James Dator was chosen to participate in a seminar on “Slave Narratives,” held by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Dator is an assistant professor of history at Goucher and program adviser for Africana studies. He is one of 27 nationwide faculty members from the humanities attending the seminar at Yale University June 19-24.
CIC President Richard Ekman said, “Strengthening the teaching of American history at colleges and universities is of critical importance. This seminar will provide a great opportunity for participating faculty members to gain a better understanding of the experience of emancipation and the 19th century events that were so important in shaping our world today.”
The seminar will use literature written by former slaves, as well as secondary sources, to explore the lives of enslaved Americans as they were freed from bondage. The seminar will be led by David W. Blight, author of several books, most recently, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era (2011).
Dator is eager for the opportunity to think from different perspectives. “As a historian,” he said, “I am excited to engage with a wide-ranging group of teacher-scholars at Yale about slave narratives, because these works of art can be interpreted from so many different methodological vantage points. Having the chance to learn from other thinkers about different ways of situating and interpreting these works, not simply as texts but as products of the inter-connected currents of American literature, nineteenth-century social movements, and broader structural changes in American society, is exciting.”
Dator is also looking forward to using what he’ll learn at the seminar in his classes at Goucher. “Such experiences … help provide me with new tools for teaching students how to think historically with multiple lenses of analysis. And,” he added, “having the chance to learn from David Blight—one of the foremost scholars in the field—is incredible.”
The seminar is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, visit the CIC website at www.cic.edu/AmericanHistory.