Lendol G. Calder, Augustana College
Daniel McDonald, University of Oxford
Samantha Futrell, Virginia Council for the Social Studies
This innovative program provides a structured experience for educators attending the 2025 AHA Annual Meeting, with sessions and activities planned across all four days of the conference. Details about applying to be part of the AHA 2025 K–16 Content Cohort will be available on the AHA website later this fall.
This year’s theme is “Resilience in the History Classroom.” Our goal will be to use the structure of our conference to create opportunities for teachers across different kinds of institutions—secondary schools, colleges, universities, and museums—to engage, learn from, and collaborate with leading historians.
The content cohort program will include opportunities for focused discussions in a small group setting, opportunities to interact with leading historians, and a welcoming new way to experience and enjoy a major history conference.
Session Abstract
Both scholars and educators are weighing the strengths and limitations of resilience as a conceptual framework through which to understand historical struggles in the United States and across the globe. Teaching honest history demands engagement with examples of strength, perseverance, and creativity in the face of harrowing adversity. Stories of human resilience in the past are even more urgent as many communities grapple with contemporary pressures that stand in the way of student learning.
This panel, which is open to all conference attendees, convenes historians, museum professionals, and educators for a discussion about the theme of resilience in both historical scholarship and history education.