DRAFT PENDING NEH APPROVAL
Dear Colleague,
We enthusiastically invite you to apply to participate in our NEH Summer Institute, “Mesoamerican Cultures and Their Histories: Spotlight on Oaxaca,” where we will study the field of archaeology through visits to ancient cities guided by a colleague who has worked his entire career in and around Oaxaca; where we will also be introduced to ethnohistory by scholars who have worked for years deciphering pictorial and textual manuscripts authored by indigenous scribes and painters in order to get at their perspectives on life in native communities under Spanish colonial rule; where we’ll examine art in history and contemporary art expressions as a window onto cultural continuity and innovation, with a focus on music, textiles, pottery, and photography; and, finally, where we’ll take a critical look at cinema and documentaries as a means for gaining a greater understanding about Mesoamerica, about filmmaking, and about film as a tool both for cultural renewal and decolonization. We are thrilled that we will have a chance to conduct these interdisciplinary inquiries while immersed in a part of Mesoamerica where both regional indigenous traditions and local variations are still very much alive, in the beautiful city of Oaxaca and surrounding communities.
We are assembling a top-notch team of specialists in Mesoamerica, including twelve colleagues from Mexico and five from our own campus. But let us first introduce ourselves, the co-directors, whose introduction will help us highlight the fact that this Institute offers yet another special dimension — the use of technology to access, interpret, and teach Mesoamerican cultures and their histories. Dr. Stephanie Wood, Director of the Wired Humanities Project at the University of Oregon, the author of four books, dozens of articles on Mesoamerica, and a co-editor of the Handbook of Latin American Studies’ “Mesoamerican Ethnohistory” series since 1995, is directing the Mesoamerican content portion of the Institute. She is a specialist in pictorial and textual manuscripts produced in indigenous communities of New Spain, and is co-director of an emerging dictionary of Nahuatl, a key language of central Mexico, that has three years of funding from the National Science Foundation and the NEH. Wood is the content editor on the Mapas Project, which benefited from another NEH grant, 2006–08. This is a digital resource that will feature prominently in the Institute, along with the Virtual Mesoamerican Archive (VMA), an online finding aid and repository for Mesoamerican heritage materials at Oregon and around the globe. Building the VMA over the past half-dozen years has helped Wood keep abreast of the latest developments in all aspects of Mesoamerican cultures and histories.
Judith Musick, founding Director of the Wired Humanities Project at the University of Oregon and an early member of the international movement to establish the new “inter-discipline” of digital humanities, will direct the technology component of this Institute as well as coordinate most logistical and administrative aspects of the program. Dr. Musick will share her skills in working with still images, slide presentations, and, with Dr. Gabriela Martínez, teach simple video editing, all with an eye to enhancing curriculum development. She will also explore with us, more generally, the ways in which digital humanities methods can present unique approaches to cultural heritage materials for scholars and teachers.
Additional members of the core faculty, from the University of Oregon, include Dr. Ron Lancaster, our master teacher from the College of Education, who will lead some of our homeroom pedagogical discussions and help give feedback on participants’ projects; Dr. Ronald Spores, Vanderbilt University Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, and UO courtesy professor who will lead our visits to spectacular archaeological sites; Dr. Lynn Stephen, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, who will host our tours of textile and other artisan venues in and around the city of Oaxaca during our arts week; and, the already mentioned Dr. Martínez, a documentary filmmaker, who will help guide our final week, in which we explore film.
Our Mexican faculty will come from several institutional, scholarly, and artistic traditions. In the order in which they will present, these colleagues are: Dr. Michael Swanton, a linguist specializing in indigenous languages; Dr. María de los Angeles Romero Frizzi, an ethnohistorian who works for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; Dr. Sebastián van Doesburg, an ethnohistorian who directs the Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca; Maestra María del Refugio Gutiérrez Rodríguez, a manuscript restoration workshop director at the Biblioteca Burgoa; Maestro Alejandro de Ávila, Director of the Textile Museum and founder of the Ethnobotanical Garden; don Paco González, weaving master and native speaker of Zapotec; Maestra Marietta Bernstorff, art curator; Lic. Luna MarAn, photographer; Dr. Concepción Núñez Miranda, filmmaker; Maestra Julia Barco, filmmaker; Dr. Margarita Dalton, researcher with the Centro de Investigaciónes y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social; and Patricia Díaz Romo, filmmaker.
We welcome your special qualifications, to add to the fascinating mix of people and topics at this Institute. We especially welcome social studies teachers and Spanish language teachers who desire to enrich their Social Studies and Language Arts classes with more Mesoamerican content, whether for the sake of their students of Mexican heritage or to prepare everyone with a better appreciation of the civilizations and cultures of the ancient Americas. We learned from our prior Institute on similar topics that teachers of every grade level and many disciplines other than social studies and language have something to contribute to and gain from active participation in the Institute. Therefore, we will consider applications from teachers of any kind, K-12, who have or may wish to incorporate Mesoamerican content in their classes.
The co-directors are both former history teachers. Professor Wood also has some language teaching experience – with ESL, Nahuatl, and Spanish — but we will not be leading this Summer Institute in Spanish. Presentations and discussions at will all either be delivered in English or we will have an interpreter assisting, and Spanish will not be a requirement. It would be an asset to know Spanish, however, as your interactions with the Mexican faculty and access to a greater array of curricular resources will be more rewarding.
We also hope many of our applicants will be seeking some assistance with technologies that may enhance their curricular materials, and we will welcome those who come already armed with special technical skills they are willing to share with others. We will ask all participants, once selected, to provide an indication of their knowledge of some basic technology, so that we will be better prepared to offer workshops that will benefit you. Although not a requirement, we do ask that all participants bring their own laptop computer, if they have one, to Oaxaca.
The Institute will span four weeks. We will begin with a welcome reception on Sunday, July 11th, in the Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca at 7 PM. Our formal sessions will begin on Monday, July 12th, at 10:00 a.m. with a homeroom discussion session for one hour, followed by content presentations. Most days, we will have an extended comida (meal) break, sometimes with time enough for a siesta (rest) or exploration period, and resume with a brief evening program. On days when we have excursions, our schedule will vary more and we may have meals together (with the optional opportunity for Spanish-only tables for practicing and improving one’s language ability). Our syllabus will provide a detailed schedule of where we will be meeting, when, and with whom. Each of the four weeks of the Institute has a distinct theme:
- Week 1: Archaeology: “Art and Architecture as Windows into Cultural Realities in Prehistory”
- Week 2: Ethnohistory: “Seeking Indigenous Perspectives and Cultural Memories through Manuscript Studies”
- Week 3: The Arts: “Cultural Continuity and Innovation in Music, Textiles, Pottery, Woodworking, and Photography”
- Week 4: Film: “Mesoamerican Histories through Film: Representations of Cultures and Societies”
We will run an optional technology track on Fridays and at other times as requested by the participants. The focus of the technology track will be on effectively using available digital resources and creating new digital resources for use in the classroom. You will work in teams or alone as you desire, but we hope to share all new resources with one another and, ideally, with teachers anywhere who might find them useful. (Steering clear of copyright violations will be key to a broader sharing of lesson plans and slide presentations developed within our group.)
We have already planned numerous field trips as part of the formal course but you can expect to encounter many more opportunities to explore Oaxaca on your own or with knowledgeable guides. You will find it easy enough to make a quick trip to the beautiful Oaxacan beaches or to the Mixtec Alta, just as it will be very feasible to take tours of the local mezcal and chocolate factories, art galleries, and to attend local cultural events. The world famous Guelaquetza dance festival (and, possibly, the alternative Guelaquetza) will be held during our time in Oaxaca.
Typical of an NEH Summer Institute, we will not emphasize independent work. That said, we ask that participants come to every lecture and presentation with a number of comments or questions from the assigned readings to present to the speakers for their consideration during their lectures. We are also requiring participants to prepare a final presentation in the form of class lessons or resources incorporating material from the Institute experience that they may actually use in their own classrooms. Working in teams of two or three, you will develop model lessons for your courses, utilizing the content and resources being made available to you through the Institute. The last week of the Institute will be devoted to participant presentations of such new or reshaped lesson plans. We will also provide space on our Institute web site for sharing all resulting curricular materials within and, we hope, beyond our group.
The Institute directors will be available at the homeroom sessions and most lunch hours, where participants may approach them with specific questions or to make individual appointments. We will also have a master teacher, Ron Lancaster from the University of Oregon’s College of Education, available at some (and maybe all) of our homeroom sessions; his job will be to encourage discussions on curricular applications of the Institute content. Our Institute website provides our daily schedule and a syllabus with readings, most of which can be consulted in advance of arrival in Eugene. A draft syllabus will appear shortly, and one with finalized reading assignments will be provided on the website a month before the Institute begins.
Local Arrangements
Stipends:
Teachers selected to participate in four-week projects will receive $3,300. Stipends are intended to help cover travel expenses to and from the project location, books and other research expenses, and living expenses for the duration of the period spent in residence. Stipends are taxable. Applicants to all projects, especially those held abroad, should note that supplements will not be given in cases where the stipend is insufficient to cover all expenses.
The value of the dollar and your choices regarding housing and meals may mean that you will need to supplement the costs of participating with your own funds. Also note that while NEH neither encourages nor discourages family members traveling with the participant, all costs for family members must be borne personally.
NEH does not allow us to send you any money prior to your arrival in Mexico. To avoid problems with cashing checks in US dollars in Oaxaca, our plan is to prepare automatic deposits to participants’ personal bank accounts: the first ($1500) would be authorized soon after your arrival (July 13) and the second (also for $1500) with be authorized for transfer the last day the Institute. We will withhold $300 USD to cover the costs of excursions, admissions, and other instructional expenses we encounter. Any balance remaining after the last day will be sent to your home address within two weeks of the end of the Institute.
Automatic deposits to your account will require close coordination with us in the weeks immediately preceding the Institute and anyone who would prefer to to receive an actual check in Oaxaca or have it sent to your home for a family member or friend to deposit may elect to do so.
Housing: Participants will need to make their own housing arrangements as well as pay the entire cost of the accommodations they choose. We have provided on our website a list of suggested hotels as well as information regarding how to arrange home stays. We will be adding to the list, and we will invite you to share housing information through our blog. There are also a number of useful websites that provide information about additional hotels in Oaxaca as well as families you may contact if you wish to arrange a home-stay. We are currently looking into booking blocks of rooms at group rates at various hotels to ensure a good price and to try to help participants be sure they will have reduced competition for housing during the famed Guelaguetza dance festival that coincides with our institute (the festival will take place between July 19 and July 26 in Oaxaca City).
Many participants will be people who have world travel experience, so we may not need to warn you that hotel comforts in Mexico may not be of a standard that you might expect in the US or Europe — unless you want to go with four or five stars and pay the higher premium. The age of buildings and the climate in southern Mexico will also mean a higher likelihood of seeing an occasional roach (but, fortunately, we can attest that we have rarely seen them in the lodging we use). You might not be able to brush your teeth or drink the tap water in your hotel room, and you might find a higher tolerance for noise by the hotel administration and guests. That said, many hotels have extremely charming facilities and employ staff members who maintain a high level of warm hospitality. We think you’ll become extremely fond of Oaxaca, as we are.
Meals: Participants, unless they are staying with a Oaxacan family, will be entirely on their own to when it comes to meals. The good news is that Oaxaca is resplendent with exquisite and affordably priced restaurants and cozy cafes. When possible, we will arrange for group (no host) comidas at restaurants that can accommodate us. Again, we will try to organize one or more “Spanish only” tables as one option during such meals. If you choose to purchase food in open-air markets and from street vendors, you will take a concomitant risk for stomach ailments, but this might not be avoided, necessarily, at even the finest dining facilities. Should you encounter stomach problems or any other health issues, we will try to help connect you with pharmacies and medical clinics, as necessary. We absolutely love Oaxacan cuisine and hope you will, too.
Library and computer resources: Even though all reading material will be available as electronic documents, participants may wish to supplement with additional published material, whether borrowed in local libraries or purchased in local bookstores. We are exploring options for library and reading room privileges but will encourage participants to take their research questions “outside” to the places and people we will encounter in and around Oaxaca. The technology workshops will be held in a venue yet to be determined. Because there is no established computer lab we can use, we will need to rely upon your use of your own laptops as well as the few extra ones we might be able to provide. We will provide more information on this later. We will also be making available a huge number of Mesoamerican digital resources to Institute participants through our own Virtual Mesoamerican Archive — materials that you will have permission to download and incorporate into your lesson plans.
University and Continuing Education Credit: We will provide graduate credits (Pass/Not Pass) in Education or History to those who are interested; please indicate your interest in this option and we will see what we can do to help. All participants will also receive, on letterhead, a letter acknowledging their participation in the four-week Institute that they may use to request continuing education credit from their home school districts.
Application
The application process has two parts. First you must register with NEH on their website that you intend to apply for our Institute, You will provide NEH with basic information and finalize your online information by following their direction. However, you will send the completed hard copy application to us at the address indicate below. It must be postmarked no later than March 2, 2010.
Stephanie Wood and Judith Musick
Wired Humanities Projects/Yamada Language Center
1236 University of Oregon,
Eugene, Oregon 97403-1236.
Perhaps the most important part of the application is the essay that must be submitted as part of the complete application. This essay should include any personal and academic information that is relevant; reasons for applying to the particular institute; your interest, both intellectual and personal, in the topic; qualifications to do the work of the project and make a contribution to it; what you hope to accomplish by participating, including any individual research and writing projects; and the relation of the study to your teaching.
Again, we appreciate your interest and invite you to apply to participate in our Institute. We soon will have additional information, including detailed syllabus and bibliography, housing options, recreational information, and maps on our website http://whp.uoregon.edu/mesoinstitute/. If you have additional questions, please contact Stephanie Wood by email (swood@uoregon.edu) or by telephone (541-346-5771). You can reach Judith Musick by email at any time (musick at uoregon.edu) or after January 4.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Wood ppppp pppppp Judith Musick
Co-Director ppppppppppppppp Co-Director
