REU Site: The Parker Academy: Investigating the Intersection of Freedom, Social Justice, Archaeology, History, and Geography

该项目由SBE理事会的本科生研究经验(REU)站点计划资助。因此，它兼具科学和社会效益，并将研究和教育融为一体。这个多机构项目正在通过探索美国历史中的种族、性别平等和社会正义等重要问题，吸引不同的学生参与者参与实地和档案研究，俄亥俄州南部的帕克学院(Parker Academy)(成立于1839年)就是证明。帕克学院于1892年关闭，在长达53年的时间里，它是导致美国内战以及内战后的紧张和不平等问题的问题和解决方案的一个缩影。它的创始人是坚定的废奴主义者，他们冒着生命、财产和财产的危险，信仰并教授人类平等；也许最有先见之明的是，他们使学院成为美国第一所容纳多种族男女同校教室的预备学校。这些事实，再加上帕克学院位于俄亥俄州克莱蒙特县俄亥俄河上的准确位置，与曾经的奴隶制肯塔基州隔河相望，使帕克学院成为一所具有全国意义的教育机构，并受到废奴主义者的推动。到目前为止，学院、其创始人、支持者和学生都没有成为严肃学术调查的对象。我们的初步研究和发掘已经开始揭示这一里程碑。我们的项目将通过公共历史和考古学、地理学、社区参与和科学教育，引起当地和全国对帕克学院的关注。帕克学院REU是历史学家、地理学家和人类学家(考古学和人种学)之间的合作。在三个夏天(2017年、2018年、2019年)，45名本科生研究员(15名/年)将从事跨学科基于问题的研究，这将有助于对自由、种族主义、性别不平等以及北美教育和历史激进主义的演变的科学和历史理解。这项由REU产生的研究旨在实现四个目标：(1)促进学生深入参与实地和档案工作，这将有助于集中了解原始科学和人文研究是如何联系、产生、呈现和发表的；此外，该计划将允许学生研究员参与公共宣传，重点关注紧迫的现实世界问题；(2)向本科生介绍种族、性别、历史、地理、考古和社会正义相互联系的复杂方式；(3)培训学生研究策略和技能，以识别和探索传统学科边界之外的那些联系；(4)有效衡量项目在实现目标、实施课程和促进学习方面的成功程度。最终，我们的目标是研究和促进实地科学教学的创新战略模式，并评估我们方法的教育效果。

This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. As such, it has both scientific and societal benefits, and it integrates research and education. This multi-institutional project is engaging diverse student participants in field-based and archival research by exploring important problems of race, gender equality, and social justice in American History as evidenced by the Parker Academy (founded 1839) in southern Ohio. The Parker Academy, which closed its doors in 1892 was, for 53 years, a microcosm of the problems and solutions to the divisions that led to the American Civil War and to the tensions and inequalities of its aftermath. Its founders were staunch abolitionists who risked their lives, possessions and property for believing in and teaching human equality; and perhaps most presciently for making their Academy the first preparatory school in the country to house multiracial, coeducational classrooms. These facts, together with the Parker Academy's precise location on the Ohio River in Clermont County, Ohio, literally just across the river from what was once slave-holding Kentucky, make the Parker Academy a nationally significant educational, and abolitionist-driven, institution. The Academy, its founders, supporters and students have not been the subject of serious scholarly investigation, until now. Our preliminary research and excavations have already begun to shed light on this landmark. Our project will bring long overdue local and national attention to the Parker Academy through public history and archaeology, geography, community engagement and science education.The Parker Academy REU is a collaboration among historians, geographers, and anthropologists (archaeology and ethnography). Over three summers (2017, 2018, 2019) 45 undergraduate research fellows (15/year) will engage in interdisciplinary problem-based research that will contribute to the scientific and historical understanding of freedom, racism, gender inequality, and the evolution of education and historical activism in North America. Research resulting from this REU is designed to accomplish four objectives: (1) to facilitate the in-depth involvement of students in field and archival work that will contribute to a focused understanding of the ways in which original scientific and humanistic research are linked, produced, presented and published; additionally, this program will allow student fellows to engage in public outreach focused on pressing real world problems; (2) to introduce undergraduates to the complex ways that race, gender, history, geography, archaeology, and social justice are connected; (3) to train students in research strategies and skills that will identify and explore those connections beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries; (4) to effectively measure the success of the project in achieving its goals, implementing curriculum, and facilitating learning. Ultimately, we aim to examine and contribute to a model of innovative strategies for teaching field-based sciences and for evaluating the educational effectiveness of our approach.