NEH Summer Institute
for K-12 Educators

About the Institute

This two-week virtual Summer Institute, which is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and hosted by the University of Arkansas, invites individual and interdisciplinary teams of K-12 educators to immerse themselves in learning about literary adaptation and its role in recirculating and popularizing the literary canon. Focusing on Frankenstein and Cinderella, as well as adaptations of these stories in film, drama, young adult fiction, children’s picture books, and graphic novels, the Institute will offer teachers multiple opportunities to investigate the theoretical and aesthetic considerations of adaptation, to participate in intellectually rigorous conversations about the challenges of this work, and to develop curricular materials designed to support and engage diverse learners. The June 2021 program will be held completely virtually, with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities, including live presentations and Q&A with core program faculty, guest faculty, and guest artists.

Although this Summer Institute will focus on a range of primary and secondary texts, participants will also have regular opportunities to gain experience “remaking” monsters and heroines as they practice adapting literary texts in ways that speak to issues and topics that concern their respective communities. A primary principle guiding the work of this Summer Institute is the understanding that planning and producing adaptations is as important as the process of reading and understanding literature. Teachers who are selected to participate in the Institute should expect to gain experience using a range of digital tools and technologies that will allow them to support student-produced literary adaptations when they return to their respective schools including podcasts, radio theater, short films, comic books and sequential art, and other forms of storytelling. (Please note, however, that prior experience with digital tools and technologies is not a prerequisite for participation in the Institute.)

Readings and meetings will include discussions of historical contexts and literary concepts in relation to the source texts as well as theoretical approaches to their adaptations. The institute will also feature hands-on workshops to help teachers create assignments that will guide students in creating their own adaptations via blogs, video, podcasts, theater and performance, illustration, and sequential art.