NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers

About the Institute

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this two-week Summer Institute, which is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and hosted by the University of Arkansas, invites individual and interdisciplinary teams of K-12 educators to immerse themselves in learning about literary adaptation and its role in recirculating and popularizing the literary canon. Focusing on Frankenstein and Cinderella, as well as adaptations of these stories in film, drama, young adult fiction, children’s picture books, and graphic novels, the Institute will offer teachers multiple opportunities to investigate the theoretical and aesthetic considerations of adaptation, to participate in intellectually rigorous conversations about the challenges of this work, and to develop curricular materials designed to support and engage diverse learners.

Although this Summer Institute will focus on a range of primary and secondary texts, participants will also have regular opportunities to gain experience “remaking” monsters and heroines as they practice adapting literary texts in ways that speak to issues and topics that concern their respective communities. A primary principle guiding the work of this Summer Institute is the understanding that planning and producing adaptations is as important as the process of reading and understanding literature. Teachers who are selected to participate in the Institute should expect to gain experience using a range of digital tools and technologies that will allow them to support student-produced literary adaptations when they return to their respective schools including podcasts, radio theater, short films, comic books and sequential art, and other forms of storytelling. (Please note, however, that prior experience with digital tools and technologies is not a prerequisite for participation in the Institute.)

Dates: June 17-30, 2018 (2 weeks)
Location: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
Application Deadline: March 1, 2018 (notification date March 31, 2018)
Stipend: $2,100 (stipends are taxable and meant to cover travel, room, and meals for participants)
Institute Co-Directors: Dr. Sean P. Connors (English Education) and Dr. Lissette Lopez Szwydky-Davis (English)
Remaking Monsters and Heroines: Adapting Classic Literature for Contemporary Audiences offers K-12 educators new approaches to using and making multimedia adaptations in the classroom. The institute will focus on multimodal literacies using Frankenstein and Cinderella as its case studies. Readings and meetings will include discussions of historical contexts and literary concepts in relation to the source texts as well as theoretical approaches to their adaptations. The institute will also feature hands-on workshops to help teachers create assignments that will guide students in creating their own adaptations via blogs, video, podcasts, theater and performance, illustration, and sequential art.
Send inquiries to: AdaptLit@uark.edu.