Session Abstract

The Bridging Cultures participants in this panel will discuss the assignment and/or assessment methodologies utilized to highlight the ways they are incorporating Atlantic and Pacific History into their U.S. History and Comparative Americas survey courses. The focus of the panel will be on the migration of peoples and the movement of goods between the Atlantic and Pacific environments. Among the themes participants will address are: trans-oceanic trade of agricultural commodities, cartography to convey both static and dynamic concepts of migration, how migration influences ethnicity and American culture, trans-oceanic intellectual movements, and Latin American literature as a means of connecting Atlantic and Pacific worlds. The cumulative effects of the assignments, which range from map exercises, student research papers, and oral presentations, presented by the panelists will help students develop their critical thinking and analysis skills as they understand the interconnectedness of the Americas, and the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. Community college students need to be exposed to a wide range of teaching methodologies and unique perspectives to fully comprehend the integration of the Atlantic and Pacific worlds, and panelists will strive to achieve that objective with their respective assignments and discuss their findings during the roundtable. Additionally, the panelists will reflect upon how presenting a trans-oceanic perspective in their survey courses represents a dynamic new paradigm that will pique the students’ interests and reinvigorate the panelists’ quests to transform their classrooms into laboratories for exchanging new ideas and theories. Migration of peoples and goods has been a constant theme in Atlantic and Pacific history, and through their presentations, the panelists will reaffirm the idea that this historic trend still holds much relevance in today’s modern world as students continue to grapple with notions of immigration, globalization, world markets, multi-national corporations, and other related concepts.