Shannon Bontrager PhD

As part of the NEH's "Bridging Cultures at Community Colleges," the AHA sponsored a multi-year project to reframe the origins of the United States within a broad geographical and chronological context. In this video, Prof. Shannon Bontrager discusses the resources to instructors looking to bring a global perspective to their US history survey course. --- The American Historical Association is the largest professional organization serving historians in all fields and all professions. The AHA is a trusted voice advocating for history education, the professional work of historians, and the critical role of historical thinking in public life. https://www.historians.org

The introductory US History course is the lynchpin of general education programs and history majors across the country. But extenuated content-coverage models and high student failure rates in many settings undercut what should be the best opportunity for us as historians to teach our discipline. How can we turn the intro course from an obstacle into a true gateway to higher learning? This session, held at the 2016 AHA annual meeting in Atlanta, featured specific examples of courses that faculty from two- and four-year institutions have transformed. Faculty showed how (and why) they changed what they do in the classroom and what it has meant for students so far. Presenters shared their expectations for the introductory course, how they address differences in student populations, how they incorporate learning research and what is new in history scholarship, and how conversations among faculty at different institutions can help revitalize history curricula from the bottom up. This session was part of the AHA's "Bridging Cultures at Community Colleges" program, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities: https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/globalizing-the-us-history-survey The American Historical Association is the largest professional organization serving historians in all fields and all professions. The AHA is a trusted voice advocating for history education, the professional work of historians, and the critical role of historical thinking in public life.  https://www.historians.org The AHA annual meeting is the largest gathering of professional historians in the United State. Reflecting the full diversity of the discipline, the meeting offers historians in all professions and fields the opportunity to build relationships, present their work, identify new historiography, gain teaching insights, and join critical discussion on issues facing all historians. The 2017 meeting was held January 4-7, 2017, in Denver, Colorado. https://www.historians.org/annual-meeting