By ANDY CASTILLO
Recorder Staff
DEERFIELD — The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association has announced two week-long summer workshops studying the role of African Americans in early New England, free to librarians and K-12 public, private and home school educators.
“Teachers locally and from the nation are invited to submit applications to study in depth the significant role of African Americans in the birthplace of American freedom, and in the rise of greater New England region as the earliest commercial power and cultural trade center in British North America,” reads a news statement about the program.
The workshops, titled “African Americans in the Making of Early New England,” will be held July 9 through 14, and July 23 to 28 at the Deerfield Teachers’ Center, 10 Memorial St.
Application deadline is Wednesday. For more information to apply, visit http://afram-workshop.deerfield-ma.org.
They’ll be led by historians like Joanne Melish, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, Richard A. Bailey, Jared R. Hardesty, and Thomas Doughton, in addition to PVMA staff.
“Through this workshop, teachers will discover roles – economic, religious, cultural – of African Americans, free and enslaved, played in creating New England,” PVMA Executive Director Timothy Neumann said in the statement. “At a time when fostering cross-racial understanding in American society couldn’t be more important, it is still the case that many American students learn very little, if anything, about the many significant roles played by African Americans.”
PVMA’s summer workshops seek to remedy that lack of knowledge, and will center around scholarly lectures, and will feature field trips to museums including the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford.
The workshops are free of charge and participants will receive a $600 to $1,200 stipend to help offset expenses. Professional Development Points are also awarded. Each week is limited to 36 participants.
Neumann added, “learning about each other’s history is key to building cross-racial and cross-cultural understanding today, and the best place to do that is in K-12 classrooms.”
You can reach Andy Castillo
at: acastillo@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 263
On Twitter: @AndyCCastillo