MAYS LANDING – The Atlantic Cape Community College Arts and Humanities Department is planning a symposium on teaching about the Revolution in New Jersey on May 23, 2025 and is inviting high school and college history teachers to submit abstracts for 30-minute panel discussions. discussions.
Each presentation will focus on Revolutionary-era relevant content, pedagogical strategies and approaches needed in advance of the Semiquincentennial on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
Senior dean of Liberal Studies and Culinary Arts Denise Coulter was impressed with the idea of a Revolutionary-era symposium when history and social science faculty member Mark “Paulie” Wenger approached her.
“I thought it was brilliant. With the approach of our nation's Semiquincentennial, I can't think of a better way for teachers to help students see the relevance of this part of our history than by showing it to them through a local lens. With this symposium, we aim to provide teachers with the content, tools and creative ideas to bring the revolutionary war alive for their high school and college students,” Coulter said. “The Revolutionary War can seem far away and unfamiliar to high school and college students, but when they are presented with the fact that our hard-earned freedom was fought and won by people not unlike us, on the very land where we now live, work and play, the realization strikes a special chord in their hearts and makes them sit up straighter and pay attention.”
This symposium is designed to bring the area’s pre-eminent American Revolutionary scholars together as we prepare to celebrate a pivotal moment in the nation’s history. Following the symposium, the submitted papers and presentations will be compiled into a publication that will be available to all high school and college educators to assist in their teaching students of New Jersey’s importance in American Revolutionary history.
Professor Wenger stressed the importance of this symposium’s educational value for students.
“2026 will be a pivotal moment in the education of New Jersey's future leaders. This symposium will ensure that educators in the state can get the rich history of Revolutionary New Jersey to students in high schools and colleges,” Wenger said. “As the philosopher Barrows Dunham wrote, ‘It is perhaps the case that men can make better history and that history can make better men.’ It is my hope that this symposium will make better citizens of our students.”
See atlanticcape.edu/revolutionarysymposium to access the Teaching Revolutionary New Jersey Google form. Answer the required questions and submit a brief 250-word abstract that describes the paper/presentation to be presented.
Selected presenters will receive a $100 stipend following the symposium. Deadline to submit an abstract is Oct 15. For more information, email [email protected].
