Engaging the American Past participants attend a series of five dinner colloquia at which historians present on key topics in American history, methodology, and historiography. Education specialists and master teachers lead discussions on the ways in which teachers can adapt the material to their classrooms and use the practices of historians to enhance student learning. Participants in the dinner colloquia will have access to the classroom materials and lesson plans developed in the program, including those resulting from the summer institute.

Themes and topics explored in the 2003 series can be found here. These pages also include the resources provided during each evening, and responses from the teacher participants.

Please note that the dates for the 2004 Dinner Colloquia published in the ESD 112 Catalogue are incorrect.

Dinner Colloquia will be held February 26, March 25, April 22, May 6, and May 22, 2004 from 5:00-8:30 PM at Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver , and at select locations around Southwest Washington via the K-20, including Columbia High School in White Salmon. Meals are provided at all events. Clock hours are available through ESD 112, and college credit is available through WSU Vancouver. Participants receive a $250 stipend for attending the series.

	Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University, past president of the American Historical Association and author of The Story of American Freedom and Who Owns History? Rethinking the Past in a Changing World . He will join Vancouver teachers via the K-20 network.
	Emily Rosenberg, DeWitt Wallace Professor of History, McAlister University, past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Author of A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory. She brings issues of gender into the field of diplomatic history.
	Ronald Takaki, Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, author of A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. He will lecture and provide a forum for discussion on “Why Multiculturalism Matters: A Curriculum for the 21st Century.”
	Bill Bigelow, Portland Public Schools Social Studies Teacher since 1978, editor of Rethinking Schools and author of Strangers in Their Own Country: A Curriculum on South Africa, and Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World.

Washington State University, Vancouver | Center for Columbia River History
Evergreen School District | Klickitat School District | Vancouver School District