This poses a question for educators: How can history instructors incorporate film and video into their courses as texts. How can instructors teach students to think critically and analytically about these media? Film and video provide an opportunity to help students develop historical thinking and reasoning skills in a mode that is self-evidently relevant to them. However, this is a challenging task for teachers, who are used to teaching students how to read and analyze texts, but may not know how to do the same with film.

To address the challenge, this roundtable brings together four professionals who work at the intersection of film and history. Each panelist will lead the audience through viewing and analysis of four minutes of footage. Audience members will learn critical “viewing techniques” that will help them deepen and reorient their use of film in their classrooms. The roundtable will include ample time for audience interaction, questions, and discussion.