Using historic and contemporary maps in the collections of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education (University of Southern Maine) and the Leventhal Map and Education Center (Boston Public Library) as a starting point, participants will explore how both maps and landscapes reflect, erase, obscure, and celebrate Black and Indigenous geographies and histories along New England’s maritime coast. Through deep, critical work with maps, guided museum explorations and learning journeys in rural and urban landscapes, scholar talks and creative workshops, and critical readings and discussions, participants will consider and reflect upon representations of community and resilience in maritime New England, and bring new ways of looking through maps back to their own classrooms and local landscapes.
The Osher Map Library and Leventhal Map and Education Center will welcome 25 educators (grades 3-12) to Portland, Maine, and Boston, Massachusetts, from July 14th to July 26th, 2024. Institute participants will begin the Institute at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, and then travel to Boston for the second half of the institute, with significant additional time spent on Maine’s Schoodic Peninsula; Bath, Maine; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Applications for summer 2024 will be available beginning on December 15, 2023.
NEH-funded Institutes are professional development programs that convene K-12 educators or higher education faculty from across the nation to deepen their understanding of significant topics in the humanities and enrich their capacity for effective scholarship and teaching.
NEH-funded Landmarks of American History and Culture programs support a series of one-week residential, virtual, and combined format professional development workshops across the nation to enhance how K-12 educators, higher education faculty, and humanities professionals incorporate place-based approaches to humanities teaching and scholarship.
You are eligible to apply if you are a:
You are not eligible to apply if you:
NEH does not require participants to have earned an advanced degree.
In any given year, an individual may attend only one Institute or Landmarks workshop.
To be considered for selection, applicants must submit a complete application as indicated on the individual project’s website. Any questions about applications should be directed to the individual project team.
Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age. For further information, write to the Equal Opportunity Officer, National Endowment for the Humanities, 400 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024. TDD: 202-606-8282 (this is a special telephone device for the Deaf).
To be considered, you must submit a complete application as indicated on the individual project’s website. Prospective participants must follow the stated application and acceptance deadlines. In general, application extensions will not be granted. Any questions about applying should be directed to the individual project team. Participant eligibility criteria are determined by NEH. Application review and offer decisions are determined by individual project teams in accordance with NEH eligibility requirements.
In any given year, an individual may attend only one Institute or Landmarks workshop. Participants may not accept an additional offer or withdraw in order to accept a different offer once they have accepted an offer to attend an NEH Institutes or Landmarks program. Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age.
Project teams and program participants must adhere to the Principles of Civility for NEH Professional Development Programs detailed here: https://www.neh.gov/grants/principles-civility
Stipends provide compensation to participants for their time commitment and help to defray participation costs, such as travel, program activities, lodging, and meals (for residential programs), and technical support (for virtual programs). For residential programs, participants cover their own costs for travel to/from a program, lodging, and meals. Stipends are taxable as income.
Project teams must not reduce participant stipends for project-related activities, lodging, or meal costs without prior approval. Project teams must not place contingencies (completing a lesson plan, completing a program evaluation, etc.) on the receipt of participant stipends.
Applicants who accept an offer to participate are expected to remain during the entire period of the program and to participate in its work on a full-time basis. If a participant is obliged through special circumstances to arrive after the beginning or depart before the end of the Institutes or Landmarks program, it shall be the recipient institution’s responsibility to see that only a pro rata share of the stipend is received or that the appropriate pro rata share of the stipend is returned if the participant has already received the full stipend.
For this 2-week workshop, participants receive a $2,200 stipend.
The NEH requires project directors to collect anonymous participant evaluations at the conclusion of their programs. Unedited participant evaluation responses will be included in the project’s final report to the NEH and any future Institutes or Landmarks applications.
Continuing Education, In-Service, and Graduate Credits for K-12 Programs: Project teams may opt to offer continuing education, in-service, or graduate credit. These opportunities sometimes require additional work by participants beyond the program, such as writing a research paper, and participants are responsible for associated costs or fees unless otherwise noted. See individual project websites for additional information.
NEH Seminars, Institutes, and Landmarks programs are intended to extend and deepen knowledge and understanding of the humanities by focusing on significant topics, texts, and issues; contribute to the intellectual vitality and professional development of participants; and foster a community of inquiry that provides models of excellence in scholarship and teaching.
NEH expects that project directors will take responsibility for encouraging an ethos of openness and respect, upholding the basic norms of civil discourse. Seminar, Institute, and Landmarks presentations and discussions should be:
NEH welcomes comments, concerns, or suggestions on these principles at questions@neh.gov.