The Salem Witch Trials: Their World and Legacy

FAIN: ES-288080-22

Endicott College (Beverly, MA 01915-2096)
Mark Herlihy (Project Director: February 2022 to present)
Elizabeth Matelski (Co Project Director: February 2022 to present)

A three-week, combined-format institute for 26 middle and high school teachers on the history, interpretations, and legacies of the Salem witchcraft trials.

Endicott College (Beverly, Massachusetts) seeks funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to host a Level II, three-week Summer Institute for K-12 educators with one week of remote learning followed by two weeks at our oceanfront campus, focusing on the Salem witch trials and their legacy, July 10-28, 2023. The Institute will give 26 middle school and high school teachers the opportunity to explore the trials from a variety of perspectives, to discuss the latest scholarship on the trials, and to consider parallels between 1692 and moments in United States history that have been marked by fear of enemies both real and imagined. This Institute is an enhanced version of a three-week, NEH-funded Seminar on the trials and their legacy that was scheduled to run in person in July 2020, was postponed due to the pandemic, and delivered remotely in July 2021. We plan to build on the success of the prior remote initiative, which reached 16 participants and received glowing reviews.