The Search for Common Ground: Culture in California's Central Valley

FAIN: AC-226761-15

Modesto Junior College (Modesto, CA 95350-5800)
Chad Redwing (Project Director: June 2014 to April 2017)

A curricular development project to bring humanities faculty from Central Valley community colleges to Modesto Junior College to study the local and regional culture of California’s Central Valley.

Five faculty members from the humanities disciplines (humanities, history, philosophy, and literature) will explore the diverse cultural backgrounds of the populations in our community in order to make the curriculum in these disciplines more relevant to the students in humanities courses. The project includes lectures by imminent scholars from California universities; multi-week seminars on specific topics; exploration of arts, museums, centers and festivals; development of learning modules that reflect the findings of the seminars; and a symposium to share findings with community college faculty from around the Valley. Humanities curriculum will be revised to reflect the local and regional culture of the people of California's Central Valley.

Associated Products

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies Conference Presentation (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Association for Interdisciplinary Studies Conference Presentation
Author: Chad Redwing
Author: Flora Carter
Author: Jenni Abbott
Abstract: "The Search for Common Ground: Culture in California's Central Valley" presentation given at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies; Merrimack College in North Andover, MA from October 22-25th, 2015.
Date: 10/23/2015
Primary URL: http://www.merrimack.edu/academics/education/2015-ais-conference/
Primary URL Description: Conference Website
Secondary URL: http://www.merrimack.edu/live/files/1613-program-book-as-of-oct-16final-contentspdf
Secondary URL Description: Conference Program Website
Conference Name: 37th Annual Meeting of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies; Merrimack College

The Search For Common Ground Website (Web Resource)
Title: The Search For Common Ground Website
Author: Chad Redwing
Author: Bill Anelli
Author: Eva Mo
Author: Flora Carter
Author: Jenni Abbott
Abstract: “The Search For Common Ground: Culture in California’s Central Valley,” is a two-year “Humanities Initiatives Grant” project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities aimed at fostering discussions and curricular development that critically explore the rich cultural heritage, daily life and struggles of those who live in California’s Central Valley. The project brings together Modesto Junior College and other California community college faculty, as well as regional scholars, artists and leadership from the University of California at Merced, California State University Stanislaus, Fresno State University, The National Steinbeck Center, El Teatro Campesino and the Modesto Junior College Foundation to study the culture of California’s Central Valley, to develop collegial networks for scholarly collaboration and to create thematic curricular modules (grounded in the poetics of local cultural heritages and regionally-lived experiences) for use in a wide-variety of post-secondary classrooms.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://commonground.blogs.yosemite.edu/
Primary URL Description: Twenty seven (27) modules have been developed based on the seven seminar topics (Curricular samples are being submitted as supplementary materials in this report). These final 27 curricular units are available for faculty and community use at our finalized website (http://commonground.blogs.yosemite.edu/).
Secondary URL: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVW4Hg3DNs4AkyYPOUa_0vA
Secondary URL Description: The videos of all lectures are also available on the YouTube Channel of the Common Ground grant at (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVW4Hg3DNs4AkyYPOUa_0vA).

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