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The Wilderness Education Project is pleased to partner with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to offer educators dynamic professional development experiences—in person and through flexible, self-paced online options. Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, the Institute has grown into the nation’s premier nonprofit for K–12 history education, engaging both teachers and the wider public. Dedicated to deepening knowledge and sparking curiosity about America’s past, the Gilder Lehrman Institute equips educators and students with innovative programs and resources that bring history to life. To register for GLI events, please submit your official project paperwork first. Once processed, you’ll receive an email from GLI with instructions and registration codes to waive all fees.
SEMINAR SERIES
This year’s Spark programming brings history to life with four in-person seminars. Each seminar dives deep into a defining era of American history. In the mornings, a university historian will guide participants through rich historical content, while the afternoons shift to hands-on learning as Master Teachers share powerful, research-based teaching strategies to bring that history into the classroom. The workshop will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will feature lectures and a Q&A with an eminent scholar and a pedagogy session. Coffee and pastries will be available in the morning, and lunch will also be provided at no cost.
A New Nation and Westward Expansion
A New Nation and Westward Expansion
October 3rd, 2026, Junior Achievement McWane Economic Education, Birmingham, AL
Presenter: Dr. Susan Sterns
Elementary school cohort: Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery, 1804-1806
Secondary school cohort: Lewis and Clark: Exploring the Louisiana Purchase
Professor Susan Gaunt Stearns is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Mississippi. Her research focuses on the incorporation of the trans-Appalachian West—particularly the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys—into the American Union during the late eighteenth century, with special attention to international trade, land purchases, and land speculation and their influence on early national politics and ideology. She is also interested in historical pedagogy and how history is taught and learned.
Publications
Empire of Commerce (under contract with University of Virginia Press)
Selected Articles
“The Sutler’s Empire: Frontier Merchants and Imperial Authority, 1790–1811,” in The Early Imperial Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming May 2023).
“Federalism on the Frontier: Secession and Loyalty in the Trans-Appalachian West,” in From Independence to the U.S. Constitution (University of Virginia Press, 2022).
“Diplomacy, or Treason?: The Spanish Conspiracy in Broader Context,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (2016).
Slavery in the early 19th Century
Slavery in the early 19th Century
December 12, 2026, Junior Achievement McWane Economic Education, Birmingham, AL
Presenter: Dr. Joshua Rothman, Professor of History, University of Alabama
Elementary school cohort: The Anti-Slavery Alphabet, 1846
Secondary school cohort: Purchased Lives: Torn Apart and Stitched Back Together
Joshua Rothman chairs the history department at the University of Alabama, where he is also a professor of history specializing in nineteenth-century America and the history of race and slavery. His research interests include nineteenth-century America, Southern history, race and slavery, and social and cultural history. Rothman is the author of The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America (2021), Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787–1861 (2003); Reforming America, 1815–1860 (2009); and Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson (2012), which won the Gulf South Historical Association's Michael Thomason Book Award and the Southern Historical Association's Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Prize.
The Civil War
The Civil War
February 6, 2027, American Village
Presenter: Lesley Gordon, Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History, University of Alabama
Elementary school cohort: The Self-Emancipation of Robert Smalls, 1862
Secondary school cohort: The Battle of Gettysburg through Union and Confederate Eyes
Lesley Gordon, Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History, University of Alabama
Lesley Gordon, Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History, specializes in military history, the history of the South, and the American Civil War era. Her latest book, Dread Danger: Cowardice and Combat in the American Civil War (2025), explores accusations of cowardice and their lasting effects on Civil War regiments. Her other publications include Race and Gender at War: Writing American Military History (2025); A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut’s Civil War (2014); Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas (2005), Intimate Strategies of the Civil War: Military Commanders and their Wives (2001), and General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend (1998). Gordon’s talks have been featured on C-Span, adn she is the former editor of the academic journal Civil War History (2010-2015), and President of the Society of Civil War Historians (2022-2024). From 2024-2025, she served as the Charles Boal Ewing Chair in Military History at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY.
Reconstruction
Reconstruction
April 3, 2027, American Village
Presenter: Lesley Gordon, University of Alabama
Elementary school cohort: Why We Celebrate Juneteenth
Secondary school cohort: Sharecropping Contracts in the Reconstruction Era South
Gilder Lehrman Master Teachers
GLI's Master Teachers will be facilitating the afternoon pedagogical sessions.
Rebecca Luebker- Secondary Master Teacher
Rebecca Luebker is the chair of social sciences at Haas Hall Academy, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She has been honored as the 2017 Arkansas History Teacher of the Year, and she was an inaugural Computer Science Teacher Association’s Equity Fellow. Her work is focused on increasing Native American representation in education. Rebecca created the first Arkansas Department of Education–approved Native American History and Culture course for high school students in Arkansas. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, an eighth-generation educator, and a proud fourth-generation graduate of the University of Arkansas.
Saudah N. T. Collins- Elementary Master Teacher
Saudah N. T. Collins is a 29-year veteran educator in South Carolina whose work centers on equity in education. A National Board Certified teacher, she has taught pre-K through fifth grade and currently serves as an elementary African Studies instructor. Saudah has contributed to social studies curriculum development at the national, state, and district levels, taught early childhood courses as a university adjunct, and co-authored multiple professional publications. A Fulbright-Hays participant with study abroad experience in Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Barbados, she has presented widely at conferences across the U.S. and abroad. Her honors include the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 2021 South Carolina History Teacher of the Year, national finalist recognition from the Gilder Lehrman Institute, and the 2021 NCSS Elementary Teacher of the Year. From 2017–2024, she served as a model teacher for the Center for the Education and Equity of African American Students.
SELF-PACED COURSES
Depending on the grade level you teach, you have access to two self-paced courses that concentrates on this year's content and have been selected by the program. You also have access to one course you choose yourself (not listed below). Self-Paced Courses offer graduate-level instruction in American history led by the nation’s top historians. Once you have turned in your 2025-2026 paperwork, a GLI representative will contact you to provide you with the information to access your courses.
Each Self-Paced Course includes:
Video lectures by a leading historian
Primary sources and in-depth readings
Short quizzes to review your knowledge
3 to 15 professional development contact hours
A certificate of completion
You will not be required to complete any written assignments. Short quizzes are the only required assessment activities.s.
Once you complete a course, you will receive a certificate. Download this certificate, click the certificate upload button, and store your certificate to the Google file. These courses will be available until September 1, 2026.
Elementary Cohort Courses
Middle and Secondary Courses
Summer Seminar
Summer Seminar
Master Historian: Dr. Elliott West
Missoula, MT Summer Seminar, July 19-24, 2027
Registration opens February 1, 2027
Forty teachers will attend a weeklong summer seminar.
Westward Expansion
This is a walking-heavy seminar with daily historic site visits. GLI will provide lodging, meals, and travel stipends.
Dr. Elliot West
Dr. Elliott West (born 1945) is a renowned historian of the American West and the Alumni Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Arkansas, where he taught for 43 years. A past president of the Western History Association and a former Harmsworth Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford, West is celebrated for his engaging, narrative style that seamlessly blends environmental, social, and Native American histories. Over his illustrious five-decade career, he has authored numerous seminal works, including The Contested Plains, which won the Francis Parkman Prize, and Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion, which was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the prestigious 2024 Bancroft Prize. His expertise has also reached wider audiences through public education advocacy and appearances as an expert commentator in Ken Burns’s PBS documentary The American Buffalo.
Gilder Lehrman Institute Teacher Symposium at Gettysburg College
The Teacher Institute takes place in historic Gettysburg on the Gettysburg College campus July 12th-15th. Participants choose a particular strand of interest that will be led by renowned historians and master teachers that includes lectures, teaching strategies, in-depth conversations, and networking with ~300 other educators from across the country. Opportunities to explore local historical sites and engage in focused book talks/films are a part of the experience as well.
As a part of the SPARK Project, we have dedicated spots for participation, but space is limited. Participation includes project hours earned, as well as a stipend. You may learn more via the link below, with the dedicated SPARK enrollment link immediately following. We recommend registering early to try to secure a spot.
One of our Wilderness Education Project on Education colleagues, Keith Lyons, participated last year, claiming it to be one of the “most intense, enlightening, and enthralling education experiences” in his lifetime.
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