Visualizing Japan in Modern World History

FAIN: AZ-50029-08

Regents of the University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO 80303-1058)
Lynn S. Parisi (Project Director: January 2008 to April 2010)

A five-day workshop and follow-up activities for thirty teachers from a seven-state region to study the emergence of modern Japan from the late Tokugawa period through the Meiji period (1853 to 1911).

The University of Colorado Program for Teaching East Asia proposes "Visualizing Japan in Modern World History" (dates 11/1/08-10/31/09), a digital humanities workshop to introduce teachers to new scholarship and resources on the development of modern Japan from 1853-1911/late Tokugawa-Meji periods. The workshop will be based on MIT's "Visualizing Cultures" (VC), a state-of-the-art digital project containing modules and databases that enable scholars, teachers, and students to engage with rare art resources to examine Japan's path to modern nation-state and empire. Through this residential workshop, 30 secondary teachers from seven states will work with leading scholars and curriculum developers to integrate the VC project's cutting-edge scholarship, previously inaccessible humanities resources, and creative pedagogy into world history and other appropriate curricula. Participating teachers will develop lessons to use in their own teaching and shared with other educators nationally.