Cathy Swain, a teacher at Washington Academy, has been selected from a very large national applicant pool to attend one of several summer study opportunities supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Endowment is a federal agency that each summer supports seminars and institutes at colleges and universities so that teachers can work in collaboration and study with experts in the humanities.

Cathy will participate in a seminar for school teachers titled “Medieval and Early Modern Islamic Iberia.” The four-week program will take place in Valencia and other cities in Spain and is directed by E. Michael Gerli, Commonwealth Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Virginia. The sixteen teachers selected to participate in this program each receive an award of $3,300 to cover their travel, studies, and living expenses.

Topics for the 34 seminars and institutes offered for teachers this summer by the National Endowment for the Humanities include the art of cartography; economic history; topics in philosophy; American feminism; Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, Steinbeck; John James Audubon; Spanish literature and art; punishment, politics, and culture; the American frontier experience; World War II; archaeology of the America; modern French drama; history and cultures of Appalachia, and the Himalayan region; Mozart; Motown; American popular music; Mexican and Latino history and cultures; slavery and abolitionism; teaching Italian through art.

The approximately 715 NEH Summer Scholars who participate in these programs of study will teach almost 90,000 American students the following year.