Call for Kress-funded AHTR Collaborators!

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This year has been a great one for AHTR, not least because of the amazing community that has blossomed around it.  AHTR’s “year” actually began in February 2013 with the public launch of the website at the annual CAA conference. Since then, the site has had over 35,000 visits from people in 80+ countries.  We’ve uploaded some lecture content, crowdsourced syllabi, blogged on everything from using varied digital technologies in the classroom to making museum experiences meaningful, and looked in-depth at key issues in our field (eg. our community college series).

We’re also finishing the year with some really exciting news: AHTR was awarded a Kress Grant for Digital Resources in the amount of $25,000 in November.  We want to thank our colleagues and friends at Smarthistory.org, Deans Beth and Steven, for their encouragement, and all of our amazing contributors to the site over the last 11 months.  We couldn’t have done it with you!

We’re incredibly excited about the changes this will mean for the AHTR project.  These changes will begin to roll out now and manifest over the next 18 months through several Kress-AHTR awards.  The Kress-AHTR awards will offer support to individuals who want to contribute to the site content in key lecture content and specific “curriculum inquiry” areas, so keep your eyes on the blog in the new year where we’ll be posting regular calls for participation and project updates.

Please see (and circulate widely) the first Call for Participation here (deadline Jan 6, 2014).  We’re looking for contributors for specific lecture content areas (Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Aegean, Ancient Greek, Ancient Etruscan and Roman, Proto-Renaissance/Fourteenth Century Italian Renaissance, Fifteenth Century Italian Renaissance, Fifteenth Century Northern Renaissance – for all, read “art & architecture”) in the art history survey.

These lesson plans will be posted to the AHTR site in 2014, and are supported by small writing grants made possible by our Kress award.  Our intention is to offer monetary support for the often-unrewarded task of developing thoughtful lesson plans, to make this work freely accessible (and thus scale-able), and to encourage feedback on them so that the AHTR content can constantly evolve in tandem with the innovations and best practices of our field.  We look forward to hearing from potential collaborators and contributors!

Finally, the AHTR site will be redeveloped and redesigned by CHIPS New York, a firm we have long admired for, among other things, their work on the Met Museum’s 82nd & Fifth series.  Adam, Dan and Teddy, we can’t wait for you to take this site and make it into something that truly encourages content sharing and peer collaboration.

We hope your grading is done, holiday travel is over, and that you’re curled up somewhere with a large glass of your favorite holiday beverage as you’re reading this.

With best wishes for the holiday season and a happy and healthy 2014,

Michelle and Karen, AHTR Deans