On Thursday, October 26^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for European History (HIST 1400), Prof. Tom Maulucci met with certified HIST 1400 Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. Prof. Elizabeth Della Zazzera (UConn History Department), shared her talk “How to be Modern in Post-Napoleonic France,” followed by questions and comments from the Instructors. Later, the Instructors shared their insights from the assigned readings and videos on the 1848 Revolutions by Christopher Clark and Jonathan Sperber with Prof. Maulucci. Zach Claybaugh (UConn Library) also joined the group to share resources for the 1848 Revolution available through the UConn Libraries. To end the day everyone participated in a conversation about AI and it’s implications in the history classroom.

UConn History courses offered through ECE.

On Monday April 3^rd, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for HIST 1300, Prof. Sherri Olson met with certified ECE History Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Guest speakers: Professor John Sexton, Bridgewater State University and Professor Andy Pfrenger, University of Mississippi presented to the group on “The Viking Sagas – and Board Games”.  They spoke about the game hnefatafl and its history and place in Viking culture and the sagas. Later the group learned how to play using gameboards and pieces.

After lunch, Prof. Olson led a discission on the stories of Ragnar Loðbrok with focus on the folkloric elements of Ragnar's saga; the historical elements embedded in the text (and how to read such a text for historical reconstruction); the place of hnefatafl in the story; and some of the historical details buried in the stories, especially the Krakumal, a poem supposedly recited by Ragnar at his death c. 900.

To learn more about Profs. Sexton and Pfrenger and their podcast Saga Thing see: Saga Thing | a podcast by Saga Thing (podbean.com). 

UConn History courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday, November 15^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for History, Thomas Maulucci met with ECE certified HIST 1400: Modern Western Traditions Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Prior to the meeting Instructors listened to “As Ukraine Goes, So Goes the World: Thoughts on propaganda, violence, and democracy” a lecture by Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Instructors were also to review two articles: “The World Putin Wants” by Fiona Hill and Angela Stent and “Ukraine Holds the Future” by Timothy Snyder. The lecture and articles provided structure for the day’s events.

ECE History Faculty Coordinator, Tom Maulucci spoke to the group about ideas for fitting Eastern Europe into HIST 1400 and discussed the Snyder lecture. Assistant Professor, Sarah Silverstein, from UConn’s History Department shared her talk on "Eastern Europe's Invention of the West". Later two of UConn’s Student Success Librarian’s, Zach Claybaugh and Kelsey Brown, gave an overview of library resources available to Instructors (with a special focus on the Ukraine).

UConn History courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday, February 15^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for HIST 1300, Prof. Sherri Olson met with certified History Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Dr. Olson spoke with the group about the courses they are offering in their high schools and then they discussed Stephen D. White’s article: “Proposing the Ordeal and Avoiding It: Strategy and Power in Western French Litigation, 1050-1100,” from Thomas N. Bisson, ed., Cultures of Power: Lordship, Status, and Process in Twelfth-Century Europe (UPenn Press, 1995): pp. 89-123.

UConn History courses offered through ECE.

On Wednesday, October 13^th   UConn Early College Experience and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for European History (HIST 1400), Prof. Ken Gouwens met with certified Instructors for their professional development workshop. Dr. Gary Kates (H. Russell Smith Foundation Professor of History, Pomona College) shared his talk on “What Book History Teaches US about the 18th Century European Enlightenment”.

Later, Jennifer Dufault (Guilford High School & Dr. Brendan Kane will lead discussion of how to teach an assignment on “Displacement in 1600s Ireland”.

UConn History courses offered through ECE.

On Thursday, April 22^nd  UConn Early College Experience and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Medieval History, Prof. Sherri Olson met with certified HIST 1300 Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. Instructors were asked to read Carlo Ginzburg's, The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries (first published in Italian in 1966, first English translation 1983). The group had an interactive conversation about teaching during COVID-19 and later held a scholarly discussion about the text.

If you’re interested in looking at the text, it is available free of charge at archive.org (direct link: https://archive.org/details/nightbattleswitc00ginz/mode/2up). To read it you can create a free account which allows you to check it out for one hour or for 14 days.

UConn ECE History courses offered through ECE.

On Wednesday, November 18th UConn Early College Experience and UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for History Prof. Kenneth Gouwens met with ECE European History Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Featured presentation by Dr. Paula Findlen, Pierotti Professor, Dept. of History, & Co-Director, Suppes Center for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at Stanford University.

“The Scientific Revolution: Paradigm Shifts, Old and New"

Following the lecture, Prof. Findlen discussed her current research and then lead a discussion of some historical documents.

UConn History courses offered through UConn ECE.

On Wednesday, October 16th, UConn Early College Experience and UConn's History Department invited Assistant Professor, Sarah Silverstein (UConn, Department of History)  to speak with UConn ECE History 1400 instructors. The title of her talk was "Rediscovering the History of Interwar Internationalism". She also led a discussion with instructors, analyzing primary documents.

Later in the day,  ECE Faculty Coordinator, Kenneth Gouwens  discussed two new initiatives with the instructors.  The HIST 1400 new course reader and a spring graduate History courses which will be offered on the Hartford Campus.

UConn History classes offered through UConn ECE.