The Cullman Center Institute for Teachers

 

“…at the Cullman Center, I have been nourished intellectually by the challenging coursework, socially by the amazing company, and physically by all the delicious food. It's been like a spa for my brain and my soul, and I thank you so much for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
--Rachel Bello
Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction, Brooklyn, NY

 

The Center’s Summer Seminars for Middle and High School Teachers offers three week-long courses led by outstanding creative writers and scholars. During each seminar week teachers learn about the extraordinary resources of the Library, and are given time to do their own writing and research. Educators throughout the New York metropolitan area have praised the seminars; many have said it was the best professional development experience they have ever had.

 

The Center’s Teacher Workshops, a new program begun in November 2009, provides one-day workshops during the school year that are modeled on the Summer Seminars. Like the Seminars, the Workshops give teachers the opportunity to work closely with scholars and writers on materials they teach, access to Library resources and Special Collections, and the chance to discuss teaching strategies with a diverse group of colleagues. 

 

 

 

 

Instructor: Ian Frazier

 

This writing workshop will examine various genres to gain a wide view of nonfiction’s possibilities. We will compare Charles Dickens’s nonfiction American Notes to A Christmas Carol; we will study the metaphysical themes in Joseph Mitchell’s essays; and we will look at Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember, about the Titanic, alongside newspaper accounts of the ship’s sinking and Thomas Hardy’s poem about the event, “The Convergence of the Twain.” Participants will work on their own nonfiction pieces, set in New York locales of their choosing.

 

Ian Frazier, currently a Fellow at the Cullman Center, is a writer and humorist for The New Yorker and the author of many books, including Great Plains and On the Rez.

 

 

Instructor: Karen Russell

 

Each workshop participant will build a colorful, imaginary world from the ground up, populate it with local citizenry, rigorously invent its history, conventions, and vernacular—and then develop a story out of that rich web of material. Short fiction by Franz Kafka, Italo Calvino, Junot Diaz, Flannery O’Connor, and others will be examined, and inspiration for writing exercises will come from the Library’s primary source material such as maps, photographs, diaries, and letters.

 

Karen Russell's stories have appeared in The New Yorker and Granta. A current Cullman Center Fellow, Russell is the author of the short-story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Her novel, Swamplandia!, will be published by Knopf.

 

 

Instructor: Robert G. O’Meally

 

This seminar will explore the Harlem Renaissance’s achievements in literature, music, and painting. We will read literary works by Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes, and discuss how the literature connects to music by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith, as well as to paintings by Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden. Throughout, we will ask: When, where, and what was the Harlem Renaissance? What were its politics? What is its legacy?

 

Robert G. O'Meally, a former Cullman Center Fellow, teaches English at Columbia University, where he founded the Center for Jazz Studies. His books include The Craft of Ralph Ellison; Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday; and The Jazz Singers.

 

·         A $300 stipend

·         All required books and course materials

·         A private office with networked computer

·         Excellent breakfasts and lunches

 

The Cullman Center Summer Seminars are limited to 14 participants each. Middle and high school English teachers, history teachers, librarians, and administrators are invited to apply; priority will be given to New York City public school teachers.