The 2025 History Institute
Greece, Rome, and the Mediterranean: Exploring the Past for Social Transformation
Spring 2025 | Wednesdays from 4-6:30pm at UMass Amherst | Register Now
3 Grad Credits or Free PDPs + $200 Stipends to Participants!
The UMass Amherst History Department invites K-12 educators to enroll in Greece, Rome, and the Mediterranean: Exploring the Past for Social Transformation, a spring 2025 seminar exploring the history of the Ancient Mediterranean and its multiple influences on the modern world and contemporary social contexts. This offering will center around the question of how we can reimagine the critical complexities of studies of Ancient Mediterranean history to engage with contemporary experiences and social transformation in today’s globally interconnected world.
This course will run from February 5 - May 7, 2025 with no class March 19. Participating teachers can attend each class and receive 3 graduate credits in history or 32.5 PDPs in History/Social Studies or Latin and Classical Humanities. Alternatively, educators can attend 6 sessions and receive 15 PDPs. See details below.
Participating Educators Will:
- Attend and actively participate in this seminar alongside UMass graduate and undergraduate students. Educators are encouraged to bring their own experiences, resources, and perplexities into the course.
- Trace the development of ancient ideas of race and ethnicity, slavery and freedom, gender and sexuality, belonging and hope, fear and oppression, and warfare and peacemaking, encountering others and othering, and other topics of interest to students.
- Explore the impact of these ancient ideas, including their influence on early modern, modern, and contemporary expressions of oppression, social justice and liberation in social movements, art, theater, media, literature, politics, and scholarship.
- Receive resources and tools for facilitating complex and impactful lessons about these topics.
- Create their own educational tools and exchange these tools, lesson plans, curricula, and additional learning resources with other educators throughout the course.
Enrollment Options:
TRACK ONE: Attend the Entire Semester-Long Course
Educators who choose this track will attend all sessions over the course of the semester. Educators on this track may formally enroll in the course and receive 3 graduate credits in history (History 691) OR participate in the seminar free-of-charge and receive PDPs.
- Graduate Credit in History: Graduate credit is free for supervising practitioners with valid course waivers. Without waivers, the cost is $901/credit (in-state). In addition to the activities noted above, those enrolled in the course for graduate credit must complete additional assignments, which will include weekly reflections, presentations, and a final project of the students’ choice crafted in consultation with the instructors.
- PDPs in History/Social Studies OR Latin and Classical Humanities: Educators who opt for PDPs instead of graduate credit will complete class readings, attend each seminar, and create and share a final project. Upon successful completion of the seminar, 32.5 PDPs will be awarded by the UMass Amherst College of Education. This track is free.
TRACK TWO: Attend 6 Sessions over the Course of the Semester
Educators on this track will attend the first and last sessions (February 5 and May 7), as well as 4 additional sessions of their choosing, and receive 15 PDPs from the UMass Amherst College of Education. Participants on this track will complete select class readings participate in the sessions they attend, and create and share educational tools. Participants can opt to received PDPs in History/Social Studies OR Latin and Classical Humanities.
K-12 educators on both tracks will receive $200 stipends for completing all components
The Faculty
Mariah Lapiroff, Ed.S. in Social Justice Education and MAT in Latin & Classical Humanities, is a Social Justice & Equity Specialist at the Collaborative for Educational Services and former Latin teacher, who works to center belonging in schools. Read more.
Jason Moralee, PhD in History, Professor of Greek and Roman History at UMass Amherst. Read more.
Register Here
Image Credit: Getty Villa, Mummy Portrait of a Boy, Egypt, 150-200 CE.
Past Institutes
2023-2024 | Recovering, Interpreting, and Sharing Black History in the Connecticut River Valley
Despite the challenges of unearthing histories of enslaved people and free Black communities in small towns of rural western Massachusetts, community researchers, scholars, and museum educators have devoted the past two years to uncovering these histories in ways that move beyond merely identifying enslaved residents, and enslavers, to tell a broader story of these small western Massachusetts communities. In this 4-part summer workshop series with professor and former K-12 history teacher Dr. Ousmane Power-Greene, educators and community members read, analyzed, and discussed documented evidence of Black people in local western Massachusetts towns and cities and explored the larger context of Black life in eighteenth and nineteenth century US and Atlantic World,. Together, these events brought to life the online resources created by local history organizations and made available through the Documenting the Early History of Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley project.
2022–2023 | Teaching Empire
As K–12 educators, how can we center imperialism in our teaching of U.S. history, politics, and culture? Offered as part of the UMass Amherst history department’s 2022-2023 Feinberg Series, this yearlong workshop series aims to guide K–12 educators in deepening our analysis and discussions of United States’s role in the world and the ways in which we make these connections with our students. Exploring the theme Confronting Empire, the Feinberg Series brings together world renowned scholars, journalists, writers, community organizers, and survivors of state violence to examine global histories of U.S. imperialism and anti-imperialist resistance. Designed for teachers of all grade levels and subject areas, this four-part companion series offers opportunities to dive into learnings from Feinberg Series speakers, to reimagine our curriculum with corresponding primary sources, and to integrate interdisciplinary pedagogy into our teaching. Teachers will create materials to help support students in thinking critically about colonization, empire, and U.S. foreign policy, from the origins of the United States to the present. Read more.
2020–2021 | Teaching on a Precipice: Empowering Student / Teacher Partnerships for Climate Justice
This workshop series was offered alongside the 2020–2021 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, Planet on a Precipice: Histories and Futures of the Environmental Emergency, a free online event series from the UMass Amherst history department. The events feature leading historians, scholars, filmmakers, and organizers from the environmental movement exploring the climate and environmental emergency in a historical perspective. This complementary set of educator workshops sought to support teachers in varied contexts and disciplines in integrating environmental studies into our teaching, in deepening our collective learnings from the Feinberg Series speakers, and in building student/teacher partnerships for climate justice. Facilitated by social justice educators Romina Pacheco and Safire DeJong. More information.
2019–2020 | Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies and Teaching for Black Lives
The 2019–2020 history institute explored culturally sustaining pedagogy—described by education scholar Django Paris as a way for educators to support racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity in the classroom, which is a form of social justice education—and it looked to African American history to deepen our collective understanding of present-day issues. It was offered in partnership with Keisha L. Green (Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, UMass) and featured guest lectures by Brittany Frederick (Department of History, UMass), Toussaint Losier (W. E. B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies, UMass), and Erika Slocumb (W. E. B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies and Public History Program, UMass) and a keynote address by the co-editors of Teaching for Black Lives, Dyan Watson (Lewis and Clark) and Wayne Au (University of Washington). Read More.
2018–2019 | Another World Is Possible: Teaching for Liberation
This year's history institute was offered in conjunction with the 2018 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, Another World Is Possible: Teaching for Liberation, an event series that brought together movement leaders and scholars in critical conversation about the revolutionary visions that have propelled political transformation. Educators attended six Feinberg Series events and two additional workshops with social justice educators Safire DeJong and Ousmane Power-Greene, and completed a final reflective project. Offered with the Collaborative for Educational Services.
2017–2018 | Assorted Programs
James Baldwin on Film, on the Page, and in the Classroom
This two-part workshop on the life and work of James Baldwin was offered in collaboration with the Western Mass Writers Project and the James Baldwin Project. The first session focused on why to teach Baldwin, the second on how. The first meeting featured a screening and discussion of the film The Price of the Ticket, which includes numerous interviews with Baldwin. The second involved discussion of a short piece of Baldwin’s writing and strategies for teaching it.
Book Group: Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean
A National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) online book group for K–6 teachers on Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean: Remembering Chinese Scientist Pu Zhelong's Work for Sustainable Farming by UMass Amherst History Professor Sigrid Schmalzer. This picture book is suitable for both lower and upper elementary school students. Participants read the book, contributed to online discussions, and joined a webinar with the author. The online book group is administered by the Five College Center for East Asian Studies (FCCEAS) in collaboration with the History Institute.
2016–2017 | Teaching in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Using sociohistorical and interdisciplinary perspectives to understand mass incarceration in the United States, this series explored concepts and practical examples for the classroom. This year's series was offered in conjunction with the 2016–2017 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, which was an event series addressing how state violence, mass incarceration, and mass criminalization have transformed the U.S. economy, culture, and society. Participating teachers attended eight Feinberg Series lectures and other events, participated in four 90-minute teachers seminars facilitated by Antonio Nieves Martinez, and developed lesson plans for their classrooms. Workshops included presentations by local teachers and by members of Pa'lante Restorative Justice at Holyoke High School. The series culminated in a public curriculum share in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
2015–2016 | The 1960s and Beyond in Historical Perspective: Social Justice and Equality in Local Context
This year's History Institute was a collaboration with the Smith College’s Sophia Smith Collection, UMass Amherst Special Collections and University Archives, and Wistariahurst Museum and Archive. Each session was held at an archive and was focused on local histories of activism and social change from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, including local women's movements, the Latino community organizing in Holyoke, and the creation of communes and utopian communities in rural Western Massachusetts. Participants worked with primary sources from the archives and online sources from the Library of Congress and created lesson plans to bring these events and primary sources into local classrooms. Presenters included Kathleen Nutter PhD (historian and archivist, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College), Maria Cartagena (historian, board member, and community organizer, Wistariahurst Museum), Penni Martorell (archivist and city historian, Wistariahurst Museum), and Rob Cox PhD (head of Special Collections, UMass Du Bois Library Special Collections and University Archives and adjunct professor, UMass Amherst Department of History).
2015–2016 | Migration Matters: Immigration in the Modern Americas
This year's History Institute was offered in conjunction with the 2015–2016 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, which explored migration in the modern Americas. Participants attended Feinberg Series lectures with scholars from across the United States, as well as sessions with UMass Amherst immigration historians. Professor Jennifer Fronc led a session on teaching immigration history with visual sources, and Professor Julio Capó, Jr and Outreach Director Jessica Johnson facilitated a workshop on new approaches to understanding the history of migration to the United States.
2013–2014 | Contemporary Events in Historical Perspective
Inspired by the history department's blog, Past@Present, the 2013–2014 history institute addressed contemporary events in historical perspective. This four-session institute featured lectures by UMass Amherst History faculty Professors Mary Wilson, Audrey Altstadt, Chris Appy, and David Glassberg. By looking closely at Central Asia, the Middle East, the idea of American exceptionalism and the modern environmental movement, the goal of this series was to help teachers gain essential perspective on stories in the news today. Videos of the lectures are available on the history department YouTube page.
Statement on History Department Sponsorship of Events
Departmental (co)sponsorship of various types of events does not constitute an endorsement of the views expressed by the presenters, either at the events in question or in other venues. Rather, sponsorship is an endorsement of the exploration of complex and sometimes difficult topics. The UMass History Department is committed to promoting the free and peaceful exchange of ideas, one of the most important functions of the university.