A two-week institute for twenty-five secondary schoolteachers, to be held at University of Texas-El Paso, that would examine historical and literary narratives of the Chihuahuan Desert people.

The 2017 NEH Summer Seminar for Teachers will provide 16 secondary school teachers in grades 6–12 with two weeks of intense, guided exploration of borderland narratives from the Chihuahuan Desert—a culturally and politically significant region for instructional consideration and critical research encompassing 139,000 square miles across several Mexican states and parts of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Building on the ethnohistorical work and narratology, we argue that the Chihuahuan Desert’s wide geographic space serves as a useful metaphor in conceptualizing the historical and cultural evolution of border identities, which are the product of space adaptations and bi-national influences. To that end, the Seminar will largely, but not exclusively, focus on the El Paso–Cd Juárez metroplex. The Seminar will provide teachers with a focused understanding of the dynamic nature and literacies of border people’s narratives and of their social, cultural, and political adaptations across time.

A two-week institute for 25 6-12 educators to study the history and literature of the borderlands.

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and in collaboration with the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies (CIBS) and the Institute of Oral History (IOH), non-profit research and education centers at UTEP, propose a Summer Institute for School Teachers from July 18th to August 1st, 2021. Building on the successful participation of 25 Summer Scholars in the 2017 and 2019 Summer Institute for School Teachers titled Tales from the Chihuahuan Desert: Borderlands Narratives about Identity and Binationalism, the proposed Level II 2021 Summer Institute will provide 25 secondary school teachers (NEH Summer Scholars) in grades 6–12 with two weeks of intense, guided exploration of borderlands narratives from the Chihuahuan Desert—a culturally and politically significant region for instructional consideration and critical research encompassing 139,000 square miles across several Mexican states and parts of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

A two-week institute for 25 secondary school educators to study the history and literature of the borderlands.

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and in collaboration with the Center for InterAmerican and Border Studies (CIBS) and the Institute of Oral History (IOH), non-profit research and education centers at UTEP, propose a residential Summer Institute for School Teachers from July 20-August 3, 2025. Building on the successful participation of Summer Scholars in the in-person 2017 and 2019, while virtually in 2021 Summer Institute for School Teachers titled Tales from the Chihuahuan Desert: Borderlands Narratives about Identity and Binationalism, the 2025 Summer Institute will provide 25 secondary school teachers of art, language arts, sciences, social studies/history, and world languages in grades 6–12 with two weeks of intense, guided exploration of borderlands narratives from the Chihuahuan Desert.