World War I in History and Literature

NEH Summer Seminar for School Teachers

NEH Summer Seminar for School Teachers

The centennial of the end of World War I offers an opportunity to think anew about the war’s centrality in American and world history, society, and culture. World War I in History and Literature is a three-week virtual summer seminar for sixteen K-12 educators that examines the meaning and relevance of World War I today and prepares teachers to teach the war from an interdisciplinary perspective.

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Harlem Hellfighters

Main Content

When & Where:

  Join us for our virtual seminar: July 12-30, 2021!

Overview

About our work and readings

Schedule

Dates, topics, and readings

Bios

Meet our Co-Directors & team

Stipend & Expectations

Stipend, evaluation, and in-service credit

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Eligibility and info

Hood College

Library resources & more

Application Deadline: March 1, 2021

Notification Date: March 26, 2021
All Participants Receive a $2,850 Stipend

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From our readings …

Close Ranks

Let us not hesitate. Let us, while this war lasts, forget our special grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our own white fellow citizens and the allied nations that are fighting for democracy. We make no ordinary sacrifice, but we make it gladly and willingly without eyes lifted to the hills. W.E.B. DuBoisW.E.B. DuBois

The Return of the Soldier

Indeed, grief is not the clear melancholy the young believe it. It is like a siege in a tropical city. The skin dries and the throat parches as though one were living in the heat of the desert; water and wine taste warm in the mouth, and food is of the substance of the sand; one snarls at one's company; thoughts prick one through sleep like mosquitoes. Rebecca WestRebecca West

All Quiet on the Western Front

Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony — Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? Erich Maria RemarqueErich Maria Remarque
Trevor Dodman

About the Co-Directors

Trevor Dodman (Ph.D., Boston College) is an Associate Professor of English at Hood College who specializes in war literature.

In addition to teaching college-level courses on modernism, the novel, and war literature for more than fifteen years, Trevor has taught courses and directed year-long thesis projects for school teachers enrolled in Hood’s M.A. in Humanities program. His book Shell Shock, Memory, and the Novel in the Wake of World War I was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015.
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Corey Campion

Corey Campion (Ph.D., Georgetown University), is an Associate Professor of History & Global Studies at Hood College who specializes in Franco-German and trans-Atlantic relations.

Corey has gained extensive experience working with K-12 classroom teachers through his work directing Hood’s M.A. in Humanities program, which primarily serves teachers pursuing interdisciplinary content-field training. His research focuses on the post-1945 Allied occupation of Germany as well as on interdisciplinary pedagogy.
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About the Seminar

This seminar will provide participants with a deeper understanding of World War I, an introduction to both canonical and non-canonical historical and literary texts, and concrete, actionable, and effective strategies to bring the themes and materials of the seminar into your classroom and curriculum.

We’ll work with both primary and secondary historical sources as well as novels, short stories, and poems that illustrate the various consequences of total war. Each participant will also develop their own individual research project.

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Seminar Themes

Total War

 We’ll begin by thinking about the theoretical framework of total war, which is vital to understanding the historical contexts and literary texts of World War I. We’ll also read key canonical literary and historical texts related to the war.

America at War

We’ll work with established narratives about America’s entry into and experience of the war, as well as investigating the conflict through the lives of African-American men and women.

Women at War

Next, we’ll consider the active role that women played in the conflict. Understanding the war experiences of women – as factory workers, nurses, teachers, and citizen volunteers – is essential to understanding the role of the home front in World War I.

Empires at War

We will expand our definition of total war to include the perspectives and experiences of colonial subjects to help us understand and approach World War I as a truly global conflict.