Slavery and the Constitution: An NEH Summer Institute

Slavery and the Constitution is a scholarship opportunity for 25 select faculty participants from two-year community and four-year colleges and universities to enhance their teaching and research by engaging with other scholars from a wide range of disciplines.

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), this two-week Institute, held in Washington, D.C., will enable faculty participants to explore the rapidly accumulating new collaborative scholarship, which focuses on the reading and interpretation of slavery in America and its impact on the U.S. Constitution. The multidisciplinary approach provides a distinct perspective allowing for greater understanding of the complexities of slavery in America and opens a window onto how slavery could exist in a country founded on many of the ideals of the Enlightenment.

Selected institute summer scholars will directly engage in research on American slavery and its impact on the Constitution through seminars, discussions and on-site field studies with renowned visiting scholars and content specialists. Study tours to such relevant sites as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s exhibit on slavery will enable participants to appreciate for themselves the vast complexities and political ramifications of slavery.