The 1619 Project *In-Person*

In this class we will discuss and analyze the content, evolution of, and controversy surrounding The 1619 Project, originally an award winning, ground-breaking series of essays, poems, short fiction, and photography featured in the August 18, 2019 edition of the New York Times. The 1619 Project, expanded to book-length in 2021, explores the legacy of slavery and race in America since the first enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia. The 1619 Project considers “what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation’s birth year ... to place ... black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country.” Throughout the course we assess the implications of the 1619 Project for our identity as a country and as individual citizens. Required book: The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein (ISBN: 978-0-593-23057-2).
Instructor: Joshua Frank

Sections

Instructor

Joshua Frank has worked as an educator for twenty-nine years--as a teacher, an administrator and a trainer. He has designed and implemented innovative, data-based programs for at-risk middle and high school students, helping them to set and reach specific academic goals. He completed his Bachelor’s degree at UMass/Amherst, and Master’s degrees from UMass/Boston and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His areas of interest include working with at-risk students, fostering positive, effective teacher-student relationships, and promoting cultural competence and equity in schools. Josh’s 2007 Education Digest article, “When White Educators Discipline Students of Color,” was republished as a “classic” in the August 2015 Connections: The Journal of the National School Reform Faculty.