In this Issue:
- News of the Field
- Disability History News & Resources
- Events @ Emerging America
- Other Events
- Teaching Resources
- New at the Library of Congress
Featured June-July Blog Post: The Struggle for Disability Rights: From Objects of Reform to Advocates for Equality – new 2,500-word article overview on the history of disability history for the classroom or research project.
News of the Field
- The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education History/Social Science Team is hiring.
- Genocide Education in Massachusetts - Report.
- October 20 - Rutgers - New Jersey Council for the Social Studies Conference. Apply by June 15 to present.
- Civic Learning in Elementary School/Early Education - report from the Center for Educational Equity.
- The next issue of the Emerging America's History eNews will appear in September.
Disability History News & Resources
- Florida. (2025) - New law SB 540: Disability history and awareness instruction.
- July is Disability Pride Month 2025 - “We Belong Here, and We’re Here to Stay” - The ARC.
- Deaf President Now! documentary — Trailer | Apple TV+.
- Now through June 16, 2025 - Embracing Possibility: Georgia's Disability Justice Journey - Tubman African American Museum, Macon, Georgia. Play We Are More video.
- States Drop Effort To Overturn Section 504, But Continue To Challenge Disability Protections - Michelle Diament, DisabilityScoop.
- Submit a comment to the U.S. Department of Energy by Monday, 6/16 on a proposed rules change that would remove physical accessibility requirements for new construction or alterations of buildings affecting all buildings to be used by recipients of federal assistance.
Events @ Emerging America
Info on Emerging America professional development events: upcoming presentations, past recordings and more.
August 20-22 - Disability History, Anti-Ableism, and Neurodiversity in Education - A 3-Day Workshop for Educators
In-person - Lincoln, Massachusetts - Overview of social and historical constructs of disability throughout history, social justice theory and ableism, as well as the disability rights movement, social justice pedagogies, and the neurodiversity movement provided by Shawna Young. Kate Benson and Easterseals Massachusetts will provide an in-depth look at U.S. disability history, classroom strategies, and resources including the Library of Congress and Emerging America’s K–12 curriculum. Learn more about the 3-day workshop.
To sign up, email Shawna Young <syoung@lincnet.org>. Workshop: $100. Attend all three days, just Day 1, or just Days 2-3. Receive a certificate of participation for 10 hours (Day 1) and 14 hours (for Days 2-3). Optional 1 grad credit in history from Westfield State University for Days 2-3 would be an additional $250.
July 8 - Teaching Disability History Conference - Keene, New Hampshire - Keene State College
- Details about the July 8 conference in Keene, New Hampshire.
- Free conference for teachers, disability advocates, historians, higher education students and allied organizations. Supported by a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant.
- $100 stipends for teachers and for disability advocates. Lunch provided.
- Register for the July 8 Conference by July 1.
Teaching Disability History Interest Group
- Teachers, disability advocates, historians, higher education students and allied organizations meet quarterly to share resources and discuss how to advance the field. ASL and CART provided. Supported by a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant. Next meeting is June 19, 5:00-6:00pm Eastern Time. To join the group, email Rich Cairn - rcairn @ collaborative.org.
Recordings, transcript, slides & resources from the virtual Teaching Disability History Conference - 5:00-7:30pm
- Teaching Disability History VIRTUAL Conference page.
- Free conference for teachers, disability advocates, historians, higher education students and allied organizations. Supported by a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant.
Other Events
In-person, unless noted. Hybrid = in-person and virtual options.
- Through June 6. Experience the Story of Resilience and Community: Cambodians in Amherst - Exhibit at the Massachusetts State House. Info on the exhibit.
- June 5 - 7pm Eastern Time - virtual Inside the Vault: Building the Transcontinental Railroad - Gilder Lehrman Institute.
- June 24-26 - Putney, Vermont - Landmark College Institute for Research and Training.
- July 23, 9:30am - 3:30pm - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts - Civic Engagement in Any Subject Workshop: Integrating Local History Across the Curriculum - 10 PDPs - free - $300 stipend + $300 for materials - Supported by a Library of Congress Eastern Region Teaching with Primary Sources grant - see previous teacher projects - Mohawk Trail Regional School.
- July 31 - August 2 - Boston - Genealogy in the Classroom: Bringing History to Life with Family History - free + earn $200 stipend - American Ancestors Teacher Workshop.
- Through October. Forty Acres & The American Revolution; Stories of Independence & Servitude - slavery and indenture in the early Republic - Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, Hadley, Massachusetts.
Teaching Resources
- Confronting a President: Douglass and Lincoln - Frederick Douglass House, National Park Service.
- Who Controls the Purse? Presidential Power and the Fight Over Spending - video and teaching materials - RetroReport.
- Sign up for a Civic Stories Program - 30-minute virtual sessions - National Constitution Center.
- "Too many young people are losing faith in our country."
- Spring 2025 Harvard Youth Poll.
- Why Civics - iCivics.
- National History Day 2026 Contest Theme: Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.
New at the Library of Congress
- (Log into the TPS Teachers Network.)
- Making primary source documents accessible to multilingual learners - Alison Noyes.
- Album: Spotlighting Oklahoma.
- Album: Newspapers during the American Revolution.
- Just One Day: Using a Newspaper Front Page as a Window on Inquiry and Research.
- Women’s Suffrage: Analyzing Conditional Arguments in Historical Primary Sources.
- July 19 - Discover the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled - Family Day at the Library of Congress.
About Emerging America's Inclusive History News
Committed to Access and Inclusion of All Learners in Civics, History and Social Studies
Created in response to teacher requests in 2013, the History eNews emailed monthly short descriptions and links of quality history and social studies events and resources. Since September, 2024 items appear in an Emerging America blog page from the first of each month, with a monthly Constant Contact email notice to our 2,300+ subscribers. Sign up free at the bottom of the page.
We welcome your news & events!
- Published monthly on the first of the month, updated continuously through the month.
- Submit items any time to rcairn @ collaborative.org.
- Archived at: http://EmergingAmerica.org/blog.
- Register for CES events: https://www.collaborative.org/professional-development/events/.
- Teacher-created lessons, primary source sets, assessments, & teaching strategies at: http://EmergingAmerica.org.
- Follow Emerging America on LinkedIn and Facebook.
- Email rcairn @ collaborative.org to be removed from this list.
- Content created and featured in partnership with the Teaching with Primary Sources program does not indicate an endorsement by the Library of Congress.
Image Credits
- This is what the struggle for equality and inclusion looks like. Douglass appeals to Lincoln in 1863 to enlist Black soldiers. William Edouard Scott, artist. (1943). Library of Congress.
- Lifelong disability rights leader Ed Roberts in 1981. Photo by William Bronston, California Department of Rehabilitation. Wikimedia Commons.
- MTA Marks Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act with Month of Disability Pride Events. (2023). Marc A. Hermann, MTA. Wikimedia Commons.
- Veterans listen to a "talking book" from the National Library Service - Library of Congress. (1944).
