Absent Voices - Everyday Life in World History

History courses are peopled with the prestigious, the wealthy, the powerful. What about the vast majority of humanity - women, people living outside the urban centers, everyday workers - whose daily lives are mostly absent from the narrative we often teach? The 2011 Summer Institute focused on the experience of life for common people in world history and the very real challenges scholars and teachers face in studying these voices, which are often absent from document archives.


Presentation Summaries

Where are the Maya People in History?, Rosemary Joyce

Everyday Life in Han China, Michael Nylan

The Sītā Mystique, Sally Goldman

Women Artists /Women and Art in Chechov, Anna Muza

Abina and the Important Men: Engaging students in reversing the silences of history, Trevor Getz

Comparative Harems: Women, Sex and Family Structures from the Middle East to South & Southeast Asia, Leslie Ann Woodhouse

Roman Women: Problems and Possibilities, Jason M. Schlude

Between the Cross and the Crown: daily life in post-conquest Central Mexico, 1521 to 1600, Alex Saragoza

Daily Lives of Adolescent Kenyan Girls, Martha Saavedra

Women Healers As Outsiders – Witch Hunts In Western Europe (1485-1600), Susan Moulton

New Voices At The Table For Textile Industry Workers In Bangladesh And Sri Lanka, Sanchita Saxena

Teaching Silences: Women as Change Makers in the Middle East, Melanie Tanielian