In an effort to highlight the diverse range of scholarship at the upcoming annual meeting, we’re highlighting different sessions on the blog each week.

Faculty and administrators from 12 US community colleges will gather at the 129th Annual Meeting to discuss the final stages of the AHA’s NEH-funded Bridging Cultures at Community Colleges project, “American History, Atlantic and Pacific.” Aimed at promoting a global perspective of US history at a diverse selection of two-year institutions, the program helps faculty enhance their survey courses with recent scholarship and resources in Atlantic and Pacific history.

A five-part series of sessions showcasing the research and accomplishments of the project participants will be held Saturday through Monday of the conference weekend. In Parts 1 and 5 (Sessions 90 and 295) of “Lessons Learned from the AHA’s Bridging Cultures Program,” faculty teams will use an innovative presentation format called PechaKucha, in which 20 visual slides are shown for 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds per person). After six slide presentations, the speakers will invite questions and comments from the audience.

The concise and fast-paced PechaKucha style will introduce the colorful range of research topics Bridging Cultures participants are incorporating into their US history survey courses. Subjects include: the national culture of death, burial, and commemoration that arose out of the United States’ wars for empire in Cuba and in the Philippines; migration patterns of Asians into the Americas; China and whaling trades; and the role of various commodities such as coffee, sugar, chocolate, and guano in fueling un-free labor.

See below for more information about the PechaKucha sessions.

AHA Session 90

PechaKucha 1: Incorporating the Atlantic and Pacific Worlds into the US History Survey Course

Saturday, January 3, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM

Sutton South (New York Hilton, Second Floor)

Chair: Trinidad Gonzales, South Texas College

Participants: Shannon Bontrager, Georgia Highlands College; Carlos Alberto Contreras, Grossmont College; Jaime Cardenas, Jr., Seattle Central Community College; Vincent A. Clark, Johnson City Community College; Allison Frickert-Murashige, Mount San Antonio College; Joy Schulz, Metropolitan Community College

AHA Session 295

PechaKucha 2, Incorporating the Atlantic and Pacific Worlds into the US History Survey Course

Monday, January 5, 2015: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM

Gramercy Suite A (New York Hilton, Second Floor)

Chair: Cheryll A. Cody, Houston Community College

Participants: Gerald Betty, Del Mar College; Sarah Boyle, Johnson County Community College; Brian L. Cassity, Kapi’olani Community College; Amy Helene Forss, Metropolitan Community College; Kimberley DeJoie Hill, Del Mar College; Tracy Lai, Seattle Central Community College

Additional Bridging Cultures Sessions

AHA Session 181: Transnational Voyages and Voyagers in Nineteenth-Century Oceania and Southeast Asia

AHA Session 212: Incorporating the Atlantic and the Pacific into the US and the Comparative Americas Survey Courses: Methodologies for the Classroom

AHA Session 269: Going Global in the US History Survey

This post first appeared on AHA Today.