AHA Session 257
Sunday, January 8, 2023: 11:00 AM-12:30 PM
Grand Ballroom Salon C (Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 5th Floor)
Chair:
Kate Masur, Northwestern University
Panel:
Denise Georgette Burgher, University of Delaware
Samantha de Vera, University of California, San Diego
Brandi Locke, University of Delaware
Janel Moore-Almond, George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science
Samantha de Vera, University of California, San Diego
Brandi Locke, University of Delaware
Janel Moore-Almond, George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science
Session Abstract
Bringing together K-12 educators, historians, and community organizers, this roundtable will discuss how they have worked together to center Black history in curricula and public art and embraced the affordances of technology in this endeavor. It will focus on how the Colored Conventions Project (housed at the Center for Black Digital Research) engages and collaborates with educators to incorporate the Colored Conventions histories into K-12 curriculums. The Colored Conventions Project is an interdisciplinary research hub that uses digital tools to bring the buried history of nineteenth-century Black organizing to life and has created several digital exhibits on Black life, activism, and education. In spite of the ongoing pandemic and the restrictions it has imposed, the project has recently partnered with Philadelphia K-12 educators and the Delaware Historical Society to provide teaching resources and primary source materials that will be integrated into school district curriculums. In addition, the project has also been working with Mural Arts Philadelphia, which will be creating several murals depicting Black activists throughout the city of Philadelphia. In this presentation, we will outline the process of creating curriculums based on our exhibits and archives, how we integrate the Colored Conventions Project’s digital exhibits into the classroom, and center Black women as active historical actors and knowledge producers in the Colored Conventions exhibits and curriculums. Having recently published new digital exhibits, we will also be sharing our insights on researching and teaching approaches to Black communities’ histories using underutilized archives.
As the nation grapples with what should be taught and not taught in schools, it is even more imperative that public historians provide rigorous knowledge on accessible platforms. In light of the concerted legal efforts to marginalize the histories of people of color and LQBTQIA individuals and against critical race theory, the Center for Black Digital Research aims to be a digital space where students and educators could find rich sources for learning. This roundtable will be discussing the implications of our collaborations with K-12 teachers and of our work as historians, the challenges both historians and educators faced, and the many lessons learned from working together.
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