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June 28, 1999
Contact: Yvonne French, Library of Congress, (202) 707-9191
Angela Bellin, Library of Congress, (202) 707-9197
Office of Scholarly Programs, (202) 707-3302

MEDIA ADVISORY
Library of Congress World History Seminar To Be Cybercast

WHAT: The Library of Congress will host a three-week summer research seminar for community college faculty, "Globalizing Regional Studies."

WHEN: Tuesday, July 6, through Friday, July 23

WHERE: The Library of Congress Web site: http://www.loc.gov/today or http://www.loc.gov/loc/cyberlc

WHO: The Library of Congress is collaborating with the American Historical Association and the Community College Humanities Association in this project. Also cooperating are the African Studies Association, the Association for Asian Studies, the Latin American Studies Association, the Conference on Latin American History, the Middle East Studies Association and the World History Association. The Ford Foundation is funding the project.

BACKGROUND

The seminar "Globalizing Regional Studies" is the first phase of a two-part project whose overall aim is to use the discipline of history, particularly world history, to stimulate new ways of thinking about area studies. Seminar participants will attend workshops conducted by leading scholars in fields such as cross-cultural trade, migration and diaspora, gender, biological and cultural exchange and democratization and civil society. In addition, participants will work on individual research projects using the Library's collections.

The seminar will bring together approximately 30 faculty members who teach world history, literature and related subjects at community colleges around the nation. Seminar co-directors are Jerry Bentley of the University of Hawaii and Charles Evans of Northern Virginia Community College. Les Vogel of the Library of Congress is director of research. The seminar's seven guest lecturers will demonstrate how they broadened their own research and thereby contributed to a reconceptualization of area studies in the context of an emerging global environment. The guest lecturers are John McNeill of Georgetown University, Patrick Manning of Northeastern University, Patricia Seed of Rice University, Margaret Strobel of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Stanley Katz of Princeton University, Edmund (Terry) Burke of the University of California at Santa Cruz and James Tracy of the University of Minnesota.

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PR 99-094
6/28/99
ISSN 0731-3527