Past Institutes

America in the 1860s

In June 2014, Humanities Texas held  institutes in San Antonio and Denton examining significant events and themes in American history of the 1860s.

Curriculum

The San Antonio and Denton institutes covered topics central to the state’s eighth-grade social studies curriculum. Faculty lectures and workshops addressed the causes, events, and legacy of the Civil War; Abraham Lincoln’s administration; suffragists and abolitionists; women in the South; the Transcontinental Railroad; Andrew Johnson’s administration; Reconstruction; art in the Civil War era; and American writing on the Civil War.

Ninety-nine teachers attended the institutes. As in past years, the institutes emphasized close interaction with scholars, the examination of primary sources, and the development of effective pedagogical strategies and engaging assignments and activities. The programs were designed ultimately to enhance teachers' mastery of the subjects they teach and to improve students' performance on state assessments. Content was aligned with the secondary social studies TEKS. Teachers received books and other instructional materials.

Faculty

The San Antonio institute keynote lecture was delivered by Richard White, Pulitzer Prize-nominated Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University. The faculty also featured lectures and workshops led by Daina Berry (The University of Texas at Austin), Daniel Feller (University of Tennessee), Patrick Kelly (UTSA), Jennifer Weber (University of Kansas), Robert Wooster (Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi), Kirsten Gardner (UTSA), Randall Fuller (University of Tulsa), George Forgie (UT Austin), Michael Les Benedict (The Ohio State University), Joseph Glatthaar (University of North Carolina), and Stacy Fuller (Amon Carter Museum of American Art).

The Denton institute keynote lecture was delivered by Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian emeritus of the University of California, Los Angeles. The faculty also featured lectures and workshops led by Andrew Torget (UNT), Daniel Feller (University of Tennessee), Kenneth Winkle (University of Nebraska), Ron Tyler, Steve Woodworth (Texas Christian University), Jennifer Weber (University of Kansas), Robert Wooster (Texas A&M, Corpus Christi), Angela Boswell (Henderson State University), Albert S. Broussard (Texas A&M University), Ian Finseth (UNT), Richard McCaslin (UNT), Michael Les Benedict (The Ohio State University), and Maury Klein (University of Rhode Island).

Educational specialists from the Amon Carter Museum of Art, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, the Institute of Texan Cultures, and the Portal to Texas History also served on the institutes’ faculty, providing participants with facsimiles of historic documents and works of art that support the teaching of U.S. history.

Location and schedules

Sponsors

Program co-sponsors included The University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of North Texas. These workshops were made possible with major funding from the State of Texas and ongoing support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.