Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts Call for Applications: A History Institute for High School Educators
Call for Applications: A History Institute for High School Educators

Call for Applications: A History Institute for High School Educators

  • June 14, 2017

Call for Applications: A History Institute for High School Educators

  • June 14, 2017

PHILADELPHIA – The Foreign Policy Research Institute will hold a professional development conference, co-sponsored by the Slavic Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania, for high school and secondary school educators on October 21 – October 22, 2017, in Philadelphia, PA.

Interested individuals may apply by sending a resume, a one-paragraph statement describing your relevant teaching or other professional experience, and a brief statement of how your students or school district will benefit from your participation to history@fpri.org before July 15.

The weekend conference focuses on “What is Eurasia?” and will connect 40 educators with leading scholars in the field of international relations. Accepted teachers will be provided with lodging, meals, partial travel reimbursement and the opportunity to earn credit from Carthage College of Kenosha, WI, a co-sponsor of the conference.

Nine experts will present on topics including the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Revolution, Post-Soviet democratization, the Baltic States and more.  A full list of topics and speakers can be found here.

Part of a 20 year old series of History Institutes put on by FPRI, these conferences enable educators to apply these complex subjects to a high school level curriculum. After the conference, educators are encouraged, with the offer of a stipend, to create lesson plans meeting national standards to be shared on the FPRI website and among a network of teachers across the U.S.

 “Every teacher—and every student of every teacher—benefits from gaining mastery over subject matter. That’s what FPRI provides,” said Alan Luxenberg, President of FPRI.

This conference comes at an opportune time to reexamine the history of Eurasia. December 2016 marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the U.S.S.R., while November 2017 will mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of Soviet Russia. Educators will be able to closely explore Eurasia—a vast and diverse region—its critical history and future.

Speakers and topics will include:

Forty participants will be selected to receive:

  • Complimentary overnight accommodations for those outside of the Chicago vicinity (Friday and Saturday nights, as needed);
  • Complimentary lunch and dinner on Saturday, plus continental breakfast on Saturday and Sunday
  • Assistance in designing curriculum and special projects based on the History Institute;
  • Stipends of $200 for well-developed lesson plans for posting on our website that effectively utilize the experience of the weekend conference, or documentation of in-service presentations based on the weekend;
  • Partial travel reimbursements (up to $250) for participants outside the vicinity of the conference center;
  • Subscription to E-Notes, FPRI’s weekly Insights, and Footnotes, FPRI’s bulletin for high school teachers.
  • A certificate of participation in a program offering 12 hours of instruction. In addition, for those interested, college credit is available for a small fee through our cooperating institution, Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
  • Videotapes of the entire conference will be posted subsequently on our website, plus texts of selected lectures.

Established in 1990, the Marvin Wachman Center for Civic and International Literacy of FPRI seeks to foster civic and international literacy in the community and in the classroom. The Madeleine and W.W. Keen Butcher History Institute is the centerpiece of the Wachman Center, sponsoring programs designed to bring high school teachers from around the country together with the nation’s top scholars in history, political science and more. Over the past 20 years, History Institutes have garnered a national reputation for excellence and have worked with over 1,000 teachers from over 800 different schools in 47 states.

FPRI is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank located in Center City Philadelphia. Its mission is to bring the insights of scholarship to bear on the foreign policy and national security challenges facing the United States. It seeks to educate the public, teach teachers, train students, and offer ideas to advance U.S. national interest based on a nonpartisan, geopolitical perspective that illuminates contemporary international affairs through the lens of history, geography and culture.