PA Council for History Education Annual Fall Conference

PCHE is pleased to bring three distinguished educators to the October 11, 2010 conference on the Atlantic World. 

 The African Diaspora in World History. 

The African experience of migration and settlement - in slavery and freedom - is one of the major movements of humanity.  This overview traces connected histories in Africa, the Americas, and Eurasia in eras of enslavement, industrialization, and contemporary times.  It argues for the concept of "diaspora" as an important alternative to "nation" in explaining the modern world.

Presenter:  Dr. Patrick Manning, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.  

Dr. Manning is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History specializing in world history with an emphasis on African history.   He has trained as a specialist in the economic history of Africa and has explored demographic, social and cultural patterns in Africa and the African diaspora. Dr. Manning’s accomplishments include more than ten major publications.  The African Diaspora:  A History through Culture, Global Practice in World History:  Advance Worldwide, World History:  Global and Local Interaction, Migration in World History,  Navigating the World History:  Historians Create a Global Past, and Migration in Modern World History are among his recent titles.   Currently, he is President of the World History Network, Inc., a nonprofit corporation fostering research in world history.  Included in his presentation will be his current research addressing global historiography, migration in world history, the African Diaspora, and the demography of African slavery.

Early American History as Atlantic History

 Over the last three decades, scholars have increasingly emphasized the "Atlantic" contexts of early American history.  This is far from a mere trend, as the Atlantic approach has revealed far more about early American history than work which explores the period largely as a mere prelude to the rise of the American nation-state.  The speaker will reflect on how the Atlantic approach helped him discover a previously unrecognized strain of abolitionism in the radicalism of the English Revolution (1640-1660) articulated by colonists living in both New and Old England.  

Presenter:  Dr. John Donoghue, Loyola University, Chicago, IL.

Dr. Donoghue, a native Pennsylvanian and graduate of Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA, is an assistant professor of history at Loyola.  He specializes in early American and Atlantic World History.  Included in his research interest are the English Revolution; slavery in the early modern and twenty-first century global economies; the origin of abolitionism in the British Empire; Republicanism; and American exceptionalism.  Donoghue has published articles on slave labor from the seventeenth century comparing it to human trafficking in today’s global economy.  Professor Donoghue has published several books.  In his most recent book,   Fire Under the Ashes:  An Atlantic History of the English Revolution,   Donoghue puts forth the theory that there were attempts to end slavery in the colonies at the very time that slavery was taking hold.  Following this theory the rise of abolitionism actually started in the seventeenth century.

West African Rice Farmers in the Atlantic World

This session will focus on the development of rice-growing technology in early pre-colonial West Africa and the importance of both West African rice and West African rice farmers in South Carolina and Georgia's plantation economies.

Presenter:  Dr. Edda Fields-Black, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

Dr. Fields-Black is an associate professor specilizing in pre-colonial and West African history.  She serves as faculty advisor for Carnegie Mellon’s African and African American Studies and teaches courses in African history from the early pre-colonial to the neo-colonial period, slavery, and freedom in Africa and the New World.  Fields-Black specializes in pre-colonial African history and West African history which extended her research interest into the African Diaspora.  This research has taken Dr. Fields-Black to coastal Guinea, Sierra Leone, South Carolina and Georgia to uncover the history of African rice farmers and rice cultures.  This important study is the first to apply the comparative method of historical linguistics to the Atlantic languages of West Africa’s coast.  Dr. Fields-Black’s first publication Deep Roots is a chronicle of the development of tidal rice-growing technology of the West African Rice Coast to South Carolina and Georgia areas where the majority of the captives disembarked. 

More Information

Fee of $50 includes speakers, break-out sessions, six hours of Act 48 credit, continental breakfast, afternoon refreshments, door prizes, and more!   First 75 paid registrants receive an attractive black canvas messenger bag.  Deadline for registration and payment is October 5, 2010.   Sorry, but no exceptions and no refunds after October 5.   If your school requires a PO or cannot meet the  payment deadline, call Sue Mackulin, ph. 412-384-8199.  Email:   pacouncilforhistoryeducation@gmail.com.

Pennsylvania Council for History Education (PCHE) is a 501(c)3 formed to advocate and advance the study and teaching of History in PA schools; encourage and support the development and implementation of meaningful and effective History curriculum and instruction; provide a program of professional activities for History educators and students; and provide for educational and professional interaction among History educators.