October 10, 2010
Dear Colleague,
Thank you for considering applying to my seminar on “Production and Consumption in World History, 1450-1914.” I have planned a stimulating four-week seminar for all those participating—the visiting scholars (you), the faculty for the seminar and the staff here at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). In this seminar you’ll be able to share your ideas and to learn new ways of teaching world history as the linking of producers and consumers from many lands.
This letter provides an overview of the work we’ll be doing together and some sense of how the seminar will work. I hope you’ll read it carefully. Please let me know any questions you might have. I know that you have choices to make, and I’d be happy to provide further information so that you can make an informed choice.
OVERVIEW
Ours is a consumer society. But where do the products we consume originate? What histories do they conceal? Popular histories like Mark Kurlansky’s Cod: a Biography of the Fish That Changed The World (1999) have raised awareness that the food we put on our tables, the clothing we wear and the objects with which we surround ourselves all contain embedded histories that open doors onto a wider world.
The Summer Seminar on “Production and Consumption in World History” seeks through the study of these embedded histories to understand the successive transformation of the modern world economy over the period 1450-1914 and the role of individuals in it.
Using a variety of different materials (art history, material objects, histories of production and work, as well as of consumption and fashion, micro-histories and global histories) our seminar will explore the making of the modern world from the bottom up. By linking the biographies of commodities (what Arjun Appadurai has called “the social life of things”) with the “social biographies” of ordinary (and sometimes not so ordinary) people, we can capture the sweep of the world economy, while also putting people in the center of the lens.
The summer seminar on “Production and Consumption in World History” provides new ways for teachers and students to grasp how the world they inhabit was made and remade, and the role of producers and consumers in this process of construction. It calls upon them to look at the past from unfamiliar angles, and to think through the logic of how connections developed, changed and were sustained over time.
Our approach derives from Sidney Mintz’s 1986 Sweetness and Power, which asks us to see production and consumption as “inter-digitated” (that is, inescapably bound up with one another). Inspired by Mintz, this seminar will use the interconnected histories of production and consumption for doing world history.
The curriculum integrates the history of the world economy from 1450 to 1914, as seen via the leading commodities in each historical era. Since I first began working with graduate students on world history three decades ago, I’ve become convinced that linking histories of individuals and world historical processes has the potential for transforming how we do world history.
During the seminar, participants will develop a “commodity biography” and a “social biography” website project. The completed projects can be included in the website of the UCSC Center for World History (see website for examples). In addition to these projects, participants will gain new perspectives on how the development of the world economy involved the linking of individuals and societies around the world by invisible threads of connection. They will also participate in the collective project of the development of a major bibliography of “Commodities in World History,” a prototype model of which is also posted on the Center’s website.
UCSC Center for World History: http://cwh.ucsc.edu/
SEMINAR FACULTY
Edmund (“Terry”) Burke III is Professor Emeritus of History at UC Santa Cruz and a director of the UCSC Center for World History. Between 2003 and 2007, he was the holder of a Presidential Chair at UC Santa Cruz, where he has taught world history for more than 40 years. He directed the highly successful 2009 NEH Summer Seminar for teachers, “Production and Consumption in World History, 1450-1925.” He has also directed two NEH Summer Institutes for College Teachers – one in summer 1995 (“Rethinking Europe/Rethinking World History, 1500-1750″), and one in summer 1998 (“The Environment and World History, 1500-2000”).
Burke has worked with classroom teachers for more than a decade, and was one of the co-directors of an NEH-funded initiative for world history in middle and high schools, “World History for Us All (WHFUA).” The outcome of a three-year collaboration between scholars of world history and seasoned classroom teachers, WHFUA produced a comprehensive model curriculum for teaching world history from early times to the present. It can be viewed at http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/.
In addition to the director, the faculty of this seminar includes Steven Topik, (Professor of History, University of California, Irvine), and Pedro Machado (Assistant Professor, Indiana University Bloomington).
Professor Topik is the author of several books on coffee in the world economy, as well as the editor (with Kenneth Pomeranz) of The World That Trade Created, a widely used supplementary text in world history courses. He will join us in Week 3 to introduce the coffee story, and provide an alternate perspective on the role of trade in world history. )
Professor Machado is an expert on the history of handloom cotton production in India, and the place of Indian cottons in the East African economy from the eighteenth century to the present, and will join our group in Week 4 to share his work on the history of cotton handloom producers in western India, and the development of an export market to East Africa that dates to the fifteenth century.
SELECTION PROCESS
Participants will be selected by a three-person committee, consisting of the project director, a UCSC world history faculty colleague, and a high school teacher of world history. Members of the committee will read and evaluate each application.
We will be especially interested in selecting teachers who can show a commitment to improving their own teaching and to developing the teaching of world history. We will strive to assemble a group that includes a broad diversity in backgrounds and interests. Teachers with backgrounds in US, European and World history, as well as art history, economic history and related disciplines are especially urged to apply.
MEETING SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS
The seminar will meet formally four times per week, Monday through Thursday. Readings will be provided to the participants the first day of the seminar, either in the form of books or articles converted to PDFs that will be posted on a password-protected website created for the seminar’s participants. Participants will also receive memory sticks preloaded with the reading materials, to which they will be able to add content as the seminar progresses. Participants who wish to print out articles will be able to do so at the UCSC Institute for Humanities Research, the administrative home of the UCSC Center for World History.
In addition to formal meetings, the director will meet with individual participants at least twice, and will hold office hours by appointment.
LOCATION, FACILITIES, AND RESOURCES
The campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz is an ideal place to hold an NEH Summer Seminar for Teachers. The campus is situated in the hills at the north end of Monterey Bay, within easy driving distance of the San Francisco Bay Area and major airports. The climate in summer is mild with cool, misty mornings and bright afternoons. The campus is a very active place in the summer with many other conferences, institutes and a summer session.
Participants will have access to the UCSC McHenry Library, which contains over a million volumes and access to major electronic databases. In addition, participants will have access to the full resources of UC inter-campus libraries via Inter Library Loan. Library summer hours for 2011 are still to be determined.
In addition to the seminar meeting room, the participants will have access to a common study room in the same building, where they will be able to access the Internet and e-mail.
Access to the UCSC fitness facilities can be arranged for a fee via the Office of Physical Education, Recreation, and Sports (OPERS). Facilities include a state of the art gym with views of the Monterey Bay peninsula, tennis courts, and an Olympic pool.
HOUSING
A staff coordinator will assist participants with finding housing. We are generally able to house all of our participants in sublet on-campus faculty apartments and houses, on a shared basis. If desired, we can also assist participants in finding housing off-campus, but summer rentals in Santa Cruz are often relatively expensive. We will introduce the participants to one another in April (virtually), and you will be able to choose your roommates.
For those with their own cars, parking is available at the sublet apartment or house. For those dependent upon public transport, the good news is that Santa Cruz has a relatively robust (by California standards) public transit system. There is regular bus service between the campus and the city of Santa Cruz at every 15 minutes in summer. The UCSC website contains information on access to local airports. The closest is San Jose International Airport (45 minutes drive time). San Francisco International Airport is approximately two hours by car from Santa Cruz).
STIPENDS
Participants in the four-week seminar are awarded a $3,300 stipend, which is meant to cover travel to and from the project location, housing and food costs during the seminar. The full stipend will be paid to you when you arrive. In order to be eligible for the full amount of the stipend participants must attend all required events and activities. In accordance with NEH rules, participants who do not attend the entire seminar will be required to return a pro-rata amount of their stipend.
Seminar and institute participants are required to attend all meetings and to engage fully in the work of the project. During the project’s tenure, they may not undertake teaching assignments or any other professional activities unrelated to their participation in the project.
At the end of the project’s residential period, participants will be asked to submit online evaluations in which they review their work during the summer and assess its value to their personal and professional development. These evaluations will become part of the project’s grant file and may become part of an application to repeat the seminar or institute.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
While Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are not available through UC Santa Cruz, we will work with each teacher individually to assist them in getting the Continuing Education Units from their home school districts.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Application information is included with this letter and posted on the Center for World History website. Your completed application must be postmarked no later than March 1, 2011, and should be addressed as follows:
Edmund Burke III
Center for World History
c/o Institute for Humanities Research
UC Santa Cruz
Humanities 1, Suite 515
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
The most important part of the application is your essay. It should include your reasons for applying to the specific project; your relevant personal and academic information; your qualifications to do the work of the project and make contributions to it; what you hope to accomplish by participation; and the relation of the study to your teaching.
APPLICATION CHECKLIST
A completed application consists of three copies of the following collated items:
- the completed application cover sheet,
- a résumé or brief biography, and
- an application essay as outlined below.
In addition, it must include two letters of recommendation as described below.
The Application Cover Sheet
The application cover sheet must be filled out online at this address: http://www.neh.gov/online/education/participants/
Please fill it out online as directed by the prompts. When you are finished, be sure to click on the “submit” button. Print out the cover sheet and add it to your application package. At this point you will be asked if you want to fill out a cover sheet for another project. If you do, follow the prompts and select another project and then print out the cover sheet for that project as well. Note that filling out a cover sheet is not the same as applying, so there is no penalty for changing your mind and filling out a cover sheet for several projects. A full application consists of the items listed above, as sent to the project director.
Also, please note that while you may request information about many NEH Summer Seminars, you may apply to up to two projects and participate in only one.
Résumé
Please include a résumé or brief biography detailing your educational qualifications and professional experience.
The Application Essay
The application essay should be no more than four double-spaced pages. It should address reasons for applying; the applicant’s interest, both academic and personal, in the subject to be studied; qualifications and experiences that equip the applicant to do the work of the seminar and to make a contribution to a learning community; a statement of what the applicant wants to accomplish by participating; and the relation of the project to the applicant’s professional responsibilities.
Reference Letters
The two referees may be from inside or outside the applicant’s home institution. They should be familiar with the applicant’s professional accomplishments or promise, teaching and/or research interests, and ability to contribute to and benefit from participation in the seminar. Referees should be provided with the director’s description of the seminar and the applicant’s essay. Applicants who are current graduate students should secure a letter from a professor or advisor. Please ask your referees to sign across the seal on the back of the envelope containing the letter. Enclose the letters with your application.
SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS AND NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE
Completed applications should be submitted to the project director and should be postmarked no later than
Successful applicants will be notified of their selection on
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT:
Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. For further information, write to NEH Equal Opportunity Officer, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. TDD: (202) 606-8282 (this is a special telephone device for the Deaf).
CONCLUSION
I hope you will join us for what promises to be an exciting and stimulating seminar this coming summer. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions that you have about the seminar, myself and the other faculty, or about UCSC.
Sincerely,
Terry Burke
Director
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CONTACT
Email: NEHseminar@ucsc.edu
Phone: (831) 459-3527
Mailing Address:
Center for World History
c/o Institute for Humanities Research
University of California Santa Cruz
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
