“Mesoamerican Cultures and their Histories:
Spotlight on Oaxaca!”
July 6 to August 1, 2014 (proposed)
Oaxaca, Mexico
- Backstreets of Oaxaca, pastel by Pearl Lau, NEH Summer Scholar, 2010
- If we win the funding from NEH, this Summer Institute for School Teachers (K-12) will take place in Oaxaca, Mexico, from July 6 to August 1, 2014.
- This is a great fellowship opportunity for teachers across the U.S. who wish to increase Mesoamerican content in their courses, delve into indigenous cultures and their histories from readings, lectures, and experiential learning through excursions in southern Mexico.
- You may be interested to read comments from participants in the summer institute of 2010.
- Spanish-language ability is not a requirement for applying to this Institute.
- How will we make our selections? We like diversity. Our group of participants for Summer 2010 was quite diverse. We had eleven teachers who teach grades up through 8; one who ranged from K to 12; and 17 who taught 9th grade through 12th. We had three graduate students (something new and encouraged by NEH), two of whom were teaching. We had six coming to Oaxaca from jobs in California, four from Illinois, three from New York, two from Georgia, two from Idaho, one each from Connecticut, Indiana, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Most NEH Summer Scholars were teaching Social Studies, Spanish, ESL/ESOL, Art, and Language Arts/Literature. We had one Biology teacher — who particularly connected with our unit on ethnobotany!
- Wish to write a strong application essay? Take a look first at our detailed plans for Oaxaca for 2014, please read our Dear Colleague Letter (from 2011) and then see our Syllabus and Calendar (from 2011, and subject to revision for 2014). Tell us how you would connect with specific themes we are addressing in the Institute. For the password to required readings, please write Stephanie Wood [swood AT uoregon DOT edu].
- As you anticipate a visit to Oaxaca, check out this wonderful arts calendar, El Jolgorio.
- See a streaming interview with the institute director, Stephanie Wood, speaking about the indigenous-language dictionary she is building with colleagues in Zacatecas, Mexico.
- RSS feed: You may sign up for an RSS feed (look on the left side bar of this page for the link), which will send you an email about changes to this web page. This is where we will point to anything that is new on the site. There is a feed for Entries and Comments.
We invite you to visit this website frequently as we will be adding content regularly. The website will be the primary means for notifying you of our application deadlines, the content of the institute, ideas about housing, and the host of other details that will accompany our adventure in Oaxaca.
After the finalists have been chosen and accepted, we will begin building a who’s who page for all who are willing to share short bios and photos, so we can get to know one another as soon as possible. We will also create a Facebook page and form a listserv where you can begin to communicate with the community of scholars with whom you will be sharing four weeks in Oaxaca!
To contact us now, please email: Stephanie Wood [swood AT uoregon DOT edu].
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.