New Perspectives on Early Modern China, a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) digital workshop for teachers, willexplore important new scholarship and dramatic visual web resources on China’shistorical development in two multimedia, interdisciplinary modules on the Asia for Educators website. This workshop is one of two for which funding was awarded in national competition under the NEH Digital Humanities Initiative of 2007.

Workshop participants will

• Gain background and experience in the use and interpretation of new perspectives on modern China and new digital resources;
• Take time to explore in depth two new web teaching modules for the classroom;
• Work with leading scholars in the field, consultants on the web modules, both on their own campuses and through live, simulcast, interactive sessions linking three sites nationally;
• Discuss new interpretations of Chinese history and of comparisons between China and the West from 1600–present, with particular attention to the 18th and 19th centuries that are the focus of world history courses;
• Explore visually the wealth of information in four renowned scrolls of the Qing dynasty with a Metropolitan Museum of Art curator;
• Meet with scholars and teachers from other parts of the country through video-conferencing;
• Receive strategies for incorporating digital technology into lesson plans;
• Create lesson plans in teams using the digital resources;
• Receive a $350 honorarium for their professional time.

Please scroll down for more information about the workshop format.

Eligibility and Deadline

In selecting participants for the workshop, priority will be given to teachers of history, social studies, and art and to media specialists/librarians who can disseminate the digital material. Applications are due by December 15, 2007.  Participants will be notified of acceptance the following week.

Application Instructions

Please select a workshop site to download an application form for that site:

Questions

Questions are welcome! Please contact one of the host site representatives below if you have any questions about the workshop program or the application process. Please note that lunch will not be provided.

  • Columbia University: Karen Kane at (212) 854–9007 or kak13@columbia.edu. Columbia site applicants: Please note that free parking will be available but must be pre-arranged.
  • University of Florida: Patricia Bartlett at (352) 392–4619
  • University of North Texas: Denece L. Gerlach at (940) 565 –2288 or deneceg@unt.edu

WORKSHOP CONTENT

The workshop is based on two new multimedia modules that allow teachers and students to explore, in depth, the history of late imperial China — its economic, political, and cultural achievement — from the 17th through the 20th centuries:

  1. Recording the Grandeur of the Qing: The Southern Inspection Tours of the Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors
  2. China and Europe, 1500-2000 and Beyond: What is “Modern”?

Both websites are currently featured on the Asia for Educators website.

 

WORKSHOP FORMAT

Participants will attend five Saturday workshop days (Jan. 12 & 26, Feb. 9, Mar. 1 & 29), from 10:30am to 4:00pm ET (9:30am to 3:00pm CT), at one of three host sites:

  1. Columbia University, New York City
  2. University of Florida, Gainesville
  3. University of North Texas, Denton

Workshop sessions will be held in digital classrooms that allow each site to link, via video-conference, with the two other host sites during three of the five workshop sessions.

Four specialists will anchor the workshops at the three host sites:

  1. Professor Joseph Murphy at the University of Florida
  2. Professor Harold Tanner at the University of North Texas
  3. Karen Kane and Dr. Roberta Martin at Columbia University

Two guest lecturers will be present, live to all three sites through video-conferencing:

  1. Dr. Maxwell Hearn, Douglas Dillon Curator of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. Professor Madeleine Zelin, Dean Lung Professor of Chinese Studies at Columbia University

In addition, the views of two specialists and members of the “California School” of interpretation on modern China will be presented, via pre-recorded web video:

  1. Professor Ken Pomeranz, Chancellor’s Professor of History at the University of California at Irvine
  2. R. Bin Wong, director of the Asia Institute and professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles

 

WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS

Each host site’s group of 24 participants will divide into six working groups that will develop lesson plans for their classroom together, using the web modules that are the focus of the workshop. 

Participants at each site will also interact with participants at the other two sites during the three sessions when they are linked via video-conference. All workshop participants at all three sites will hear one another’s questions addressed to the guest speakers and be able to interact with one another as well as with the guest speakers. 

Participants at each site will review one another’s lesson plans and in the final session select two that they feel introduce the most innovative use of technology to the classroom. 

 

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