NEWSLETTER
Funding supports a two-week Summer Institute for teachers in July 2021
Ticonderoga, N.Y. – The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a grant of $88,227 to Fort Ticonderoga to host a two-week NEH Summer Institute for Teachers in July 2021. The institute is titled “For the Common Defense: Subjects, Citizens, and America’s Military Origins, 1609-1815.” Fort Ticonderoga was one of eighteen institutions nationwide to receive this grant funding.
“This prestigious grant allows Fort Ticonderoga an unparalleled opportunity to play a vital part in educating and inspiring America’s youth through their teachers’ participation in this program,” said Beth L Hill, Fort Ticonderoga president and CEO. “Fort Ticonderoga is a national leader in teacher education and this program adds to our diverse offerings and increased reach.”
“I’m really excited to welcome 25 teachers to Fort Ticonderoga next summer as part of the NEH Summer Institute,” said Rich Strum, Fort Ticonderoga Director of Academic Programs and the NEH Project Director for the Summer Institute in 2021. “Providing these NEH summer scholars with a unique learning experience combining a prestigious group of visiting scholars and the talented staff and amazing resources at Fort Ticonderoga makes for a very memorable experience. It’s gratifying to think of the long-term impact an opportunity like this has on teachers and their future students for years to come.”
“This program gives us such an exciting an opportunity to live up to our mission and go beyond the battles to explore with teachers how individuals of all kinds engaged with the military institutions of the early modern era,” said Dr. Matthew Keagle, Fort Ticonderoga Curator. “We will examine the kinds of military service that existed across the Atlantic Ocean, across a range of time, and using the rich collection of documents and material remains held at Fort Ticonderoga. Doing so, we will ultimately be exploring the cultures and political systems that have shaped our world, giving teachers the ability to place historical events in context for their classrooms wherever they are in America.”
This residential NEH Summer Institute for Teachers will be offered July 11-23, 2021. There is no fee for this program and all participants receive a $2,200 stipend to help defray expenses. Teachers wishing to earn graduate credits can do so through Castleton University in Vermont.
Visiting scholars for the Summer Institute include prominent historians in their fields and include Andrew Buchanan (University of Vermont), James Kirby Martin (University of Houston, emeritus), Holly Mayer (Duquesne University), Jon Parmenter (Cornell University), Maeve Kane (The University at Albany), and Douglas Egerton (Le Moyne College). Participating teachers have the opportunity to discuss issues related to America’s military origins with these scholars as well as utilize the inexhaustible resources of Fort Ticonderoga.
Fort Ticonderoga’s role in the French & Indian War and the American Revolution is widely known, but the Ticonderoga collection of artifacts and archival materials supports broader exploration of military history in the Atlantic World from early European explorations of the North American continent through the early decades of the 19th century. This Summer Institute provides an opportunity to share these resources and the stories they tell with a national audience of educators.
“For the Common Defense: Subjects, Citizens, and America’s Military Origins, 1609-1815” is open to all 6th through 12th grade teachers nationwide through a competitive application process that opens later this fall. Full-time and part-time classroom teachers and librarians in public, charter, independent, and religiously-affiliated schools are eligible to participate. Other 6th-12th school personnel, including administrators, substitute teachers, and classroom professionals, are also eligible to participate, subject to available space.
Fort Ticonderoga hosted NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for School Teachers in 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2016, and also offers an annual Fort Ticonderoga Teacher Institute each summer; the 2021 Fort Ticonderoga Teacher Institute offered in late July 2021 focuses on “Exploration, Empire, and Revolution: American Origins 1609-1815.” To learn more about programs for educators, visit the Fort Ticonderoga website at www.fortticonderoga.org.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Summer Institute do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About the National Endowment for the Humanities
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
About Fort Ticonderoga:
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America. As a multi-day destination and the premier place to learn more about our nation’s earliest years and America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 70,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $12 million annually and offers programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year, and is open for daily visitation May through October. Fort Ticonderoga is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Photo: The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a grant of $88,227 to Fort Ticonderoga to host a two-week NEH Summer Institute for Teachers in July 2021. The institute is titled “For the Common Defense: Subjects, Citizens, and America’s Military Origins, 1609-1815.” Fort Ticonderoga was one of eighteen institutions nationwide to receive this grant funding.
Aerial view image copyright Fort Ticonderoga, photo credit Carl Heilman II.
For Further Information Contact:
Beth Hill - 518-586-1708