While many instructors seek to situate the United States within broader global and world contexts and frameworks, doing so in survey courses can be challenging. Limited time or resources, and the national frameworks often presented in textbooks can sometimes constrain efforts to move beyond U.S.-centered narratives in ways that integrate North American and U.S. history into broader regional and global historical processes and events.

This panel offers four presentations that provide both practical examples and reflection on how and why instructors contextualize U.S. history within global frameworks. Each presentation draws on the teaching modules panelists authored for History for the 21st Century, a faculty-led, non-profit project of the World History Association that produces peer-reviewed, classroom-tested teaching materials for introductory history courses. Panelists will discuss how they integrated lessons focused on North America or the U.S. into their modules, and how those modules might enrich U.S. history courses by offering global contexts and comparisons.

Presenters include Molly A. Warsh (University of Pittsburgh), who will discuss piracy as a lens for exploring early Atlantic colonialism and globalization, highlighting its role in shaping British expansion in North America and beyond. Allison Belzer (Georgia Southern) will place the American Revolution in the broader context of the French, and Haitian Revolutions, offering a comparative framework for students to consider revolutionary values and commemoration. Based on her forthcoming teaching module on the impact of yellow fever in the early modern Atlantic world, Urmi Engineer Willoughby’s (Pitzer College) presentation will focus on the 1793 epidemic in Philadelphia to show how a study of disease can help to situate U.S. history within broader histories of colonization, slavery, urbanization, and public health. Wendy Urban-Mead (Bard College) will connect and compare the experiences of African American and colonized African soldiers during World War I, highlighting the global purview of African American leaders.

In addition to discussing these case-studies and other ways the panelists connect U.S. and World History, the speakers will also offer broader reflections on the value to students in situating the US in a global context. The panel builds on discussions during the 2026 American Historical Association Conference considering the value of World History, including the roundtable “The Civic Value of World History,” and its relationship to U.S. history teaching. Eric Nelson (Missouri State University and member of the Executive Council of the History for the 21st Century project), will serve as chair. By offering both practical examples and discussing pedagogical purpose, this panel aims to provide not only concrete approaches for instructors seeking to enrich U.S. history courses with global perspectives, but a foundation for further collaboration in broadening U.S. history education frameworks in the future.