Middle School Intersession 2025

I will talk about why there is often a shift which states are "swing states" over time, as well as how politicians choose certain topics & themes to focus on in their campaigns based on what is politically viable. Example questions include: How did Barack Obama carry several states that are now considered strongly Republican? Aside from purely just changes in public opinion, why do political parties shift their political stances over time? This session will be taught in a non-partisan fashion and is intended to teach students about the salience of political issues and how campaigning works from a calculated standpoint.

Museums curate and display human remains in order to research the past and to educate the public. But it has come to light that many of the individuals on display might not have considered the museum to be their ideal final resting place. Adding in individual and indigenous voices problematises the concept of curation of human remains, but many archaeologists see us on a path we can’t retreat from without radically changing the field. Museum visitors also expect to see skeletons, and most find it part of their education - and often inspires them to go into research of medicine. Additionally, ancient cultures and modern society have radically different views of the afterlife, consent, and burial practices that are often at odds with each other. In this session we’ll learn about and debate these differing views.

Key questions: How can we as curators and archaeologists balance these different value systems? Do the dead have a voice, and what would they argue for? What are some of the arguments for and against keeping human remains on a case-by-case basis? How can we develop more complex arguments than "I wouldn't want that to happen to my body" when all of our ideas of our bodies are different?

I will talk about why there is often a shift which states are "swing states" over time, as well as how politicians choose certain topics & themes to focus on in their campaigns based on what is politically viable. Example questions include: How did Barack Obama carry several states that are now considered strongly Republican? Aside from purely just changes in public opinion, why do political parties shift their political stances over time? This session will be taught in a non-partisan fashion and is intended to teach students about the salience of political issues and how campaigning works from a calculated standpoint.

You may have heard about Jackie Robinson and his breaking of the color barrier in baseball, but have you heard the history of the Negro Leagues and how baseball was segregated in the first place? Can you name some women baseball players who were also Negro League stars (yes, they could play baseball in the Negro Leagues even if not for Major League Baseball)? Did you know that baseball was one of the incarceration camp sports for Japanese Americans during World War II?

If these questions sound interesting and you'd like to learn more, please come join a discussion about the history of baseball in America that you may not have heard before, focusing on the Negro Leagues and baseball in the wartime incarceration camps. We'll be using books that involve primary sources to build our knowledge of this part of our country's history, and think about how this impacts sports as we watch and understand them today, with a focus on sports as sources of resistance and joy in 2025 and beyond.

You may have heard about Jackie Robinson and his breaking of the color barrier in baseball, but have you heard the history of the Negro Leagues and how baseball was segregated in the first place? Can you name some women baseball players who were also Negro League stars (yes, they could play baseball in the Negro Leagues even if not for Major League Baseball)? Did you know that baseball was one of the incarceration camp sports for Japanese Americans during World War II?

If these questions sound interesting and you'd like to learn more, please come join a discussion about the history of baseball in America that you may not have heard before, focusing on the Negro Leagues and baseball in the wartime incarceration camps. We'll be using books that involve primary sources to build our knowledge of this part of our country's history, and think about how this impacts sports as we watch and understand them today, with a focus on sports as sources of resistance and joy in 2025 and beyond.