IATH NEWS
Educator Workshop on The World of Dante
April 1, 2011
IATH Fellow Deborah Parker recently held a one-day symposium for U.S. educators to evaluate use of her The World of Dante project in teaching literature and history, as part of her 2008-2011 NEH Daniels Family Distinguished Teaching Professorship.
The World of Dante is a multi-media research tool that facilitates the study of Dante's Divine Comedy with Italian and English texts, maps, diagrams, music, a searchable database, timeline, and illustrations. Participants discussed the format of courses in which these resources are used, student responses to the project, exercises that involved use of the project, and different approaches to teaching Divine Comedy and Italian history. This allowed participants to not only explore in greater depth the project's maps, illustrations, teaching resources, and other features, but also to pick up tips from other history and literature professors on how to organize courses focused on Dante. The meeting, held April 1 at the University of Virginia, was attended by:
- David Peterson, Professor of History, Washington and Lee University
- Kristina Olson, Assistant Professor of Italian, George Mason University
- Bernardo Piciche, Assistant Professor of Italian, Virginia Commonwealth University
- George Dameron, Professor of History, St. Michael's College
- Duane Osheim, Professor of History, University of Virginia
- Walter Stephens, Professor of Italian Studies, Johns Hopkins University
- Jason Houston, Associate Professor Italian, University of Oklahoma
- Worthy Martin, Director of IATH, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Virginia
- Barbara Ashbrook, Program Officer National Endowment for the Humanities
