Institute Schedule
Schedule
The Alabama to New York K-12 Summer Institute will be offered as a combined institute, with the first five days occurring remotely via Zoom and the remaining ten days to be held in-person. The typical daily structure will consist of two sessions, each 2-3 hours in length. Sessions will include a discussion of readings, a presentation by a scholar or content expert, and a workshop segment for scholars to collaboratively work on their final Institute project and classroom curricula. Three strands will govern the content and activities of these daily sessions:
Scholarly research. Scholars will engage in deep research into the topics of study—the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance—and their interconnectedness. Scholars will delve into primary source documents and historical accounts in a variety of media including scholarly articles, oral histories, guidebooks, contemporaneous newspaper articles, novels, visual arts, music, and poetry.
Constructing knowledge through representation. Scholars will realize their understanding and knowledge of the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance by creating representations of their learning to be presented publicly at the end of the Institute. These acts of representation will be rooted in the guiding constructivist philosophy of the Institute—specifically the principle that learning occurs when learners engage in authentic acts of creation and representation, whether they are verbal discussions, scholarly writings, or artistic works1.
Project-based Pedagogy. Institute scholars will craft constructivist, project-based humanities curricula about the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance for their own classrooms. Scholars’ first-hand experiences of constructing knowledge through research and representation of the topics during the Institute will provide a blueprint for creating their own academically rigorous and engaging classroom projects. Dedicated pedagogy-focused workshops will aid scholars in transforming their first-hand learning experiences of the institute into classroom curricula.
The Institute will be broken up into three stages:
Stage One: Introductions and Overview. During this preliminary stage, scholars will focus their research on an overview of the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance. This stage will establish a foundational understanding of these interconnected historical phenomena. To ease the logistical burden of the intensive reading and study, the first stage will occur online via Zoom and be spread out over the four weeks preceding the in-person portions of the Institute. Participants will gain access to the participant-only features of the Institute website, which include discussion forums, digital resources, and shared collaboration spaces.
Stage Two: Impetus to Exodus. The second stage of the Institute will take place in-person in Alabama and focus primarily on the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the Jim Crow South in the first half of the 20th century that led to the Great Migration. Institute Scholars will begin their research at the Alabama State Black Archives, Research Center, and Museum housed at Alabama A&M University, a Historically Black University. They will engage in research and pedagogy workshops as they “migrate” from Huntsville to Birmingham, and Montgomery before flying to New York City for the final stage of the Institute.
Stage Three: The Fruits of Diaspora. The final stage of the Institute will be in New York City, specifically Harlem and the Upper West Side. During this portion of the Institute, scholars will explore not only the influence of Alabamian migrants on the Harlem Renaissance, but also the connection between the Harlem Renaissance and contemporary visual and performing arts. A major component of this stage of the Institute will be the development of humanities curricula for the participants to use when returning to their classrooms.
Online Academic Schedule (Tentative)
Saturdays, June 1 - June 29
*Academic Schedule Subject to Change
PART ONE: An Overview of the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance (online)
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Day 1
Saturday, June 1st
(online)
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
Orientation/Kickoff
Introducing the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance
Dr. Nathan Blom, AAMU
Dr. Adele Ashley, TC
Ms. Veronica Henderson, AAMU
Dr. Stacy Carter, AAMU
Arora, S. G. (2015). The Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance. Encyclopedia Britannica.
Afternoon Session:
Introducing The Warmth of Other Suns
Dr. Nathan Blom, AAMU
Dr. Adele Ashley, TC
Ms. Veronica Henderson, AAMU
Dr. Stacy Carter, AAMU
Sherman, R. (2011). “Review of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Isabel Wilkerson.” The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, Vol. 38: Iss. 3, Article 14.
Evening Session:
Asynchronous workshop and dedicated research time
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
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Day 2
Saturday, June 8th
(online)
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
The Impetus to Exodus: Jim Crow (The Old) South
Dr. Stacy Carter, AAMU
Excerpts from: Myrdal, G. (2017). An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, Volume I and II. Routledge.
Mid-Day Session:
Dedicated research time
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns.
Afternoon Session:
Educational factors of the Great Migration
Veronica Henderson, AAMU State Black Archives Research Center and Museum
Excerpts from: Lovett, B. (2015). America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
Smith, L. (1994). Killers of the Dream. W.W Norton & Company.
Evening Session:
Pedagogy Workshop: Establishing Online Communities
Dr. Nathan Blom, AAMU
Excerpts from: Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.
Gee, James. P. (2017) - Teaching, learning, literacy in our high-risk high-tech world: A framework for becoming human. New York: Teachers College Press, 2017.
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Day 3
Saturday, June 15th
(online)
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
Economic factors of the Great Migration
Dr. Stacy Carter, AAMU
Wilkerson, I. (2016). “The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration.” Smithsonian Magazine.
Mid-Day Session:
Dedicated research time
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
Afternoon Session:
The NEXT Great Migration: Contemporary Patterns of Reverse Migration
Dr. Stacy Carter, AAMU
Evening Session:
Pedagogy Workshop: Project-based Learning in a Participatory Culture
Dr. Nathan Blom, AAMU
Dr. Adele Ashley, TC
Blom, N. (2017). “Creative Criticism: Dialogue and Aesthetics in the English Language Arts Classroom.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 61 No. 1 pp. 45–54.
Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Vasudevan, L., & DeJaynes, T. (Eds.). (2013). Arts, media and justice: Multimodal explorations with youth. New York: Peter Lang.
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Day 4
Saturday, June 22nd
(online)
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
Overview of the Harlem Renaissance
Dr. Tracy Gholston, AAMU
Homer, B. (2022). “Jazz and the Great Migration: How African Americans and the Great Migration Changed the Sound of American Music.” Sam Houston State University.
Verney, K. (2020). “The Great Migration and the 'New Negro', 1915–1930”
Mid-Day Session:
Dedicated research time
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
Afternoon Session:
Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
Dr. Tracy Gholston, AAMU
Krasner, D. (2001). Migration, Fragmentation, and Identity: Zora Neale Hurston’s “Color Struck” and the Geography of the Harlem Renaissance. Theatre Journal, 53(4), 533–550. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25068985
Evening Session:
Dedicated research time
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
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Day 5
Saturday, June 29th
(online)
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
Music of the Harlem Renaissance
Veronica Henderson, AAMU State Black Archives Research Center and Museum
Excerpts from: Robertson, D. (2011). W. C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Mid-Day Session:
Dedicated research time
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
Afternoon Session:
Visual Art of the Harlem Renaissance
Veronica Henderson, AAMU State Black Archives Research Center and Museum
Museum of Modern Art (2023). One Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2015/onewayticket/
Evening Session
Synchronous Session: Preparing for the in-person institute
PART TWO: An Impetus to Exodus—Causes of the Great Migration (in-person, Alabama)
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Sunday, July 14th
Huntsville, AL
Session
Topic
Location
Welcome Session:
Sunday dinner meet and greet
Big Springs Park, Huntsville
Back to Top -
Day 6
Monday, July 15th
Huntsville, AL
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Pre-Session:
Arranged transit from lodgings to Alabama A&M
A tour of the present-day consequences of Jim Crow-era redlining in Huntsville, AL
Historical Tour of Alabama A&M
Veronica Henderson, AAMU State Black Archives Research Center and Museum
Excerpts from: Feldman, G. (2004). Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South. University of Alabama Press.
Davis, E. (2013). William Hooper Councill: The Greatest Negro the Race ever Produced. Huntsville, AL: Presh4word Publishing.
Rothstein, R. (2018). The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Norton.
Slater, G. (2021). Freedom to Discriminate: How Realtors Conspired to Segregate Housing and Divide America. Heyday.
Morning Session:
Alabama A&M University
The pedagogy of research and multimodal representation in the humanities
Dr. Adele Ashley, TC
Dr. Nathan Blom, AAMU
Excerpts from:
The New London Group (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, vol. 66, no.1, pp. 60-92.
Lunch: Provided
Afternoon Session:
Alabama A&M University
Black Society and Music of Jim Crow Alabama
Primary source research at the Alabama State Black Archives Research Center and Museum
Veronica Henderson, AAMU State Black Archives Research Center and Museum
Schutz, S. (2019). Grey-Washing Jim Crow: The Cultural Colonization of African-American Folk Music. Revue LISA/LISA e-journal [Online], vol. XVII-n°1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/lisa.11015.
Arranged transit from Alabama A&M to lodgings
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Day 7
Tuesday, July 16th,
Huntsville, AL
Session
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Arranged transit from lodgings to Alabama A&M
Morning Session:
Alabama A&M University
Letters from the North: Social and familial bonds
Dr. Dana Caldemeyer, AAMU
Personal letters (1920-1940). The Chicago Defender.
Lunch: Provided
Afternoon Session:
Alabama A&M University
Pedagogy Workshop: Using drama to synthesize literature and visual arts
Dr. Jill Coon, AAMU
Museum of Modern Art (2023). One Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2015/onewayticket/
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
Arranged transit from Alabama A&M to lodgings
Back to Top -
Day 8
Wednesday, July 17th
Birmingham, AL
Session
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Arranged transit from Alabama A&M to Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, AL
Morning Session:
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Oral Histories: Research, records, and representation
Dr. Stacy Carter, AAMU
Excerpts from: Green, W. (1936). The Negro Motorist Green Book
Personal Histories at the Oral History Archives. The Birmingham Civil Rights Insitute
Afternoon Session:
Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark
The working conditions of Jim Crow South
Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark
Greene, M. (1981). “Aesthetic literacy in general education.” In J. F. Soltis (Ed.) Eightieth yearbook of the national society for the study of education (pp. 115-141). Chicago, IL. University of Chicago Press.
Arranged transit from Birmingham, AL to Montgomery, AL
Back to Top -
Day 9
Thursday, July 18th
Montgomery, AL
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
The Legacy Museum:
From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration
Social and Legal antecedents to the Great Migration and contemporary mass incarceration.
Tad Roach, Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)
Exhibits from The Legacy Museum:
From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration
Afternoon Session:
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Representation and reconciliation
Tad Roach, Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)
Robertson, Campbell (2018). “A Lynching Memorial Is Opening. The Country Has Never Seen Anything Like It.” The New York Times.
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Day 10
Friday, July 19th
Montgomery, AL
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
Walking Tour of Montgomery
Guided tour of downtown Montgomery including the historically Black Centennial Hill neighborhood.
Justin Rudder, Alabama Department of Archives and History
Afternoon Session:
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Tour of the Museum of Alabama; ADAH digital collections orientation.
Pedagogy workshop: developing lesson plans from local and community histories.
Justin Rudder, Alabama Department of Archives and History
Independent Research in the memoirs and community histories housed within the Alabama State Archives
PART THREE: The Harlem Renaissance as a Result of the Great Migration (in-person, New York City)
- Saturday, July 20th Montgomery, AL to New York, NY
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Day 11
Monday, July 22nd
New York, NY
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
Smith Learning Theater, Teachers College, Columbia University
Fostering diverse perspectives through multimodal representation
Dr. Adele Ashley, TC
Dr. Nathan Blom, AAMU
Smith, Blaine E. (2019). “Mediational Modalities: Adolescents Collaboratively Interpreting Literature through Digital Multimodal Composing”
Research in the teaching of English, Vol.53 (3), p.197-222.
Afternoon Session:
Apollo Theater and Walking Tour of Harlem
Connecting past to present: Touring the historical sites of the Harlem Renaissance
Dr. Stacy Carter, AAMU
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Day 12
Tuesday, July 23rd
New York, NY
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session: The Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library
Exploring primary source artifacts of the connection between the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance
Dr. Stacy Carter, AAMU
Veronica Henderson, AAMU State Black Archives Research Center and Museum
Green, W. (1936). The Negro Motorist Green Book.
Afternoon Session:
The Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library
Individual Exploration of the Schomburg archives
Facilitator from the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division of the Schomburg
Readings from Hutson archives.
Evening Session: Optional Excursion to Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater
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Day 13
Wednesday, July 24th
New York, NY
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
New York Historical Society
Connections and disconnections of female voices of the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance
New York Historical Society Facilitator
Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
Afternoon Session: Walking Tour of Central Park
Ongoing patterns of forced migration
Veronica Henderson, AAMU State Black Archives Research Center and Museum
Central Park Conservancy (2018). “Before Central Park: The Story of Seneca Village.” Central Park Conservancy Magazine.
Evening Session: Optional Excursion to Classical Theatre of Harlem in Marcus Garvey Park
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Day 14
Thursday, July 25th
New York, NY
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
Smith Learning Theater, Teachers College, Columbia University
Principles of multimodal representation.
Final Project Workshopping.
Dr. Nathan Blom, AAMU
Gee, James. P. (2017) - Teaching, learning, literacy in our high-risk high-tech world: A framework for becoming human. New York: Teachers College Press, 2017.
Afternoon Session:
Smith Learning Theater, Teachers College, Columbia University
Pedagogy Workshop: Project-based inquiry within the humanities.
Dr. Adele Ashley, TC
Laur, Dayna. (2020). Authentic project-based learning in 9-12: standards-based strategies and scaffolding for success. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Evening Session: Optional excursion to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Optional excursion to the Cotton Club (as it exists now)
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Day 15
Friday, July 26th
New York, NY
Back to TopSession
Topic
Facilitator/Institute
Readings
Morning Session:
Smith Learning Theater, Teachers College, Columbia University
Curriculum Development Workshop: development of three lesson sequences to launch units of curriculum in chosen area of focus
Dr. Nathan Blom
Dr. Adele Ashley
Henderson, Matt, ed. (2019). Catch a Fire: Fuelling Inquiry and Passion Through Project-Based Learning.
Winnipeg, Manitoba: Portage & Main Press, 2019.Afternoon Session:
Smith Learning Theater, Teachers College, Columbia University
Curriculum Workshop: Peer facilitation of lesson sequence excerpts
Institute Participants
Evening Session: optional trip to Minton’s, a premiere jazz club located in central Harlem
FAQS FOR NEH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT APPLICANTS AND PARTICIPANTS
Questions regarding applications and program requirements should be directed to program project directors at al2ny.neh@gmail.com.
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