Georgia Historical Society Welcomes 66 Educators to Savannah During NEH Summer Programs for College Faculty

This summer, the Georgia Historical Society (GHS) will welcome 66 educators from across the United States to Savannah as they participate in two distinct scholarly programs that promote the study and exploration of American history in the region.

From June 6–July 2, 2010, GHS will host a four-week National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funded summer seminar entitled, “The American Civil War at 150: New Approaches.” Sixteen participants (14 college faculty and two graduate students) hailing from 14 states will join GHS in the in-depth, scholarly exploration of the reasons behind, the players within, and the consequences of the American Civil War. The rigorous seminar will feature lectures and discussions with leading scholars in the field, readings, directed research in primary source documents, and selected site visits that will span the causes of the war, the choosing of sides, slavery and emancipation, and the war as it is remembered in our collective history and memory.

Following the Summer Seminar, an additional 50 educators will descend upon Savannah from 23 states to participate in the NEH funded workshops for community college faculty entitled, “African-American History and Culture in the Georgia Lowcountry: Savannah and the Coastal Islands, 1750–1950.”  Two week-long workshop sessions have been planned for July 11–17, 2010 and July 18–24, 2010; each session will be attended by 25 community college faculty members currently teaching humanities courses at institutions throughout the country. Workshop participants will explore the broad themes of race and slavery in American history by focusing on site-specific experiences of communities in and around Savannah from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries. The workshop will include lecture sessions by nationally recognized experts on African-American folklife, culture, and religion and slavery in the American South; guided tours of the streets, squares, and structures of Savannah’s Historic Landmark District; and site visits to Ossabaw and Sapelo Islands.

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NEH Awards Grant to Mercer for Intensive Course on Southern History for Teachers

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Mercer University $215,000 for an institute for high school teachers in summer 2010. The institute will be a five-week course on Southern history, titled “Cotton Culture in the South from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement,” and will be open to 22 high school teachers from across the country.

The institute begins in July 2010 and will be directed by Dr. Sarah E. Gardner, associate professor and chair of history and director of Mercer’s Southern Studies Program. Dr. Douglas Thompson, associate professor of interdisciplinary studies and Southern studies, and Dr. David A. Davis, assistant professor of English, will serve as the institute’s faculty. The institute will also include a number of guest faculty who are experts in Southern history and culture.

“The institute will create an engaged learning community of high school teachers, Mercer faculty and visiting experts who will share ideas about an extremely complex and often poorly understood aspect of Southern history and culture,” Dr. Davis said.

The NEH announced the grant last week as part of its Institutes for School Teachers program. The project was also selected for recognition as part of the NEH’s “We the People” Initiative, which funds programs “designed to encourage and enhance the teaching, study and understanding of American history, culture and democratic principles.”

“It was extremely rewarding to earn this grant with our first submission. Dr. Davis and Dr. Thompson did a wonderful job to create a curriculum that not only met the institute standards, but also earned recognition as a ‘We the People’ project,” Dr. Gardner said. “The NEH sees its ‘We the People’ initiative as a leader in ‘bringing about a renaissance in knowledge about American history and principles among all our citizens,’ so its recognition of our summer institute as playing a vital role in that mission is quite an honor.”

Dr. Thompson said that Mercer has long been a leading program for Southern studies at the undergraduate level, and bringing high school teachers to campus to experience the rigors of the program will be an excellent showcase for the program.

“This NEH grant will provide us a way to reach out to teachers to provide quality continuing education in the areas of history and literature and to highlight what Southern studies at Mercer has to offer their high school students,” Dr. Thompson said.

The institute is a natural for Mercer because of its history with Southern studies and because of Macon’s history, said Dr. Davis.

“The teachers participating in the institute will study the South’s history and culture during the crucial hundred years between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement through the lens of cotton, and they will see the connections between history, economics, labor, literature, religion and art,” Dr. Davis said. “We hope the institute will enhance the way high school teachers understand and explain Southern history and culture to their students, who will then better understand the complicated legacy of the cotton economy.”

The NEH grant is part of its Landmarks of American History and Culture: Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers, which supports national faculty development programs in the humanities for school teachers. The seminars and institutes range from two to six weeks each and focus on significant humanities topics, texts and issues.

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Claxton Memorial Scholarship Established at University of West Georgia

The University of West Georgia is privileged to announce the establishment of the Robert Ray and Bula Adams Claxton Memorial Scholarship. Dr. Robert H. Claxton, professor emeritus of history at UWG, created the scholarship to honor his parents, Robert Ray and Bula Adams Claxton.

“Neither of my parents finished high school. Like many at that time, college was not really an option for them,” said Claxton. “I think they would be pleased that something was being done for education in their names.”

The memorial scholarship will be awarded to a student majoring in history at UWG. A committee of faculty in the Department of History will annually select the recipient.

Robert Ray Claxton was born in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1891. During his lifetime, Claxton witnessed many historical events, including the swearing in of President Theodore Roosevelt after the assassination of William McKinley.

Bula Adams Claxton was born in Porterville, N.Y. in 1900. Her education included attending the Marilla District No. 7 School and East Aurora High School. She later became the Porterville postmaster serving for nearly 20 years.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of my graduating from high school and the 50th year of UWG granting history degrees,” said Claxton. “Now seems like a good time to think about the past and who helped get us here. Knowing where we come from helps prepare us for the future and what we can do to help future generations.”

For more information on this scholarship, call 678-839-6582.

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Center for Economic Education Hosts Workshops for Teachers

The Berry College Center for Economic Education will close out its 2008-09 workshop schedule Feb. 10, 11 and 12 with a trio of offerings for area teachers.

On Feb. 10, the center will host “Georgia Economic History,” a one-day workshop for eighth-grade Georgia studies teachers. This award-winning program brings together an array of resources to help teachers lead their students in a study of their own local economic history. Teachers get hands-on experience with the tools of the historian and learn how to work with local history groups.

The Feb. 11 workshop, “Personal Finance,” focuses on how teachers in grades 6-12 can “coach” their students in the new personal finance curriculum, thus helping them to become skilled consumers, savers and investors.

The schedule concludes Feb. 12 with “Elementary School Economics, K-2.” This workshop focuses on basic economics content with a focus on learning the economics concepts found in the Georgia Performance Standards.

Teachers interested in attending these workshops should contact Dr. Leslie Marlow at lmarlow@berry.edu or 706-238-7889. Online registration is available at www.gcee.org/workshops/register_for_workshops.asp. Additional information about the center and its offerings can be found at www.berry.edu/academics/education/econed.

Established in 1974 under the leadership of Dr. Ouida Word Dickey, the Center for Economic Education is in its first year operating under the umbrella of Berry’s Charter School of Education and Human Sciences. Its goal is to provide teachers with a supportive network, access to professional training and curriculum materials. Area school administrators are welcome to contact the center staff to arrange special topic workshops and courses.

“We are delighted to have the Center for Economic Education housed in the Charter School,” said Dr. Jacqueline McDowell, Charter School dean. “I personally welcome every workshop participant and encourage them to send us high school students from their school districts who want to be teachers. The center helps us to recruit, prepare and inspire teachers to teach economics.”


Prepared by student writer Leigh Harris.

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Georgia Southern University Students Spend Winter Break Serving Community

Sixteen Georgia Southern University students will spend the first days of their winter break revitalizing historical sites in Liberty County.

The Winter Break Service-Learning Trip is an opportunity for students to give of themselves during this holiday season. Students will work at five sites this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday doing light construction and maintenance while learning about the historical significance of each location. The students will serve at the following Liberty County locations:

Geechee Kunda Cultural Center: This is a museum created to preserve an African-based culture that still exists in coastal Georgia.
Dorchester Academy: The academy was once a school for freed slaves and a retreat for Martin Luther King, Jr. It now serves as an African-American history museum.
Fort Morris: This American Revolutionary fort now serves as a museum.
Seabrook Village: This living history museum provides re-enactments of post-Civil War life in coastal Georgia.
LeConte-Woodmanston Botanical Garden: This nature preserve was founded by the LeConte family.

This trip is sponsored by Georgia Southern University’s Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement which provides students opportunities to volunteer and serve the community in a variety of ways.

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MCG School of Allied Health Sciences Video Receives Telly Award

A video celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Medical College of Georgia School of Allied Health Sciences has earned MCG videographer Tim Johnson a Bronze Telly Award.

Mr. Johnson directed, edited, co-produced and served as videographer of Remembering 40 Years of Excellence, which debuted during MCG Homecoming in April. Dean Shelley C. Mishoe was executive producer, Dr. W. Kent Guion, associate dean for student, faculty and community affairs, producer and Grace Miller, the school's director of advancement, co-producer.

The video features historical footage and photographs and interviews with the school's founding dean, the late Raymond Bard, via archival footage, Dean Emeritus Biagio Vericella and Dean Mishoe. MCG President Daniel W. Rahn and Provost Barry D. Goldstein also are featured.

The Telly Awards honor video and film productions and local, regional and cable commercials and programs and are considered premier awards for the industry. This year's 29th annual competition received 13,500 entries from all 50 states and across the world. Entries don't compete against each other, but against a high standard of excellence, with only 18 to 25 percent of entrants receiving a Bronze Telly Award for outstanding achievement.

Mr. Johnson earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Augusta College (now Augusta State University). He has worked for production houses in California, Augusta and Aiken, S.C., and spent 10 years in cable television as a video producer and freelancer before coming to MCG's Department of Visual and Instructional Design in 2004.

He has garnered five national awards at MCG, including two Telly Awards for other School of Allied Health Sciences videos: a 2005 Silver Telly, the highest honor, for To Teach, Discover and Care, and a 2007 Bronze Telly for If Given the Opportunity. He received the Health and Science Communications Association’s Silver Award and the Admissions Advertising Award for his video, A Closer Look: MCG Admissions. In Augusta's Southern Fried Flicks Film Festival, he received the 2005 award for Best Short Feature and the 2006 award for Best Local Feature.