Religious Revival, Utopian Society, and the Shaker Experience in America

FAIN: BH-231091-15

Siena College (Loudonville, NY 12211-1462)
Jennifer Dorsey (Project Director: February 2015 to May 2017)

Two one-week workshops for seventy-two school teachers on Shaker theology, design, and communal life as a window onto religious, social, and economic concerns of nineteenth-century America.

Siena College, partnering with the New York State Education Department's Office of Cultural Education, Shaker Heritage Society, Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon, and Hancock Shaker Village, proposes Religious Revivals, Utopian Societies, and The Shaker Experience in America. This NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop will examine the history of the Shakers as a model for understanding how the Second Great Awakening transformed the religious and social landscape of antebellum America. Through site visits, lectures, and close interaction with visiting scholars, NEH Summer scholars will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the interconnectivity of religion, culture, and economics in early American history. This workshop will take in Albany, New York, birthplace of American Shakerism, and includes visits to 3 landmark sites. Siena College hosted this workshop in 2013. In 2016, we will offer a broader curriculum that includes new themes and additional scholars.