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Throughout 2024, Humanities Texas is celebrating twenty years of conducting statewide teacher professional development programs. Over the last two decades, we have provided educators across Texas with opportunities to study with leading humanities scholars and gain effective classroom strategies and resources. Free to teachers and their schools, our workshops and institutes explore topics at the heart of the state's humanities curricula in U.S. history and government, Texas history, language arts, and media literacy. To date, Humanities Texas has served 7,178 teachers, 2,376 schools, and over 375,000 students with our professional development programs.
In honor of this milestone anniversary—and before our summer 2024 teacher programs begin—we are pleased to share the following reflections from faculty who have participated in these programs over the past twenty years.
Charles Flanagan, outreach supervisor, Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives
Although I am not a Texan, I have great respect for the enrichment Humanities Texas brings to the people of its home state. Since 2004, I have been associated with their educational outreach programs, and I have had the opportunity to speak with teachers in a host of communities from East Texas to El Paso and from Wichita Falls to Laredo. In each of these far-flung visits, I have witnessed the uniformly excellent work this organization does on behalf of all Texans.
In 2004, I had the honor to attend the "Institute on Congress and American History" that launched the current Humanities Texas teacher professional development program. That institute was a gathering of luminaries unlikely to be matched, featuring the men and women who shaped the Johnson administration's civil rights achievements. I recall being totally engrossed listening to a panel that included Bess Abell and Liz Carpenter discussing arranging a train trip across the South promoting civil rights in a time of tense national uncertainty. I recall the respect I felt for the eloquent insights that former Congressman John Brademas offered in several discussions of national issues. Most of all, I recall the admiration I saw in the eyes of Texas teachers when Lady Bird Johnson visited the group.
I was starstruck and loving every minute of the institute, but I was also uneasy, because I did not have a clear notion of how I could best contribute. This anxiety came to a head when Dr. William Livingston approached me at a meal and asked, "So, Flanagan, what's your role in this outfit?" He was not a man to bluff, so I simply told him that I was there to work with teachers but that I had not yet figured out how best to support them.
Fortunately, I kept in touch with Humanities Texas and an experience at a 2010 workshop brought my work with the organization into sharp focus. In 2009, I had joined the staff of the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives. In the spring of 2010, Humanities Texas invited me to present on teaching the Constitution at a workshop held at Texas Christian University. A few minutes into my presentation about an online lesson I had developed, a woman stood up at her seat in the back of the hall and exclaimed, "Finally, something I can use in my classroom!" I was taken aback, but in a good way. I had found my place.
Though the occasion never arose, I was ready with an answer for Dr. Livingston should he again pose the same question: my role in the outfit was to present a lesson today that a teacher could teach with tomorrow.
Later that year, I was invited to meet with the leadership of Humanities Texas in Austin to plan a program of U.S. history workshops they were designing for teachers. While there, I heard Eric Lupfer describe a program design that has become an essential element in the success of the Humanities Texas outreach program. Eric suggested that the workshop day be divided between brief presentations by scholars followed by a series of small group discussions, led by the scholars, about primary source documents suitable for teaching various topics. I was skeptical when I first heard this plan, but I became a believer as soon as I saw it put into practice.
Since that 2010 planning session, I have presented at over sixty Humanities Texas teacher institutes on a wide range of topics at venues all over the state. Despite the plurality of topics and locations, my contribution has been singular: I have focused on the practical challenge of engaging kids in civic life. I have presented lessons, educational materials, eBooks, and apps we have devised at the Center for Legislative Archives that empower teachers with "kid-friendly" approaches to promoting hands-on learning about the charters, institutions, and processes that Americans use to sustain government by the people.
During my years of presenting with Humanities Texas, I have met hundreds of teachers who have earned my respect and admiration for their dedication and professionalism. Having the opportunity to support their work has enriched my life both personally and professionally.
In my fifteen years at the National Archives, in which I have presented professional development programs to teachers across the nation, I have not encountered another state-wide organization that rivals Humanities Texas in the ways it interacts with and encourages teachers. From novice educators to experts, their programs engage and inspire teachers in every part of the state. They provide the support that educators across Texas need to stay professionally informed and culturally engaged. By feeding the intellect and enriching the practice of teachers, Humanities Texas invests in the future of students, the state, and America.
I have been privileged to make a small contribution to their enormous achievement.
Monica Perales, associate vice provost, Institute of Texan Cultures at The University of Texas at San Antonio
I participated in my first Humanities Texas teacher program in 2006 and have gladly returned again and again over the years. It is always a privilege to work closely with teachers from across the state who are passionate about what they do. The structure of the programs—including time for deep discussion about primary documents—is what truly sets Humanities Texas apart. These hands-on sessions always generate meaningful conversation about the craft of teaching, the needs of today's students, and the power of the humanities in our classrooms and communities.
Mark Atwood Lawrence, director, LBJ Presidential Library
Humanities Texas does an incredible job promoting the study of history and related disciplines at a time when teachers face mounting obstacles. Their programs bring K–12 teachers into contact with eminent scholars conducting cutting edge research, enabling both groups to learn from each other. The effect is not only to raise the level of discussion in classrooms across the state but also to foster a sense of community among educators working at various levels. Through participation in Humanities Texas workshops, I've gained a much deeper appreciation of the challenges confronting our remarkable teachers and renewed appreciation for the great work that they are doing.
Jesús F. de la Teja, former Texas State Historian and retired professor of history, Texas State University
I have been privileged to work as an instructor and a director for Humanities Texas workshops and institutes. They have been among the most rewarding experiences of my career. In bringing Humanities Texas to the Texas State University campus in 2014 and 2016 for institutes on the literature and history of the American Southwest while I was director of the Center for the Study of the Southwest, I was able to help Humanities Texas put on very successful institutes. The two programs brought an awareness of Humanities Texas to the campus and showcased the university to participants. Teachers need to be aware of what our regional universities, like Texas State, have to offer their students, and I was pleased that I helped work out arrangements that highlighted our faculty and facilities.
Texas is becoming an increasingly diverse place, and Humanities Texas can help its citizens better understand that diversity and its importance to a healthy society. I especially appreciate Humanities Texas's commitment to helping teachers understand a fuller history of the state and nation, giving them the resources to communicate that history to their students. Explaining the roles of the various cultures and ethnicities that contribute to Texas and American society requires more than just making sure that names, places, and events listed in the curriculum standards are mentioned in class. Humanities Texas makes a difference by bringing together scholars who have spent their careers studying those histories and giving teachers an opportunity to benefit from those wells of knowledge.
Over the years, I have participated as faculty in a handful of workshops and institutes. I have been gratified that my presentations on the Spanish colonial experience, Mexican Texas, and the place of Tejanos in the emergence of modern Texas have been well received. I have taken particular pleasure in sharing my understanding of the role of Hispanic Texans in the state's history because it is so often misunderstood and/or underappreciated. I have emphasized that the concept of "frontier" is not just a story of the United States's westward expansion. In my presentations for Humanities Texas, I have underscored that there was a Hispanic frontier that moved northward from the interior of Mexico, and I have focused on the role that Texas played in that process, including interactions with Native peoples and the development of local society. It has been rewarding for me to help teachers understand those processes and the people behind them and share my understanding of the need to emphasize that earlier history in the story of modern Texas.
Char Miller, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History, Pomona College
We got lost together. But that was a good thing. In fact, it was one of the goals of my session at the Humanities Texas-sponsored teacher workshop on the history of the American Southwest held at Texas State University in late June 2016. Getting disoriented was not in the title of my presentation—quite the reverse: "Early San Antonio: Mapping its Contested Past" implied that the cartographical and illustrative primary sources we would work with would be trusty guides to the city's complex history. That’s not what happened, at least not initially. As I handed out the packet of materials, these smart history teachers immediately starting poring over the documents, turning the pages in various directions as if to locate themselves in relation to the streets or landscapes depicted. They looked confused, much as I had been when first I came across some of these artifacts. My subsequent realization, which I hoped would be theirs—and by extension their students's—was that confusion is fertile.
That's when the session took off. In small groups and large, we studied the individual images, noted their principle features, and looked for anything that struck us as puzzling. We spent a long time with Antonio Menchaca's 1764 map of San Antonio de Béxar—its wide-angle perspective and then a zoomed-in view of the local streetscape—trying to figure out what Spanish planners had in mind when they designed the small frontier settlement. Even as we teased out the plaza-based framing of the eighteenth-century urban grid, those participants who had read ahead did what good historians do; they contextualized our conversation by drawing their colleagues's attention to the 1852 Plat of the City Tract as Surveyed and Divided. Two things struck them: the terms embedded in the map's title and the manifestation of a new kind of land ownership that surveyors had extended geometrically from the older urban core that the Spanish had devised more than a century earlier. It wasn't until we reached the final map—Augustus Koch's 1889 depiction of post-railroad San Antonio—that we began to see a more modern, maybe even more comforting because less confounding, cityscape. A place like our place.
Had we left it there, the seminar would have been engrossing. But what proved more compelling still was the literal subtexts to each image in the handout. The most immediately legible were the detailed captions that added depth and significance to the individual texts. Stripped below these were a series of numbers and letters that might appear to the casual observer to be almost hieroglyphic, unintelligible. Such as these characters beneath the 1889 map: 7.1.A, 7.1.C, 7.2.C, 7.2.F, 7.8.A, 7.8.B, 7.9.C, 7.10.A, 7.19.C, 7.21.C, 8.29.C, 8.29.H, 29.H, 30.A, 30.B. Yet the teachers were not confused. They knew that these referred to the relevant state standards for social studies and identified each item's pedagogical significance and how it, or one like it from their community, might be used in lesson planning. With this code, they found themselves on common and solid ground.
Jim Furgeson, Outstanding Teaching Award winner and field supervisor, The University of Texas at Austin
With the advent of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), social studies in-service training at the district and school levels focused increasingly on pedagogy and data assessment. While those were and are important components of effective social studies instruction, for me, another critical component was neglected. That component was a sophisticated understanding of content. It was my experience from thirty-seven years in the classroom that students learned best when they learned something meaningful. I traveled extensively to attend such staff development. About two decades ago, I found that content-rich staff development was available nearby. Humanities Texas provided it.
Each Humanities Texas teacher program focused on a topic critical to the understanding of teaching the humanities. Scholars presented and then met with teachers in small groups to further illuminate teacher understanding of the content. This process modeled for teachers how they might engage their own students in a content-rich environment. Additionally, Humanities Texas provided both the primary and secondary sources essential to support that content understanding.
As if this staff development was not amazing enough, Humanities Texas treated teachers like they were the truly important professionals that indeed they were. With that learning and respect, teachers left Humanities Texas staff development re-energized to engage their students with the content essential to their understanding of the complexities of the society in which they lived.
Coleman Hutchison, associate professor of English, The University of Texas at Austin
Before getting waylaid by a PhD program in English, I was trained to be a high school teacher. Humanities Texas's teacher programs have provided an invaluable opportunity to stay engaged with secondary school educators.
Having taken part in nearly three dozen Humanities Texas educational events over the past twelve years, I have seen first-hand the value of these programs to our state and the humanities more broadly. First, these programs help to bridge the (largely unnecessary) gap between K–12 and higher education. College professors and secondary school teachers just don't have many opportunities to connect and collaborate. Humanities Texas creates an uncommon professional space in which those groups can make common cause.
Another key value of these programs is the opportunity for teachers to reconnect with their fields of expertise and rekindle their love of learning. Workshop participants often comment that they feel as though they are being taken seriously as both professionals and intellectuals. Two of my favorite teacher comments bear this out: "I feel like I'm back in college!" and "These programs feed my teacher soul!" This is an especially challenging time to be a Texas teacher. Anything we can do to support and encourage educators is well worth the modest investment of federal, state, and private funds.
Finally, Humanities Texas teacher programs have also had a significant impact on my own teaching. Since many of my students go on to teach at the secondary school level, my time with Texas teachers produces a helpful feedback loop. I have also been able to share teaching tools developed at UT Austin with Texas teachers. Their feedback, in turn, has proven immensely helpful as we have refined those tools.
It's not too much to say that working on these programs has been a highlight of my twenty-plus-year career. I look forward to working with Humanities Texas and Texas teachers for many years to come.
Lorri Glover, John Francis Bannon Endowed Chair, department of history, Saint Louis University
I have always admired the vision and achievements of Humanities Texas teacher institutes. I continue to participate whenever asked because the work is so thoughtfully planned by Humanities Texas and edifying for everyone. To witness the commitment of Texas teachers to advance their knowledge and skills to be the best they can in their classrooms is such an inspiration. It's been an honor to work with the Humanities Texas team and such dedicated Texas teachers!
Robert Levine, Distinguished University Professor, department of English, University of Maryland
I am committed to public-facing humanities and the importance of getting knowledge in a clear fashion to secondary school teachers so they can offer the best possible education to their students. I chose to take part in Humanities Texas's teacher workshops because it is a unique program in a large state. I wanted to make an impact as an educator, and I think I did. The obvious value of all of this is to give teachers information and, crucially, pedagogical assistance on how to approach the humanities in their classrooms. I believe this program helps secondary school teachers remain up-to-date and cutting-edge in relation to developments in literary and historical studies. As someone who is not located in Texas, I can't speak to humanities education statewide except to say that Humanities Texas seems distinctively excellent and a wonderful thing for Texas teachers. It was meaningful for me to get in-the-trenches responses from high school teachers and to sense that I was helping them think through humanities education, too. I have to say that I was impressed by the incredible dedication of the high school teachers I met, both in-person and virtually. The staff at Humanities Texas is excellent, too. They really know what they are doing.
Sean P. Cunningham, professor of history and associate dean of administrative affairs, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University
My involvement with Humanities Texas for the past decade has been a highlight of my career, and no part of that involvement has been more meaningful than the teacher institutes and workshops I've attended. Engaging with educators who sincerely want to make a difference in kids' lives . . . there's nothing like it. I'm so thankful for the work of Humanities Texas and am honored beyond belief to play a small role in what they do to reward our underappreciated teachers and help schoolchildren learn.
Jennifer L. Weber, associate professor of history, United States Air Force Academy
It's such a privilege to work with the people who teach our children. I get the almost-finished products in my classroom, but it's the K–12 teachers who really shape them. This is why I've said yes every time Humanities Texas has asked me to participate in a teacher program. It's that important to me and to the young people of Texas.
Humanities Texas's role in staging these programs is, as far as I know, nearly unique. From everything I've heard from teachers, these seminars and workshops are invaluable for them. We give them the tools to teach difficult topics or to boil down huge amounts of information into a one-period lecture. Moreover, what we do with Humanities Texas energizes teachers and reminds them what we all love about teaching.
Sarah Ruffing Robbins, Lorraine Sherley Professor of Literature, department of English, Texas Christian University
Humanities Texas is a beacon, providing a wide range of learning opportunities for educators at all levels. Scholars who contribute to programming through Humanities Texas are guaranteed to learn as well as teach, since the vision and practices of program delivery envision and enable collaborative approaches to knowledge-making. All of us who live and work in Texas should honor and support this vital work, especially its combination of celebrating and supporting teachers as cultural leaders.
Ben Wright, associate professor of history, The University of Texas at Dallas
Humanities Texas brings together leading scholars who can share cutting-edge scholarship in ways that are clear and compelling. There's no better way for teachers to stay on top of exciting new humanities research than attending a Humanities Texas program. Thousands of teachers and millions of students have benefitted from this precious organization. Texas teachers are heroes, and anything we can do to help them is a privilege and a joy.
Zara Anishanslin, associate professor of history, University of Delaware
I always say that Humanities Texas is THE model other public-facing humanities organizations should follow. Its programs are innovative, thorough, and constantly upgraded by its fantastic staff to serve the evolving needs of Texas teachers. I've participated in Humanities Texas programs for several years now, and every year I think it can't get any better. Yet each time I work with the staff and teachers, I walk away more impressed and more inspired than the year before, and I get the impression the teachers feel the same. Working with Humanities Texas and the teachers it supports reminds me why I wanted to go into higher education and further the humanities in the first place. Thousands of students in Texas have better humanities education because their amazing teachers went to Humanities Texas programs. In a time when the arts and humanities are facing budget cuts and existential attack, non-partisan organizations like Humanities Texas are doing work that is beyond important—it is critical. I am honored that I've been part of their work and can't wait to see what great things they do with the next twenty years!
Brian Yothers, professor of English, Saint Louis University
I participated in Humanities Texas teacher programs because I think that contributing to the professional development of teachers is a central part of the work that I do as a professor of American literature. I was struck by the excitement that the teachers showed at having the opportunity to expand their subject area knowledge in the American literary tradition. Both my conversations with teachers and those that I saw and heard my colleagues having were lively and engaged. I especially valued the fact that university faculty and secondary educators were meeting together as colleagues engaged in the same mission: providing the best possible humanities education in the state of Texas, at all levels. My sense from the teachers with whom I worked was that each of the institutes that I participated in contributed to improving the curriculum in the state of Texas through the efforts of the individual university faculty and secondary teachers and also through their collective sharing of ideas. The Humanities Texas teacher professional development program is a treasure!
W. Marvin Dulaney, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History
As a professor who teaches African American history specifically on Dallas and Texas, I chose to participate in Humanities Texas teacher workshops in order to assist teachers in providing students more content for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) in that subject matter. The teachers who participated in the workshops were introduced to primary sources on African American history in Texas, as well as recent scholarship, and it assisted them in developing document-based questions, teaching strategies, and more content on Texas African American history.
Humanities Texas has been one of the leading organizations promoting the humanities in Texas. I have written several grants over the past thirty years for humanities projects related to African American history in Texas. The support from Humanities Texas has been vital, and it enabled me to develop programs that reached a wide variety of people specifically in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
I found my work with secondary educators refreshing and rewarding. Some of them attended more than one workshop with me, and they often shared with me how successful they were with using the documents as well as the content that I had provided them.
Amy Earhart, associate professor of English, Texas A&M University
My work with Humanities Texas has been immensely rewarding. Texas teachers are hardworking, creative, and engaged. Working with them during teacher programs allows me to support their work across the state, ensuring that they have the resources to best do their jobs. I always say yes to Humanities Texas staff because I know they will put together an excellent program. I hope to see their work continue well into the future for all of us in the state.
Jeremi Suri, Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs and professor of history, The University of Texas at Austin
I became a professor because I had some devoted, inspiring, and caring teachers as a public school kid in New York City. They changed my life. I work closely with Humanities Texas each year because I value the opportunity to give something back to the current generation of teachers around Texas. These teachers work so hard, and they are consistently under-valued. I have enjoyed getting to know teachers from all parts of the state and working with them to bring more exciting, accurate, and compelling history into their classrooms. We must teach the full range of American history—our achievements, our failures, our hopes, and our fears. Anything less is unpatriotic. Love of country requires deep understanding of its history, in all its dimensions. The teachers who work to achieve this vital goal are heroes. I feel privileged to work with them, and I am grateful to Humanities Texas for making that possible. Thank you and keep up the great work!
Stacy Fuller, independent consultant and museum educator
Humanities Texas's professional development programs are singular in their ability to bring nationally known scholars and dedicated teachers together to share ideas about the past to help students better understand the present. I know no other program that has consistently served teachers across the entire state, giving educators in all geographic areas equal opportunity to participate by bringing programs to them in person and virtually. Scholars condense decades of research into engaging presentations designed specifically for teachers with the goals of helping them learn new content and gain innovative strategies for sharing it with their students. In a world where so many are experts and judgment is often made boldly and quickly, these programs teach the value of listening to multiple perspectives (both of scholars and fellow teachers), thinking critically, and reflecting on familiar topics they have covered many times before to gain new insights. And adhering to Maslow's theory that higher functioning cannot be met until basic needs are, Humanities Texas staff treat participating scholars and teachers like professionals, ensuring all logistical needs are seamlessly handled.
I have worked with Humanities Texas for seventeen years, and their passion for providing quality humanities education to Texas teachers has never wavered, no matter the challenges posed by testing requirements on teachers, budget reductions, or even a worldwide pandemic. Humanities Texas has been and will continue to be both a leader and a partner in shaping the ways educators and their students understand society and culture, which I believe has the power to directly influence how they participate as global citizens.
Joseph F. Kobylka, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor and chair, department of political science, Southern Methodist University
Congrats to Humanities Texas on this twentieth anniversary of its professional development programs! It's a wonderful service to Texas educators from all over this great state. It brings you together with colleagues to relax, reflect, and discuss common challenges and successes! It also gives Texas secondary school teachers a chance to work with professors with expertise in the areas in which they teach.
And, from my end, it gives me an opportunity to discuss our shared interests and learn from the teachers in the trenches. I love working with inspired and inspiring teachers as we think about and strategize over our common tasks. I've learned so much about teaching from those actually trained in teaching and also about the ways they approach and educate their students . . . some of whom will become my students. This sharing has helped keep me fresh and engaged with our ever-changing students and the expectations we—and ultimately society—put on them.
My nearly-fifteen-year relationship with Texas teachers through Humanities Texas has been among my most rewarding professional experiences, and I look forward to many more. What we do—but ESPECIALLY what our dedicated secondary school teachers do—is central to the vitality of our state . . . and its future. Thanks, Humanities Texas and teachers, for all you do to tend those gardens!
Thomas DiPiero, dean, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Southern Methodist University
My involvement with the Humanities Texas teacher professional development programs has shown me that Texas teachers continually seek out new ways to engage and challenge our students, helping them to attain ever higher levels of achievement. Their participation in these programs evinces their commitment to continually hone their professional skills so they can be at the very top of their game in the classroom. Additionally, our teachers integrate the humanities into students' daily lives, helping them to understand that values, meaning, ethics, and understanding permeate every aspect of our lives.
Diane Haager, consultant, The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at The University of Texas at Austin
I have presented Humanities Texas teacher workshops several times in person and virtually. Each event was a wonderful experience. The Humanities Texas personnel have been very organized and supportive, ensuring a quality experience for teacher participants. In every session, I encountered highly professional teachers who are eager to learn and are dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for their students. I congratulate Humanities Texas on twenty years of quality programs!
Alison Macor, independent scholar and author
It's always a privilege to be asked to participate in one of Humanities Texas's teacher programs, and I have been involved with a handful of them over the past several years. Once I left college teaching to pursue writing full-time, the invitations meant more to me because it was a chance to be back in a classroom of sorts and to engage with smart, motivated teachers. The pandemic has only made secondary educators' jobs harder, and I think the programs Humanities Texas makes available to these teachers have more value today than they did even five years ago. And, as the political divides continue to impact education in the state of Texas, enrichment programs such as these have become something of a lifeline for educators whose resources are dwindling. It's especially meaningful to experience how enthusiastic the teachers are about learning new ways to present familiar ideas to their students. I decided to become a college professor because I wanted to have a job that would support lifelong learning. Having taught for more than two decades, I now understand how hard it can be to find the time and resources to enhance my own teaching skills in addition to fulfilling all that is required of teachers today. Meeting these educators who are willing to devote the time and energy to attend these workshops and webinars inspires me and gives me hope for the students of Texas.
Sean Theriault, University Distinguished Teaching Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin
What I love about Humanities Texas's teacher professional development programs is that I get to discuss the teaching of American government with the teachers who have my students before me. If they learn something from me, that makes it all the better.
Ann Christensen, professor of English, University of Houston
My experience with Humanities Texas has been 100 percent positive and a highlight of my career. Although traveling to conferences worldwide is wonderful, Humanities Texas exposes secondary and college-level teachers not only to the world of resources all over the vast state of Texas but, above all, to each other! In my first workshop, I got to know senior professors in my field around the state. After that, I suggested excellent junior colleagues who shared cutting edge research and exemplary pedagogy. These collaborations seeded long-term relationships. In a few years, I saw the program develop in exciting new directions because the team was always building and improving. Humanities Texas is a model organization doing absolutely vital work in the state. I met teachers from every possible demographic, returning to every kind of socio-economic district and school setting with a range of challenges and resources. They benefited from the workshop community and seemed to make lasting friendships. What these folks had in common was hope—hope in their students, hope for the future, and hope in humanity and the humanities.
The planning and conduct of workshops allowed collaborative work with my peers in a friendly and supportive atmosphere outside of the academy. In my presentations, I tested out work that I later developed further for publication. I felt not only that I contributed to the intellectual lives of teachers but also that we were, together, a community of curious learners. I appreciated having these connections to the college pipeline—from the teachers, I became better aware of the skills and texts our students bring to us and how can we meet them where they are. Humanities Texas is all about dialogue and hands-on experience. I felt supported all along by outstanding professional staff and leadership. Happy anniversary, and thank you!
Maryse Jayasuriya, professor of English, Saint Louis University
I chose to take part in the Humanities Texas teacher institutes because I thought they would be a valuable way to interact with high school language arts teachers throughout the state and contribute to their professional development in a meaningful way. The programs are wonderful and well-organized! They are a means of connecting secondary educators in the state of Texas with each other and with university professors, a way to collaborate and share expertise and to support both groups in a common endeavor—how to make the learning experience better and more engaging for students.
I am really impressed by the role that Humanities Texas plays in advancing humanities education statewide! The teacher institutes—in-person as well as virtual programs, along with the recordings of lectures—are a key part of this mission. The extensive online resources that are made available on the Humanities Texas website, collated and curated by experts in their respective fields, are very useful to teachers, students, and scholars in general. The mini and major grants enable instructors and others to take the initiative in organizing public programming that furthers humanities education. The traveling exhibitions also make a major contribution.
I was really inspired by the dedication, enthusiasm, and engagement of the secondary educators who participated in the teacher institutes. While I hope that my presentations and discussions as well as the content-based materials that I provided were helpful to the participants, I know that their questions and comments helped me—it felt like we were all brainstorming together and sharing tips and strategies in a way that energized and inspired me.
Jennifer Schnakenberg, chief operating officer, The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at The University of Texas at Austin
It has been a true honor participating with Humanities Texas in their teacher programs. I have had the opportunity to work with many secondary educators across the state, training and coaching on best practices for reading instruction. Many secondary educators are limited in their access to professional development opportunities related to the science of reading (SOR). Through the Humanities Texas teacher programs, we are able to work with secondary educators in all content areas to enhance their knowledge of SOR and engage in hands-on activities that can be used in their classrooms to support students' reading, vocabulary, and comprehension.
J. Todd Moye, Fenton Wayne Robnett Professor of U.S. History, University of North Texas
I have been fortunate to take part in several of Humanities Texas's in-person teacher institutes and webinars. It would be impossible to overstate how energizing I have found every single one of them. The teachers always come with such great questions and a real hunger to learn, grow, and share best practices. I'm sure that I have learned as much from them as they have from me, and they always make me proud to be their fellow teacher.
Video filmed during the 2018 "America in the 1920s and 1930s" summer institute held at the LBJ Presidential Library featuring testimonials from teachers and scholars who have participated in our education programs over the years.
Charles Flanagan leads a seminar on the drafting of the Bill of Rights at the 2012 "Teaching the U.S. Constitution" workshop.
Participants with Lady Bird Johnson at the 2004 "Institute on Congress and American History" at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin.
Charles Flanagan demonstrates the Congress Creates the Bill of Rights mobile app during a Humanities Texas teacher workshop.
Senate revisions to House-passed amendments to the Constitution (Bill of Rights), September 9, 1789. Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration.
Monica Perales (left) shares resources on the Latinx civil rights movement during the 2013 "Twentieth-Century Texas" institute in Austin.
Mark Atwood Lawrence discusses the origins of the Cold War during the 2013 "America at War" institute in San Antonio.
Jesús F. de la Teja discusses the Spanish colonial period during a Humanities Texas teacher institute in 2012.
Jesús F. de la Teja leads a seminar on the Southwest in the early nineteenth century at the 2016 "America from Jefferson to Jackson" institute in Houston.
(From l to r:) Teacher participants Stacy Hricko, Amy Thurman, and Judith Trevino in a primary source seminar at the 2007 "The West and the Shaping of America" institute in Fort Worth.
Char Miller delivers a presentation at the 2014 "America in the 1860s" institute in San Antonio.
Char Miller lectures about the early history of San Antonio at the 2016 "American Southwest" institute in San Marcos.
Signe Fourmy (left) and Jim Furgeson, former Outstanding Teaching Award winners at a reception during a Humanities Texas teacher institute in 2013.
Jim Furgeson discusses teaching strategies with teachers in San Antonio in 2013.
Coleman Hutchison delivers a lecture entitled "Teaching Students to Care and Think about Poetry: Or, Whitman's Facebook and Dickinson's Tweets" in 2015.
Using Langston Hughes's "I, Too" as a model text, Coleman Hutchison discusses close reading strategies with teachers during an afternoon seminar in 2015.
Lorri Glover presents on American women in the nineteenth century at a Humanities Texas institute in Fort Worth in 2019.
Robert S. Levine delivers the keynote lecture, “What is the American Literary Tradition? An Editor’s Perspective," during the 2018 "Teaching the American Literary Tradition" institute in Austin.
Sean Cunningham uses a clip from the television show Dallas to examine the portrayal of Texas in late-twentieth-century popular culture at a 2014 workshop in Houston.
Jennifer L. Weber (center) leads a workshop on Abraham Lincoln as politician and commander-in-chief in Austin in 2014.
Sarah Ruffing Robbins leads a webinar on graphic narratives in 2021.
Ben Wright responds to participant questions during the "Teaching Texas History" webinar series in 2021.
Zara Anishanslin lectures on women of the American revolutionary period at an institute in 2017.
Brian Yothers presents at Humanities Texas's 2016 summer institute, "Teaching the American Literary Tradition," in El Paso.
W. Marvin Dulaney (left) leads a seminar during the 2023 "Texans Who Shaped the Twentieth Century" institute in Austin.
Amy Earhart (right) moderates a Q&A session on building student engagement through creative writing with Marcela Fuentes during the "Teaching Writing at the Secondary Level" online teacher institute.
Jeremi Suri holds a seminar at the 2014 institute "America in the 1960s."
Jeremi Suri presents the keynote lecture at the 2017 institute "The Cold War" in Lubbock.
Stacy Fuller, former director of education and library services at the Amon Carter Museum, leads a primary source seminar at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin in 2018.
Joseph F. Kobylka gives a presentation on defining federal power at a teacher workshop in Dallas in 2018.
Joseph F. Kobylka leads an afternoon seminar at the 2018 "America in the 1920s and 1930s" teacher institute in Austin.
Thomas DiPiero leads a seminar at the 2019 "Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird" workshop in Houston.
Diane Haager lectures during the 2019 "Best Practices in Reading Instruction" workshop in Austin.
Alison Macor leads a seminar on the portrayal of Texas in film during the 2022 "Texas in the Twentieth Century" summer teacher institute in Lubbock.
Sean Theriault leads a discussion at the "Understanding Congress" workshop in 2017.
Ann Christensen lectures on Shakespeare's representation of commoners at the 2019 "Teaching Shakespeare" institute in Houston.
Maryse Jayasuriya discusses a short story by Jamaica Kincaid at the 2019 "Teaching Literature" institute in Austin.
Maryse Jayasuriya discusses text and context in reading fiction at the 2019 "Teaching Literature" institute in Austin.
Jennifer Schnakenberg lectures at the 2018 "Best Practices in Reading Instruction" workshop in San Antonio.
J. Todd Moye (right) leads a seminar on teaching with excerpts from the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project in Dallas in 2015.