The People Who Created “America’s City” (New York 1770-1800), a digital learning project by Northwestern Qatar, has been awarded a Digital Projects for the Public Grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The project, which examines the complex, multicultural social history of Revolutionary Era New York City, is the latest edition of the award-winning digital learning series, History Adventures: World of Characters.
Each year, the NEH, through its Digital Projects for the Public program, awards grants to selected projects that deepen public understanding of significant humanities ideas through digital platforms and formats. Projects selected for a grant receive funding to support their development in the discovery, prototyping, and production stages.
The grant awarded to Professor Spencer Striker will support the series in the exploratory stages of a new interactive learning edition about the challenging, multicultural social history of Revolutionary Era New York City—designed for middle and high school students. In designing the new chapter, Striker will lead a team of historians, advisors, secondary school partners, and museums to develop a narrative and design pilot for a new prototype.
The new edition will help students understand the complex problems and choices faced by New Yorkers during the Revolutionary War. By playing the role of different characters and being immersed in urban life during the Revolutionary era, students will learn how gender, race, political affiliation, religion, and social status shaped the ways people in late 18th-century New York understood liberty and freedom.
“Our project places students in the position of a range of different characters, helping them understand the ramifications of the high-stakes choices people had to make—and, in the process, it illuminates the rich world of the revolutionary era in one particular place,” said Striker, associate professor at Northwestern Qatar. “New York is a uniquely apt site for understanding the dynamics of the revolutionary era and the complexities of freedom, movement, and opportunity. In this regard, “America’s City” makes clear to students that making choices during this period was challenging, and often fraught.”
Each year, the NEH, through its Digital Projects for the Public program, awards grants to selected projects that deepen public understanding of significant humanities ideas through digital platforms and formats. Projects selected for a grant receive funding to support their development in the discovery, prototyping, and production stages.
The grant awarded to Professor Spencer Striker will support the series in the exploratory stages of a new interactive learning edition about the challenging, multicultural social history of Revolutionary Era New York City—designed for middle and high school students. In designing the new chapter, Striker will lead a team of historians, advisors, secondary school partners, and museums to develop a narrative and design pilot for a new prototype.
The new edition will help students understand the complex problems and choices faced by New Yorkers during the Revolutionary War. By playing the role of different characters and being immersed in urban life during the Revolutionary era, students will learn how gender, race, political affiliation, religion, and social status shaped the ways people in late 18th-century New York understood liberty and freedom.
“Our project places students in the position of a range of different characters, helping them understand the ramifications of the high-stakes choices people had to make—and, in the process, it illuminates the rich world of the revolutionary era in one particular place,” said Striker, associate professor at Northwestern Qatar. “New York is a uniquely apt site for understanding the dynamics of the revolutionary era and the complexities of freedom, movement, and opportunity. In this regard, “America’s City” makes clear to students that making choices during this period was challenging, and often fraught.”
“Our project places students in the position of a range of different characters, helping them understand the ramifications of the high-stakes choices people had to make—and, in the process, it illuminates the rich world of the revolutionary era in one particular place”
- Spencer Striker, associate professor at Northwestern Qatar
Building on History Adventures’ award-winning digital learning model, the new edition will incorporate a series of innovative pedagogical, theoretical, and technological practices, as well as elements from history games, video-based learning, interactive textbooks, and history apps. The final product will be available in New York-based museums and will pilot as part of the core social studies curriculum in classrooms across the United States.
“Our faculty continue to forge new grounds through their scholarly and creative output that reflects Northwestern Qatar’s mission of contributing to knowledge production in the region,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar. “ The National Endowment for Humanities is a venerable agency, and its grant awards are among the most prestigious in the United States. This award is a testament to the impact of their multimodal research, which follows the most rigorous and advanced standards of academic excellence and reflects the distinctive nature of our school,” he added.
History Adventures: World of Characters is the winner of the 2022 inaugural Anthem Awards and the 2020 Educational App Award for the Reimagine Education Awards by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Previous editions of the series include chapters on the history of empires, global pandemics, as well as revolutions and industrialization.
“Our faculty continue to forge new grounds through their scholarly and creative output that reflects Northwestern Qatar’s mission of contributing to knowledge production in the region,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar. “ The National Endowment for Humanities is a venerable agency, and its grant awards are among the most prestigious in the United States. This award is a testament to the impact of their multimodal research, which follows the most rigorous and advanced standards of academic excellence and reflects the distinctive nature of our school,” he added.
History Adventures: World of Characters is the winner of the 2022 inaugural Anthem Awards and the 2020 Educational App Award for the Reimagine Education Awards by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Previous editions of the series include chapters on the history of empires, global pandemics, as well as revolutions and industrialization.
