Articles

This fall, Humanities Texas will hold professional development workshops throughout the state for Texas social studies and language arts teachers.

Pivotal U.S. Elections, 1800–1876

On September 27, 2018, Humanities Texas will hold a one-day workshop in Houston on pivotal U.S. presidential elections from the early republic through Reconstruction. The workshop will cover the presidential elections of 1800, 1824, 1828, 1860, and 1876. Topics to be addressed include the development of political parties, the rise of Jacksonian democracy, the events precipitating secession, and the contested election that led to the end of Reconstruction. Workshop faculty includes John B. Boles (Rice University), Daniel Feller (The University of Tennessee), Jennifer L. Weber (The University of Kansas), and Michael Les Benedict (The Ohio State University).

The American Revolution

Workshops on teaching the American Revolution will take place in Harlingen (October 3) and Corpus Christi (October 4). Topics to be addressed include the colonies' growing separation from Britain, the Declaration of Independence, turning points of the Revolutionary War, and women and the Revolution. Workshop faculty includes Zara Anishanslin (University of Delaware), Denver Brunsman (George Washington University), Woody Holton (University of South Carolina), and Bill Meier (Texas Christian University).

Pivotal U.S. Elections, 1896–1948

On October 16, 2018, Humanities Texas will hold a one-day workshop in San Antonio on pivotal U.S. presidential elections from the beginning of the Progressive Era to post-war America. The workshop will cover the presidential elections of 1896, 1912, 1932, and 1948. Topics to be addressed include the advent of the Progressive Era, the impact of third parties, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and post-war America. Workshop faculty includes Karl Rove (former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush), David Crockett (Trinity University), George C. Edwards III (Texas A&M University), and Jeffrey A. Engel (Southern Methodist University).

Pivotal U.S. Elections, 1960–2000

On October 25, 2018, Humanities Texas will hold a one-day workshop in Austin on pivotal U.S. presidential elections in the second half of the twentieth century. The workshop will cover the elections of 1960, 1968, 1980, and 2000. Topics to be addressed include politics, parties, and realignments from 1960 to 2000, the rise of the Reagan Coalition, and the impact of technology on American politics. Workshop faculty includes David M. Oshinsky (New York University), Kyle Longley (LBJ Presidential Library), Heather Cox Richardson (Boston College), and George C. Edwards III (Texas A&M University).

Teaching the U.S. Constitution

Workshops on teaching the U.S. Constitution will take place in Galveston (October 31) and Houston (November 1). Topics to be addressed include the Articles of Confederation, compromises made in adopting the Constitution, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debates on the Constitution's ratification, and the Bill of Rights. Workshop faculty includes Denver Brunsman (George Washington University), Woody Holton (University of South Carolina), Joseph F. Kobylka (Southern Methodist University), and Kelly Hopkins (University of Houston).

Teaching and Understanding Poetry

On November 8, 2018, Humanities Texas will hold a one-day workshop in El Paso introducing strategies for teaching and understanding poetry that secondary-level language arts teachers can use with students. Workshop faculty includes Adriane Bezusko (Texas Christian University), Emmy Pérez (The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), and Joseph M. Ortiz and Brian Yothers of The University of Texas at El Paso.

Nineteenth-Century Texas

On November 15, 2018, Humanities Texas will hold a one-day workshop in Fort Worth on nineteenth-century Texas history. Topics to be addressed include Texas and the revolutions, the Apaches and the Comanches, Texas from the Republic to the Confederacy, and Texans in the Civil War. Workshop faculty includes Juliana Barr (Duke University), Caroline Castillo Crimm (Sam Houston State University), Andrew Torget (University of North Texas), and Susannah J. Ural (The University of Southern Mississippi).

American Literature of the 1920s

On December 13, 2018, Humanities Texas will hold a one-day workshop in Dallas on American literature of the 1920s. The workshop will provide an overview of major historical developments and cultural movements of the 1920s, including Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. Lectures and seminars will focus on works by writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston. Workshop faculty includes Adriane Bezusko (Texas Christian University), J. Gerald Kennedy (Louisiana State University), and James H. Cox and Jennifer Wilks of The University of Texas at Austin.

Teachers at all workshops will receive books and other instructional materials and be trained in the examination and interpretation of primary sources. Content at all of our fall workshops will be aligned with the TEKS. For details on eligibility, substitute and travel reimbursements, and venues or to apply online, visit the Upcoming Institutes page on the Humanities Texas website.

Dividing the National Map. Cincinnati, 1860. Political cartoon satirizing the U.S. presidential election of 1860 in which four candidates vie for the office. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, 1851. Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon answer questions on the podium during the second in a series of debates between the two men. Frank McGee (center) of NBC News was moderator for this session. Washington, DC, October 7, 1960. United States Information Agency, UPI/WAP-100713.
Joseph F. Kobylka, associate professor of history at Southern Methodist University, leads an afternoon seminar at the "America in the 1920s and 1930s" teacher institute in June 2018.

Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston, ca. late 1930s. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.