American Studies Summer Institute
Americans All?: Imagining Citizenship, Past and Present
An institute at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for history, civics, and social studies teachers that is also open to American Studies, history, and political science graduate students.
For over two decades, teachers and graduate students in American Studies, political science, history, and related disciplines have explored in depth a topic drawn from American history, politics, culture, or social policy through the American Studies Summer Institute, co-sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Boston and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The intensive two-week program, held at the Kennedy Library, includes informative and thought-provoking lectures and discussions led by a distinguished group of scholars and guests.
This year’s program will consider citizenship as a legal, social, and cultural category throughout American history and today. We will evaluate how conceptualizations of belonging have been defined, contested, and reimagined. We will look not only at how individual citizenship and “American” identity have been constructed historically, but we will also study the alternating currents of inclusion and exclusion that have shaped the historical experiences of particular groups in their intentional communities and in those constructed by states, the nation, and other forces in the larger world.
As in the past, the Institute will draw upon experts from a variety of disciplines and with diverse perspectives. The Institute will be directed by Patricia A. Reeve, Assistant Professor of History at Suffolk University, and Education Specialist Nina Tisch at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Credit
Participants may earn three graduate credits in American Studies. For those who wish to receive graduate credit, the fee for this grant-supported course is $195. (A non-credit option is available for $150.) Graduate students must complete a major paper. Teachers who wish to receive graduate credit must complete a 10-page research paper, annotated bibliography, and lesson plan. Teachers may receive PDPs upon completion of a lesson plan.
