As part of its "We the People" initiative, the National Endowment for the Humanities is organizing Landmarks of American History and Culture workshops for community college faculty and K–12 teachers. These workshops are intended to provide an opportunity for educators to engage in intensive study and discussion of important topics in American history. The workshops will give participants direct experiences in the interpretation of significant historical sites and the use of archival and other primary historical evidence. Landmarks workshops present the best scholarship on a specific landmark or related cluster of landmarks, and will involve site visits, enabling participants to gain a sense of the importance of historical places, to make connections between what they learn in the workshop and what they teach, to advance their own scholarship, and to develop enhanced teaching materials for their classrooms.

Those selected to participate will receive a stipend of $500. Stipends help cover living expenses, books, and travel expenses to and from the workshop location. Travel supplements primarily for those traveling long distances will be available and will be allocated after participants are selected.

Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline.

Applicants must complete the NEH application and provide all of the information requested to be considered eligible. An individual may apply to and participate in a maximum of two (2) workshops. Past or present participation in the NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes program does not affect an individual’s eligibility to participate in Landmarks programs.

The seven workshops planned for Community College faculty deal with such topics as John Adams in Boston, Henry Ford and the history of American industry, labor and culture (in Dearborn, Michigan), American Utopian thought in the 19th century, and the Gilded Age.

K–12 teachers will have 19 workshops to choose from. These will focus on such landmarks as Mount Vernon (for a discussion of the Constitution); Pearl Harbor; the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut (focusing on the author and the Gilded Age); the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh (to discuss role of Black artisans and entrepreneurs in the making of America); and historic sites in Philadelphia (focusing on Benjamin Franklin ).

The application deadline is March 15, 2006 (postmark) for community college faculty and March 16, 2006 (postmark) for K–12 teachers. All applications should go to directors of individual workshops and not to the NEH. Complete details about the workshops and the application process can be obtained from the NEH web site, http://www.neh.gov.