, including dysentery, malaria, typhoid, leprosy, and smallpox.  By using historical primary sources, archaeological information about skeletons and burials, and secondary scientific articles, we will discuss the ideas of health and wellness, disease, and dying a “good death”, examine life expectancies and demographics, and talk about the consequences of illness on societies from a variety aspects.

March 27, 2021, 9am-12pm

Asian Exclusion in the United States in the 19th and 20th Century
Funie Hsu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of American Studies, San Jose State University

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first national piece of legislation that put restrictions on immigration to the United States based on national origin and its impact is still relevant today.  This workshop will explore the context of the Chinese Exclusion Act, including its various renewals through the 20th century, related measures to exclude Asians more broadly, and the eventual repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943.  This workshop will also investigate the ongoing relationship between China and the U.S. throughout this period, including the push and pull factors that drove Chinese immigration in the 19^th century. 

This workshop will be of particular interest to teachers of U.S. History, Utah History and social studies to add depth and breadth on China when teaching about westward expansion, manifest destiny and the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

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April 17, 2021, 9am-12pm

An Introduction to Brazil
Tiago J. Fernandes Maranhão, Ph.D. Visiting Professor in History at Tougaloo College (HBCU) Jackson, MS

 Whether it’s the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, the populist rise of Brazil’s current president, or the fires raging in the Amazon, Brazil is part of our collective psyche.  But how much do we know about the fifth largest country in the world? This introduction to Brazil will explore the colonial period, the imperial period, and contemporary Brazil; with discussions grounded in ethnic diversity, race relations, gender as well as political and economic movements. 

Teachers of World History and Geography will benefit from a focus on this survey course that explores the largest country in Latin America with the world’s 9^th largest economy.  Teachers of U.S. History will also benefit from the opportunity to do comparative studies between the United States and Brazil, particularly in regard to histories of slavery, colonization, race relations, and nation building.

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June 15, 2021

Developing, Scaffolding, and Assessing Language and Literacy in the Portuguese Immersion
Cherice Montgomery, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Spanish Pedagogy, Brigham Young University

Transforming textbook content into meaningful, motivating, multisensory learning experiences can be a real challenge!  It can be even harder to integrate language, content, and culture in ways that develop literacy skills!  This workshop is designed to help K-12 Portuguese immersion teachers learn to:

1.  Embed culturally authentic texts and interactive reading strategies into lessons
2. Engage learners with academic content using stories, simulations, and STEM activities
3. Examine how scaffolding strategies and formative assessment techniques can improve learners’ performance

PLEASE NOTE: Portions of this workshop will take place in Brazilian Portuguese, participants are expected to have an advanced proficiency in Brazilian Portuguese in order to fully participate in this workshop. 

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June 16, 2021

Creating Communities of Inquiry in Online Learning
Professor Natalie Stillman-Webb, Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies

Whether fully online, hybrid, or face-to-face, learning is increasingly taking place in digital environments. Over several decades, research on online learning has found that outcomes are improved when students perceive themselves as part of a learning community. This workshop will examine methods for fostering learning community and student engagement through teaching, social, and cognitive presence. We will engage with theories of teaching and learning with technology, including the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework. We will also discuss best practices in online instructional design, including strategies for encouraging student interaction, eliciting critical thinking, and ensuring digital equity and accessibility. Participants will have an opportunity to draw on these strategies as they create activities and assignments for their own classes.

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June 22, 2021

Building Intercultural Competence
Professor Karen Marsh, Department of Linguistics

This course is designed to build intercultural competence for you and your students. You will participate in a number of activities that will explore personal biases and cultures. Topics include culture shock, stages of intercultural sensitivity, ethnorelativity, global learning, and assessment. Participants will be creating objectives, activities, and assessments for their respective environments and we will spend some time together working on those activities so they meet core objectives. This course is highly interactive so expect to participate and reflect on your own learning as you are designing activities for your students.

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June 29, 2021

Pandemics in History: Causes, Effects, and Human Cost
Professor Ginger Smoak, Honors College

Beginning with the First Plague pandemic, also known as the Plague of Justinian in the 6^th century, the Black Death Pandemic in the 14^th century, and subsequent ones like the Influenza pandemic and of course the present Covid-19, pandemics have changed the world.  This one-credit workshop will focus on the Black Death primarily, examining causes and effects, both short and long-term, in an attempt to give historical context for how the current pandemic will affect the world.  By looking at medical, social, economic, religious, political, and military effects, we will attempt to find patterns and understand things like revolts, religious violence, and the human cost of people’s actions.  We will look also at the new scientific information about the Black Death and think about how this data might inform our present reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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July 6, 2021

Ursula K. Le Guin: Speculative Fiction, Resistance, and the Arts of Peace
Professor Scott Black, Department of English

This Workshop will explore one of the most inventive, daring, and visionary of recent American writers, Ursula K. Le Guin. Though now recognized as a central figure of American letters (her novels and stories are now being published in the canonical Library of America), for most of her career Le Guin’s works were confined to the literary ghettos of speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. In those circles, however, she was hugely influential, highly respected, and beloved. (For readers of a certain age, her Earthsea books were as important as Harry Potter was for younger readers.) For Le Guin, the wider realities available to writers of sci-fi and fantasy allowed her to explore the most profound questions of human life, society, and art. Indeed, her novels and stories are philosophical fictions: intense and challenging meditations on culture and ecology, gender and sexuality, oppression and liberation, power, justice, and peace. They are also fascinating examples of the arts of narrative, experimenting with new kinds of stories and new paradigms of knowledge. But though provocative in their questions, Le Guin’s works are a pleasure to read because she is a superb writer and an exquisite stylist.

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July 7, 2021

Tribal History, Sovereignty, and Environmental Justice in Indian Country:  A Primer on Indigenous Issues for K-12 Teachers
Professors Elizabeth Kronk Warner and Connor Warner, College of Law and College of Education

Following completion of this workshop, attendees will have a better understanding of the history and current status of Native Nations within the United States.  The workshop will examine Native history from tribal, state and federal governmental perspectives.  Instructors will use case studies of environmental justice in Indian country, such as the Dakota Access pipeline controversy, to explain how these issues of history and sovereignty intersect with environmental justice.  Participants should leave the workshop understanding the complexity and sophistication of indigeneity in the US, understanding the centrality of sovereignty and sustainability to Native nations, and having the competence to incorporate respectful and accurate Native content into their own curricula.

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July 12, 2021

Japanese America: Culture, History and the Experience of Japanese American WWII Internment/Incarceration
Ryan Masaaki Yokota, PhD Critical Ethnic Studies and History, DePaul University

Japanese Americans have made significant contributions to U.S. and Utah history and culture.  This workshop will explore the push factors that led Japanese immigrants to come to the United States and explore the racial obstacles that they encountered in their new home.  Additional attention will be placed on the WWII experience of the Japanese American community, with special attention placed on the Japanese American concentration camp experience in Topaz, near present day Delta, Utah.  Aspects of Japanese culture and cultural practices that thrive in the United States to this day will also be addressed.

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July 13, 2021

Queer Stories for Teen Readers and Writers
Professor Anne Jamison, Department of English

This course is designed for middle and high school Language Arts teachers, and secondary library media specialists, and will consider the way queer stories for and by teens can be used in and around the classroom to help students find legitimation, community, and agency through 1) reading new books and 2) writing fanfiction that retells stories they already know in ways that reflect their experience and hopes for the future. The workshop will also focus on how these activities support College and Career Readiness and grade-specific standards for reading (recognizing and analyzing genre, structure, point of view, and other literary devices) and writing (presenting textual evidence, trying new approaches, research, and production and distribution). Fanfiction also lends itself to transmedia interpretation and analysis, as fan culture includes a wealth of illustration and transposition via memes, short videos, playlists, and “meta” or analytic posts to social media wherein fans take positions on characters, narrative, framing, subtext, and other literary elements, often as a means of engaging social issues.

June 8-12, 2020

Healing the Body: History of Medicine from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period
Professors Ginger Smoak and Rachel Dentinger, Honors College

Medicine can be considered as a science and an art/practice.  This workshop will explore ideas about health, disease, and the body in Europe from Greco-Roman to Early Modern Societies.  Healing encompasses myriad beliefs and practices going back to prehistory, which continue to evolve through the development of civilizations.  We will examine multiple topics surrounding medicine, including Hippocratic concepts of the “nature” of the human body and the humoral theory, considering how religious and cultural beliefs and practices shaped and in turn were shaped by these concepts of illness/wellness.

The U.S. Constitution
Professor John S. Reed, Department of History

The United States Constitution of 1787, as amended, constitutes the “rules of the game” of American public life.  It is thus the single most fundamental topic in U.S. history, as all other subject areas, examples being political, economic, foreign relations, race and gender relations, etc., etc., “plug back into” the Constitution through federal judicial decisions that critically altered the trajectory the nation has moved along, particularly during the 20^th century.

This seminar begins, not with the Philadelphia convention, but with the text of the Constitution as ratified, and then proceeds through topics such as the initial public understanding of the Constitution, the emergency of the U.S Supreme Court as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution’s text, the “Reconstruction Amendments” (13^th, 14^th, and 15^th), and the changing role over time of the Constitution.

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June 15-19, 2020 

Japanese America: Culture, History and the experience of Japanese Internment
Professor Wes Sasaki-Uemura, Department of History

*This course includes a trip to the Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah.  Class on Wednesday, June 17^th will run from 8am-5pm. Friday class will be held 9am-12pm.

Japanese Americans have made significant contributions to U.S. and Utah history & culture.  This workshop will survey the history of the Japanese diaspora throughout U.S. history.  Aspects of Japanese culture and cultural practices that thrive to this day will also be explored.  Special attention will be given to Japanese Internment with one day in the field dedicated to visiting the Topaz Museum in Delta Utah, the site of one of 10 internment camps.  The Topaz internment camp held approximately 11,000 of the 120,000 Japanese Americans that were interned.  Participants will also have an opportunity to explore the Marriott Libraries special collections regarding the local history of Japanese Americans in Utah and Salt Lake City.  

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July 6-10, 2020

The Speculative Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin 
Professor Scott Black, Department of English

This course will introduce one of the most inventive, daring, and visionary writers of twentieth-century American literature, Ursula K. Le Guin. Though now recognized as a central figure of American letters (her works are now published in the Library of America), for most of her career Le Guin’s work was confined to the literary ghettos of speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. In those worlds, however, she was hugely influential, highly respected, and indeed beloved. 

This course will offer a broad overview of Le Guin’s career and her work in several genres. Readings will include her first major science fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969); her foundational fantasy novel, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), as well as her important and powerful feminist revision of Earthsea, Tehanu (1990); The Word for World is Forest (1976), a speculative environmentalist fable; and some examples of her later work, “Another Story” (1994) and Five Ways to Forgiveness (1994), which explore race, slavery, liberation, and self-discovery.  

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July 27-31, 2020

Brazil, a Crash Course
Instructor TBA

Whether it’s the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, the populist rise of Brazil’s current president, or the fires raging in the Amazon, Brazil has been in our collective psyches lately.  But how much do we know about the fifth largest country in the world? This crash course on Brazil will introduce participants to major themes in Brazilian studies, including its ethnic diversity and race relations, political and economic history, and contemporary challenges.  Important issues of environmental sustainability will also be addressed.

 June 10-14
The Struggle for Women's Rights in Utah:
1870s - 1970s

Dr. Jenny Reeder, 19th Century Women's History Specialist, LDS Church History Department; Andrea Radke-Moss, Professor of History, BYU-Idaho; Dr. Martha Bradley-Evans, Professor in the College of Architecture; Dr. Farina King, Assistant Professor of History, Northeastern State University; Dr. Naomi Watkins, Director of Education, Better Days 2020

 This workshop will explore the suffrage and women’s rights movements in Utah, including Native women’s unique challenges, from 1870 through the women’s rights movement of the 1970s. This workshop will seek to answer questions such as: What factors led to Utah women being the first to vote in the early modern nation? Why and how did Utah women lose and then regain the vote? How did Utah women participate in the national women’s suffrage movement? How did some Utah women shift from being leaders in the women’s rights movement to opposing this movement in the 1970s?

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June 10-14
From Alfred the Great to Megan Markle:
History of Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norma, and Angevin England

Professor Ginger Smoak, Honors College

This workshop will explore the way England evolved historically from the seven kingdoms in the Anglo-Saxon period, to a unified and centralized monarchy under Norman and Angevin dynasties.  By examining the political, religious, economic, military, legal, and social development of the country and its people, we will trace its historical and national arc, focusing on how England is both similar and different from the Continent. 

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June 24-28
Caravans and Border Walls:
A Contextual Approach to Understanding Migration from Latin America

Anna Ochoa O’Leary, University of Arizona, Department Head of Mexican American Studies

This workshop seeks to provide a historical, political, and social context of the conditions that push people to migrate from Latin America.  Migration from Latin America to the continental United States is not a recent phenomenon.  Participants in this workshop will learn about the various historical factors that drive migration.  In addition, experiences of displacement, militarization of the U.S./Mexico Border, detention and family separation will be addressed. 

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July 15-19
Race and Religion in the Women's Rights Movement,
1865-1965

Anne Boylan, Professor Emerita of History and Women and Gender Studies, University of Delaware; Karen Johnson, Associate Professor of Education and Ethnic Studies, University of Utah; Katherine Kitterman, Historical Director, Better Days 2020; Naomi Watkins, Director, Better Days 2020

The first part of the workshop will provide an overview of the history of American women’s rights, exploring the origins and development of the women’s rights movement. Participants will learn about the women’s organizations that paved the way for women’s activism and will trace the history forward as women came to advocate for their own voting rights, legal equality, and social opportunity. As participants examine key documents that shaped the development of women’s rights in America, they will come to better understand the influences that shaped strategy and tactics within the movement for women’s equality.

The second portion of the workshop will dive into the work of African American women within the movement focusing on their concerns about their fight for liberation and justice. It will tap into pivotal points in history that highlight the women’s suffrage movement, Christian activism, and civil rights activism. Participants will examine diaries, memoirs, correspondences of late 19th and early 20th century African American women, for the purpose of unpacking the significant contributions that African American women have made to social, civic, and political activism.

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July 15-19
Chinese Laborers and the Golden Spike,
a transational approach

Christopher Merritt, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, Utah Division of State History

This workshop will engage participants in a comprehensive exploration of the contributions of Chinese laborers during the construction of the trans-continental railroad.  With the 150^th anniversary of the driving of the Golden Spike commemoration in May of 2019, this workshop will offer a nuanced exploration of a familiar story.  Participants will have an opportunity to learn about the transnational push and pull factors that brought Chinese laborers to the United States, the laws regarding immigration and immigrant labor at the time and the experiences of Chinese laborers during and after the construction of the railroad.  Participants will also hear from local descendants of Chinese railroad workers and visit Promontory Summit, where the Golden Spike was driven 150 years ago. 

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July 29 - Aug2
Teaching the Holocaust

Professor Maeera Shreiber, Department of English; Rabbi David Levinsky, Stanford University

This workshop will focus on a range of approaches to teaching the Holocaust, in the interest of helping educators to develop both a deeper understanding of the subject, and to explore effective pedagogies grounded in history, literature, and film.  Particular attention will be paid to understanding the ideological, psychological and cultural development of anti-Semitism, and how it plays out in contemporary culture.  Participants will also become acquainted with innovative curricular methodologies by which to highlight the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust, including connections to other genocides and sites of global trauma. 

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August 5-9
Literary Classic IV

Professor Vincent Cheng, Department of English

This class will be team-taught by University of Utah English faculty, and is aimed at Utah high school English teachers. The seminar will focus on important literary texts frequently taught in high school English classes--to help educators become more knowledgeable about particular authors and texts they may be likely (or may wish) to teach, and to give them more knowledge and tools (and models) for teaching these topics in their own classes. Texts to be discussed this time around might include works by Shakespeare, Woolf, Le Guin, Wilde, children’s and adolescent literature, environmental literature, and others.

JUNE - JULY 2017 | Manifest Destiny Reconsidered: The Utah Experience
Landmarks of American History & Culture: Workshops for School Teachers
National Endowment for the Humanities

JUN 05-09 | Teaching Trauma: Historical and Contemporary Perceptions of Slavery, the Holocaust, and the A-Bomb

Taking three important, but culturally and temporally different situations—slavery in the United States, the Holocaust in Europe, and the A-bomb in Japan—we seek to familiarize teachers with how these events came to be, how the respective societies have dealt with their aftermath, and finally, how they are depicted in the United States today. Ultimately, we endeavor to relate contemporary, American perceptions of these events with their respective historical contexts. American Slavery remains one of the most traumatic and problematic periods in the history of the United States with reverberating legacies of race and discrimination that continue to plague the nation. Nazi Germany and the Holocaust are often invoked as the epitome of evil without fully comprehending the longstanding prejudices, the immediate importance of World War II, or how the Jewish and German communities have confronted the past since. The A-bomb in Japan highlights issues surrounding survivors, the continued testing of nuclear bombs in the Pacific, and US and Asian interests during the Cold War. Although seemingly disparate, these three case studies have become shorthand for trauma in the media today, and our goal is to demystify them.

JUN 12-16 | Aspects of the Renaissance and the Transformation of European Society, 1300-1650

This workshop will focus on the aspects of the Renaissance that transformed Western thought and European society.  Beginning in 1300 with the “calamitous fourteenth century” we will discuss the events that led to this paradigm shift and a desire to recapture the “Golden Age” of classical Greece and Rome to recover the texts, ideas, political structures, and social mores in order to “remake” their own worlds.  In order to do that, the Humanists went ad fontes, ‘to the source,’ of knowledge by using Greco-Roman philosophical, scientific, political and legal manuscripts to create the Intellectual Renaissance.  “Father of Humanism” Francesco Petrarch attempted to reconcile his own Catholic faith with this new focus on the human worth, dignity and power and Civic Humanist Cosimo d’Medici used his knowledge of the “humane studies,” as well as his money and political power, to fulfill his obligation to his community of Florence. In addition to the Intellectual Renaissance this workshop will discuss the other aspects of the Renaissance in the states of Italy and in the larger European landscape, including political, artistic, social, scientific and religious.

JUN 26-30 | Contemporary China

In a rapidly changing international environment, interest in China has grown dramatically. Yet, there is much that remains unknown about its people and government. Faculty from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University will seek to expand our knowledge of contemporary Chinese society, politics, literature, art, and environment.  Their lectures will offer a foundation for informed opinion about the evolving role of China in the world.

JUL 17-21 | Literary Classics III

This class—like the Literary Classics seminar offered in summer 2015 and the Literary Classics II seminar in summer 2016--will once again be team-taught by University of Utah English faculty, and is aimed at Utah high school English teachers. The seminar will focus on important literary texts frequently taught in high school English classes--to help educators become more knowledgeable about particular authors and texts they may be likely (or may wish) to teach, and to give them more knowledge and tools (and models) for teaching these topics in their own classes. Texts to be discussed this time around might include works by Shakespeare, Woolf, Thoreau, Joyce, Auden, Hardy, Le Guin, Wilde, and others.
 
JUL 25-28 | Teaching Latin America through Award winning Children’s Literature

This workshop will introduce participants to award winning titles in children’s literature that focus on themes within Latin American Studies such as history, non-fiction and the experiences of Latinas/os in the United States.  Resources and strategies on how to incorporate these award winning titles into the classroom will also be explored.  Highlighted titles will include recipients of the Americas Award, Tomas Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Award and the Pura Belpre Medal.  Participants will also have the opportunity to develop lesson plans and strategize how to implement Latin American children’s literature into their curriculum.

This workshop is sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Utah, a member of the Consortium of Latin American Studies Program and a Title VI grant recipient and National Resource Center for Latin American Studies.

JUL 31-AUG 04 | Critical Approaches to Media and Popular Culture

This course provides educators with an opportunity to engage with contemporary issues through popular culture. Specifically, we will examine foundational topics in cultural and media theory which can be used to critically interrogate how popular culture and media shape our contemporary world. Topics include environmental issues, popular representations of gender and race, and the evolution of relationships in the digital era. Texts will include short readings by media and cultural studies scholars, a short story by E.M. Forster, episodes from the critically acclaimed television show Black Mirror, and the films Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Wall-E. In addition, the class will take an off-site field trip to City Creek Canyon and City Creek Shopping Center. This seminar-style class will engage in critical discussion surrounding a variety of questions such as:

• How does technology shape our relationship with and perception of the world?
• How do popular culture and digital media result in alienation and disconnect?
• How can popular culture and digital media provide opportunities for hope and healing?
• How can these theories and texts be applied in educators’ classrooms? 

JUN 13-17 | Using Online Course Materials to Individualize Student Learning

Teachers struggle with how to reach students who are either behind the rest of the class or very far ahead. Online teaching tools can help by providing a manageable way for you to create and administer individualized learning activities for your students. Bring one of your existing lessons to this workshop and let us help you build supplemental online resources. You will finish the week with one set of resources for students who are struggling and a second set of resources for students who want to work ahead. Dr. Linda Ralston has taught online for nearly twenty years, designed online courses for several subject areas, and teaches the University of Utah Cyber Pedagogy course. She specializes in universal course design principles, including optimizing learning for students of all abilities. Heather Stone is a doctoral candidate who works as an online specialist in the Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence.

JUN 20-24 | Middle Ages and Renaissance History

This workshop will focus on methods of teaching medieval and Renaissance history and culture. It will focus on the institutions, ideas and events of the period from 1000 to approximately 1650 and examine major political, religious, and social/cultural aspects and structures. Specifically, the topics addressed will include the medieval and Renaissance systems of government, Feudalism and centralization, challenges to monarchial authority in the form of Magna Carta and emerging parliamentary rule, and the rise of the commune (city-state) in Italy as the commercial merchant class endeavored to assert individual political and economic rights. The role that the Black Death played in these political developments will also be addressed. Furthermore, the workshop will discuss methods of teaching religious belief, expression and relations in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and their influence on things like familial structures, art and social constructs, government, and events like the Crusades and the Medieval Holocaust, especially as they relate to present day. Finally, we will address effectively teaching cultural and intellectual developments in late medieval and Renaissance humanism, the arts, and science and technology, including the invention of the printing press.

JUN 27-JUL 01 | Literary Classics II: Seminar on English and American Classics

This class—like the first Literary Classics seminar offered last summer--will once again be team-taught by University of Utah English faculty, and is aimed at Utah high school English teachers. The seminar will focus on important literary texts frequently taught in high school English classes--to help educators become more knowledgeable about particular authors and texts they may be likely (or may wish) to teach, and to give them more knowledge and tools (and models) for teaching these topics in their own classes. Texts to be discussed this time around may include works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Twain, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Frost, Wilde, Joyce, and others.

JUL 11-15 | Place, Story, and History in Contemporary World Literature

This course will survey contemporary world literature, with particular emphasis on questions about the relationships between local place and global space. We will read recent fiction from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and ask about the various ways local traditions respond to the pressures of globalization. How have writers used fiction to examine social and historical conflicts, challenge official histories, and recover forgotten voices and neglected traditions? And how have writers used traditional narrative resources to stretch the possibilities of the novel and the short story? In many of these works, local answers to global historical pressures involve reviving traditional aesthetic practices, and we will approach our materials as both social documents and works of art. We will also explore ways of bringing formal and aesthetic questions to bear on discussions of social issues in the classroom.

JUL 18-22 | Teaching the Holocaust

This workshop will focus on varied pedagogical methods of teaching the Holocaust, with the aim of empowering educators to develop new approaches to the subject. Participants will become acquainted with innovative curricular methodologies used to highlight the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust, including connections to other genocides and sites of global trauma. Drawing on rich resources available through the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, we will explore ways to effectively use a range of materials (including multimedia sources as well as classic theoretical, historical, and literary texts) in diverse classroom settings.

JUL 26-29 | The Great Transition: America Becomes Modern, 1880-1930

This workshop will focus on the United States’ transition from a face-to-face agricultural and mercantile economy dominated by communal fears of scarcity to a corporate industrial economy dominated by bureaucratic processes and an ethic of individual and family consumerism. During this period the Populist and Progressive movements brought an end to the “weak state” era in national politics, in response to citizen demands for a regulatory federal government. The seminar’s enduring understanding is that developments during this period fundamentally transformed American public and private life.       

AUG 01-05 | Critical Issues in Urban Education

This workshop will provide an introduction to some of the most important problems and debates within Latin American history, society and culture in order to understand the changing demographics of the K-12 Latina/o population in Utah. This multi-disciplinary approach engages an array of materials including films, fiction/non-fiction books, photographs and art to understand migration and immigration patterns. It will guide participants in understanding systems of conquest and colonization in Latin America including active forms of resistance, decolonization, and transformation and how they translate into school structures and education. Topics of investigation and discussion includes: foundation to Multicultural Education Studies, Latin American Studies, Chicana/o Studies in Education, Critical, feminist, and Indigenous studies in education, Family, School, and Community Connections, and Discipline, Policing, and Education.

AUG 08-12 | Nature and Environment in Chinese Culture

As China faces a dire environmental crisis as the result of its rapid economic growth, more and more people in the world begin to pay attention to the human habitat around us. This seminar introduces the Chinese concept, attitude and official policies about nature from the antiquity to the present time. It will address the topic from the perspectives of philosophy, literature, policy, art, and media. All presenters are faculty from the University of Utah.

JUL 06-10 | Contemporary Rewritings and Adaptations of Classic Literature

This workshop offers participants the opportunity to explore the pedagogical advantages of teaching classic works of literature alongside contemporary rewritings and adaptations of those works. Participants will investigate the wide field of novels, films, plays, and graphic novels that engage with and rework canonical literary texts—from Homer and Shakespeare to Austen and Twain. The workshop will focus on ways teachers can use contemporary rewritings to excite students about the continued cultural relevance of the classics, and to provoke students to ask critical questions about them. We will ask why writers and readers continually return to these classics, how contemporary writers critique or pay homage to them from diverse perspectives, and we will develop a variety of classroom activities and assignments that mutually illuminate the classic and the contemporary response. The primary example for our discussion will be Homer's Odyssey, alongside Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad (1999), Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey (2007), and the Coen Brothers' O Brother Where Are Thou (2000).

JUL 27-31 | Contemporary China

This workshop will be presented by faculty from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. The five sessions will focus on Chinese literature, politics, geography, diplomacy and society. 

JUN 15-19 | The Environment in Film

This workshop offers an introduction to foundational topics in environmental humanities through an examination of environmental films. The course will introduce theories and concepts from philosophy, literature, science, and rhetoric that examine the relationship between humans, more-than-humans, and the natural world. Topics of investigation for the 2015 class will include bee colony collapse, genetics and the environment, the nature/culture divide, environmental social movements, food production, and animals. These theories and concepts will be examined through analysis of a series of documentary and feature films such as Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Trying to Tell Us, and Bidder 70. Participants will engage in critical discussion of a variety of questions such as: What is the relationship between nature and culture? Can humans and more-than-human animals engage in meaningful communication? What is the relationship between science and environmental issues? How does popular culture portray a variety of ways of thinking about the environment? What is the role of environmental social movements in creating change? The course will include guest lectures from professors affiliated with the Environmental Humanities MA Program at the University of Utah. The course is available for repeat credit. The course will feature new theories, films, and topics.  

JUN 22-26 | Children's Literature

As we immerse ourselves in the wonder of children's literature, we'll explore how it helps us reflect on our notions of children and childhood; how it enhances and strengthens learning and relationship in the classroom, and how it can help children connect their learning to meaningful parts of their lives. As our exploration opens new avenues for thought, we will grapple with intersecting questions of identity, culture, and history that arise in reading together. Bring your imagination and curiosity, critical eyes, and probing questions. We'll be looking for how this literature reaches us, and our opportunities and responsibilities to respond to it.

JUN 29-JUL 02 | The Cold War, the Military-Industrial-University Complex, and the American Middle Class

This workshop will focus on the interaction between foreign policy and the domestic economy in the expansion and maintenance of the largest and most prosperous middle class in American history, or between the 1944 G.I. Bill and the first Oil Crisis of 1973-4. The seminar's enduring understanding is that bipolar global confrontation with the Soviet Union reinforced a range of largely bipartisan "Cold War Liberal" domestic policies that worked to maximize employment and reduce income inequality during the 1950s and 1960s, certain other aspects of U.S. foreign policy, combined with an unrealistic expectation of indefinitely inexpensive energy, created a "pivot point" in the mid-1970s towards today's era of fierce international economic competition, lower real wages for "average Americans" and, combined with the subsequent triumph of free market/anti-government ideologies, rapid accelerating income inequality.

JUL 06-10 | Multicultural Education

Utah is a "new immigrant gateway," meaning that it has one of the fastest growing immigrant populations in the country. The vast majority of these immigrants come from Latin America, particularly Mexico. One result of this wave of migration is that Utah's classrooms are more multicultural than ever, presenting both challenges and opportunities for educators. This workshop will provide an introduction to the changing demographic population of K-12 students and provide participants with models and strategies for effectively teaching minority students that create classroom and school atmospheres that are accepting of diversity. Topics of investigation and discussion will include: the causes of migration and of settlement patterns in the United States; schools as key locations for integration and/or marginalization; challenges and opportunities diverse classrooms pose for students and teachers; culturally appropriate curriculum; deficit vs. asset perspectives on students and communities. The University of Utah's Latin American Studies Program is a proud sponsor of this workshop.

JUL 13-17 | Literary Texts: Seminar on English and American Classics

This class will be team-taught by University of Utah English faculty, and is aimed at Utah high school English teachers. The seminar will focus on important literary texts frequently taught in high school English classes--to help educators become more knowledgeable about particular authors and texts they may be likely (or may wish) to teach, and to give them more knowledge and tools (and models) for teaching these topics in their own classes. Texts to be discussed might include works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Dickinson, Twain, Conrad, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Joyce, and others.

JUN 16-20 | Reconstructing Utah's History

This workshop offers an introduction to key themes in Utah history centered on major events that brought new peoples to Utah. It will explore among other things, Native American migrations to the state, Spanish incursions, the arrival of Mormon refugees, the Utah War and the coming of the transcontinental railroad, Utah's "new immigrants," and the impact of WWII. It will offer pedagogical ideas as well as historical information and is designed to explore ways in which teachers can rethink and reconstruct Utah history to include an array of perspectives. In that regard, it will view Utah as a meeting and mixing ground of diverse peoples from a variety of religious, cultural ethnic, and racial backgrounds. We will seek to understand what brought these peoples together, what drove them apart, how they viewed each other, and what methods of accommodation compromise, and/or conquest animated their exchanges. What has living in Utah meant for each group and how has that meaning changed over time? The Utah State Office of Education is a proud sponsor of this workshop.

JUN 23-27 | The Civil War and Reconstruction

This course will focus on the Civil War and Reconstruction era of American history, beginning roughly with the Mexican War and concluding with the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Major themes will include the divergent paths of social, economic, and political development in the North and South prior to the War; slavery and abolitionism; the emerging sectional crisis; the emergence of the Republican Party and the rise of Lincoln; secession and the onset of war; Northern and Southern strategies for the conduct of the war; major campaigns and leaders; the experience of war; emancipation; Northern victory and the reconstruction of the South; and the long-term consequences and significance of the Civil War in American history and memory. The Utah State Office of Education is a proud sponsor of this workshop.

JUL 07-11 | The Environment in Film

This workshop offers an introduction to foundational topics in environmental humanities through an examination of environmental films. The course will introduce theories and concepts from philosophy, sociology, science, and rhetoric that examine the relationship between humans, more-than-humans, and the natural world. Topics of investigation for the 2014 class will include ocean pollution and marine species, genetics and the environment, environmental social movements, and food. These theories and concepts will be examined through analysis of a series of documentary and feature films such as The Cove, Rivers and Tides, Bidder 70, and Food, Inc. Participants will engage in critical discussion of a variety of questions such as: What is the relationship between nature and culture? Can humans and more-than-human animals engage in meaningful communication? What is the relationship between science and environmental issues? How does popular culture portray a variety of ways of thinking about the environment? The course will include guest lectures from professors affiliated with the Environmental Humanities MA Program at the University of Utah. This course is available for repeat credit and will feature theories, films, and topics not covered in previous years.

JUL 07-11 | William Shakespeare

This workshop will give participants an opportunity to examine three Shakespeare plays from multiple angles: The Merchant of Venice (comedy), Henry V (history), and King Lear (tragedy). In this course, we will pull these works apart to look at imagery, characterization, and structure, then put them together again to explore larger questions of interpretation. We will also consider various approaches to teaching these plays to students. Stage and film versions, and (to a lesser extent) scholarly responses, will be part of our purview.

JUL 14-18 | The Rise of the Dictators and World War II, 1924-1945

This workshop will focus on the historical circumstances that made Russian, Italian, and German civil society vulnerable to totalitarianism in the aftermath of the First World War, the nature of the global military conflict that destroyed two of those three regimes between 1939 and 1945, and the war efforts mounted by the Western Democracies: France, the United Kingdom and the United States. An enduring understanding for the workshop is that while during the mid-twentieth century the totalitarian powers were capable of great military efforts in the factory and on the battlefield, the U.S. and the U.K. were better able to mobilize their economic, human, and cultural resources for total war. The Utah State Office of Education is a proud sponsor of this workshop.

JUL 28-AUG 01 | Survey of Ancient Chinese Civilization

In partnership with the Confucius Institute at the University of Utah, this workshop will offer a broad survey of ancient Chinese civilization by examining texts from philosophy, history, literature, and art.

AUG 04-08 | Immigration and Education

Utah is a "new immigrant gateway," meaning that it has one of the fastest growing immigrant populations in the country. The vast majority of these immigrants come from Latin America, particularly Mexico. This workshop will provide an introduction to the immigrant population from Latin America and to related issues that affect local schools. Topics of investigation and discussion will include: the causes of migration and of settlement patterns in the United States; the diversity of Utah's immigrant population; the unintended consequences of immigration policies; schools as key locations for integration and/or marginalization; challenges and opportunities diverse classrooms pose for students and teachers; and integration as a two-way process. The University of Utah's Latin American Studies Program is a proud sponsor of this workshop.

Sponsored by Tanner Humanities Center, The Utah State Office of Education, The University of Utah Confucius Center,
The University of Utah Asia Center, The University of Utah Environmental Humanities Program

JUN 10-14 | Reconstructing Utah's History

An introduction to key themes in Utah history, including Native American migrations to the state, Spanish incursions, the arrival of Mormon refugees, the Utah War, and the impact of World War II.

JUN 24-28 | The Environment in Film

This workshop offers an introduction to foundational topics in environmental humanities through an examination of environmental films. The course introduces theories and concepts from history, literature, science, and rhetoric that examine the relationship between humans, more-than-humans, and the natural world.

JUL 15-19 | An Introduction to the Middle East

This workshop explores the nature of the Middle East as an elusive region with characteristics and boundaries upon which few agree. Major topics covered in the class include the physical character of the region, the main political issues confronting individual countries, the population dynamics and differences to be found in the area, and the critical nature of oil and water as regional resources.

JUL 29 - AUG 02 | Contemporary China

This workshop, team-taught by the faculty at the University of Utah and Utah State University, offers a broad and in-depth coverage of various aspects of contemporary Chinese society, including art, literature, film, politics, and social structure.

AUG 05-09 | Understanding Utah's Refugee Communities

This course provides an introduction to the refugee populations of Utah from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The topics covered include overviews of the refugee situation globally and here in Utah; political, cultural and social conditions in the countries of origin of new arriving communities; processes of migration; experiences of communities of refugee background after they arrive in Utah; and integration as a two-way process.

Sponsored by Tanner Humanities Center, The Utah State Office of Education, The University of Utah Confucius Center, 
The University of Utah Asia Center, The Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation, The University of Utah College of Humanities,
The University of Utah Enviromental Humanities Program, Aramco Services Company, Fred and Irene Tannenbaum, Jerry Ward, Jr.

JUN 11-15 | India through Different Eyes

India is a rising world power, but what is behind this Asian giant? This summer workshop examines India through different eyes: that of an economist, a literature and language scholar, and a historian.

JUN 11-15 | Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

In this course we will deal with a number of themes. These include: Western Civilization and the Jews, AntiSemitism and Racism, Adolf Hitler and the Rise of Nazism, The Nazi Police State, the Biomedical Vision, World War II and Genocide, the West and the Holocaust and Teaching the Holocaust.

JUN 18-22 | The Environment in Film

This workshop offers an introduction to foundational topics in environmental humanities through an examination of environmental films. The course will introduce theories and concepts from philosophy, history, literature, and rhetoric that examine the relationship between humans and the natural world such as the nature/culture divide, environmental ethics, toxicity, and human-animal communication.

JUN 25-29 | Children’s Literature

Studying children’s literature helps us reflect on our notions of children and childhood, enhances and strengthens learning and relationship in the classroom, and how it can help children connect their learning to meaningful parts of their lives.

JUL 16-20 | The Arab Spring: Roots and Repurcussions in the Middle East

This class, taught by three University of Utah Middle East professors, will provide a comprehensive overview of recent critical events in religious, political, social, and economic contexts. 

JUL 30 - AUG 03 | China Past and Present

An intensive introduction to the history and culture of China from ancient times to the present, exploring various aspects of Chinese ethics, politics, literature, society, and popular culture.

JUL 30 - AUG 03 | French and Francophone Studies in Society and Culture

A course designed to help teachers maintain their French language skills, become better acquainted with important aspects of French and Francophone literature, culture, and history, in addition to many other skills to serve the teachers in their classrooms.

AUG 06-10 | The German Short Story

Participants will read and discuss German, Austrian, and Swiss short stories that can be adapted to the classroom.

AUG 06-10 | A Retrospective Look at the Mexican and Cuban Revoluations

This language immersion workshop will examine the half-century literary and cultural legacies of the Mexican Revolution (1920-1970) and the Cuban Revolution (1959-2009), including their hemispheric impact upon education, civil society, and popular culture.

Sponsored by Tanner Humanities Center, The Utah State Office of Education, The University of Utah Confucius Center,
The Center for Applied Second Language Studies 

JUN 20-24 | The Civil War and Reconstruction

This workshop will focus on the Civil War and Reconstruction era of American history, beginning roughly with the Mexican War and concluding with the end of Reconstruction in 1877.

JUN 27 - JUL 01 | Looking Back on the Cold War: Foreign Relations, Domestic Politics and Popular Culture

This workshop examines the bipolar era of the Cold War, 1945-1991, from the perspective of the unipolar (or nonpolar) “post-9/11” present.

JUL 11-15 | Reconstructing Utah’s History

An introduction to key themes in Utah history, including Native American migrations to the state, Spanish incursions, the arrival of Mormon refugees, the Utah War, and the impact of World War II.

JUL 18-22 | China Past and Present

An intensive introduction to the history and culture of China from ancient times to the present, exploring various aspects of Chinese ethics, politics, literature, society, and popular culture.

JUL 26-29 | French and Francophone Studies in Society and Culture

A course designed to help teachers maintain their French language skills, become better acquainted with important aspects of French and Francophone literature, culture, and history, in addition to many other skills to serve the teachers in their classrooms.

AUG 01-05 | German Culture and Language through Film

This workshop will look at German culture and language through film. Instructors will introduce iconic German films, such as Metropolis, Triumph of the Will, and the German "Heimatfilme" of the 50s from the BRD and DDR.

AUG 01-05 | Spanish Language Immersion Workshop

This language immersion workshop, taught by expert professors of Latin American literatures, will explore a variety of cultural expressions from indigenous, Afro-Latino, and mestizo perspectives.

Sponsored by Tanner Humanities Center, The Utah State Office of Education, The University of Utah Confucius Center,
The Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation

JUN 07-11 | China Past and Present

An intenstive introduction to the history and culture of China from ancient times to the present, exploring various aspects of Chinese ethics, politics, literature, society, and popular culture.

JUN 14-17 | Reconstructing Utah’s History

An introduction to key themes in Utah history, including Native American migrations to the state, Spanish incursions, the arrival of Mormon refugees, the Utah War, and the impact of World War II.

JUN 21-25 | The Vietnam War

Drawing on new research from the past decade, teachers in this workshop will gain insight into the international context and ramifications of the war, in addition to tools on teaching this subject to their students.

JUN 28 - JUL 02 | The American Revolution

A workshop designed to help teachers think about the American Revolution in different ways to help them better understand the historical process, the fundamentals of events that form the foundation of the United States, and how the Revolution experience resonantes with contemporary events and issues.

JUL 12-16 | Children’s Literature

Studying children’s literature helps us reflect on our notions of children and childhood, enhances and strengthens learning and relationship in the classroom, and how it can help children connect their learning to meaningful parts of their lives.

JUL 26-30 | French and Francophone Studies in Society and Culture

A course designed to help teachers maintain their French language skills, become better acquainted with important aspects of French and Francophone literature, culture, and history, in addition to many other skills to serve the teachers in their classrooms.

JUL 26-30 | Empowering students today with lessons from history: Centennial of the Mexican Revolution

A three-day workshop exploring the ways Mexican history can empower studetns of allbackgrounds in Utah classrooms.

AUG 02-06 | Exploring German Literature and Culture: Austria

Participants will learn about Austrian literature, history, contemporary life, politics, and culture.  Participants will develop course materials to use in their classrooms.

AUG 02-06 | Utopias and Dystopias in the Spanish-Speaking World: Twentieth Century through the Present

A language immersion workshop acquainting teachers with the frameworks of utopia and dystopia to study representations of society in Spanish and Latin American literature and culture.