Gallagher, Onuf To Lead History Seminars for Teachers at U.Va.

May 4, 2012 — Two history professors from the University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences will lead weeklong seminars for teachers this summer, sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Peter Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History, will lead a weeklong seminar on "The Age of Jefferson," at U.Va. and Monticello June 24 to 30. He will lead the seminar with Frank Cogliano, a professor of American history from the University of Edinburgh.

Gary W. Gallagher, the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War, will direct a weeklong seminar on "The American Civil War: Origins and Consequences," also from June 24 to 30 at U.Va.

Seminar participants will include kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers, library educators and National Park Service interpreters, who were selected by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in a competitive process.

In partnership with Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, Onuf's seminar will focus on Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, third president of the United States and founder of U.Va. Onuf and Cogliano will discuss Jefferson's political thought and career in gaining a broader perspective on the founding of the U.S. and its early history, while also helping teachers develop pedagogies that they can bring back to their own classrooms. Major themes will include federalism, foreign policy, constitutionalism, party politics, race and slavery.

Gallagher's seminar will examine the era of the American Civil War, with emphasis on its origins, scope and consequences. Through lectures, class discussion, examination of historical texts and visits to historic sites, the instructors and participants will examine the central role of slavery, the ways in which military and civilian affairs intersected and influenced one another, the question of what the war left unresolved and how Americans have remembered the conflict. The seminar will seek to bring relevance to these issues while at the same time helping teachers to develop pedagogies that they can bring back to their own classrooms.

In 2012, the Gilder Lehrman Institute will offer more than 1,000 educators the chance to study American history with leading historians at top institutions throughout the United States and United Kingdom. Each participant will work with primary source documents provided by professors and the Gilder Lehrman Collection and will receive reading materials, room and board, transportation for tours and a travel stipend. Since the program's inception, more than 7,000 educators have participated in Gilder Lehrman Teacher Seminars, and most attendees rate the program as their best professional development experience.

Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization devoted to the improvement of history education.