News & Events > Coe Workshop for Teachers
The next William R. Coe Summer Workshop in American History will be offered in 2008.
Summer 2008: The William Robertson Coe Workshop in American History
“VISIONS OF THE NEW NATION, 1790-1860”
July 5-19, 2008, Stanford University
Taught by Professor Caroline Winterer
Workshop Description
Since the 1950s, Stanford University has offered the Coe Fellowship for secondary school teachers in American history. Financial support for the program comes from an endowment bequeathed by William Robertson Coe, an English-born American businessman and philanthropist who during his career became deeply interested in the history of the United States. The workshop brings together a select group of teachers for intensive study of a major theme of topic in American history. The core of the program is a series of morning seminars conducted by a senior professor in the Department of History; these focus on readings and group discussion. The seminar may be supplemented at the discretion of the faculty member by other activities such as guest lectures and field trips.
Theme of the 2008 Workshop
The first decades of American nationhood were some of the most tumultuous in American history, as different groups in American society articulated different visions for the new republic. Using mostly primary sources (original documents and images for this historical time period), this seminar will focus on key themes and questions of this period: competing visions of the legacy of the American Revolution; the Lewis and Clark Expedition and meanings of nature and the west; the development of racial attitudes; abolitionism and proslavery arguments; meanings of “democracy,” to name a few.
Fellowship Support
Fellowships will be awarded to people now teaching U.S. history at the 11th and 12th grade levels in public or private secondary schools, and who have at least two to three years of experience teaching in that field. The awards will be based on intellectual interests, professional accomplishment, and dedication to the art of teaching. The fellowship stipend covers room and board in a University residence for the two-week period of the workshop. Books and other assigned reading materials will be provided for participants. Fellows who wish to receive credit for participation in the workshop may request a certificate of completion (an equivalent of 3 units of graduate credit, or 2 semester units).
Faculty Director of the 2008 Workshop
The workshop will be taught by Professor Caroline Winterer. Her area of interest and expertise is the cultural and intellectual history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America. She is the author of two books, The Mirror of Antiquity: American Women and the Classical Tradition, 1750-1900 (2007), and the prize-winning The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910 (2002; pb 2004). She has also published articles in the Journal of American History, American Quarterly, the Journal of the Early Republic, and Modern Intellectual History. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Humanities Center, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. She lectures frequently in programs for high school history and social science teachers, most recently at Mount Vernon, Virginia, and in Oakland, California.
Application Process
Applications are available as a PDF file on line via the Department of History’s website.
Mail completed applications to:
Christopher Wilkins, Graduate Assistant to the Coe Workshop
c/o Coe Summer Workshop
Department of History
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2024
(Any questions should be directed to wilkins5@stanford.edu)
Applications are due March 17, 2008 and notification of awards will be made by early April.
Last updated Nov. 28, 2007