“Reacting to the Past” (RTTP) consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles with “victory objectives” informed by seminal texts in the history of ideas. The curriculum seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve speaking, writing, and leadership skills. An alternative approach to general education, RTTP was honored with the 2004 Theodore Hesburgh Award (funded by TIAA-CREF) as the nation’s outstanding pedagogical innovation in undergraduate teaching and learning.

Conference participants will learn about the curriculum by engaging in intensive two-day workshops on a particular games, including “Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791” (Gary Kates and Mark C. Carnes) and “The Struggle for Civil Rights: Birmingham to Memphis, 1963-66” (Jim Highland and Harold McDougall). In addition to game sessions, participants will have discussions of a more general character on student motivation and teaching, general education, and the problems and possibilities of the RTTP approach.

Further information is available at http://www.barnard.edu/reacting/conference. The priority registration deadline is March 15, 2009.