Workshops & Presentations
The Korematsu Institute’s workshops for educators have included teacher professional development and curriculum writing institutes. We also regularly contribute to professional development workshops organized by other organizations.
FEATURED PROJECTS
Double Displacement: Exploring the Intersecting Histories of Indigenous Communities and the Japanese American Confinement Sites in Arizona
The Korematsu Institute organized a multi-day educator symposium in Arizona. The program included talks from Arizona State University professors, Dr. Karen Leong and Dr. Myla Vicenti-Carpio, and filmmakers, Claudia Katayanagi and Antonia Grace Glenn, as well as UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus and former Gila River incarceree, Evelyn Nakano Glenn.
The group visited the Gila River Indian Community’s Huhugam Heritage Center, the Colorado River Indian Tribes’ museum in Parker, AZ, the Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center, and the Heard Museum. We also joined a day of the Poston Pilgrimage, which included a trip to the memorial and the former camp site.
Educators in the group authored five new lesson plans for students in grades 3-12. These lessons are available for all teachers in our digital educational toolkit.
This program was made possible by funding from the National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites program, the JA Community Fund, and the Grace Nixon Foundation.
Developing Curriculum and Educating Through Film: And Then They Came For Us
The Korematsu Institute invited nine educators from across the country for a multi-day professional development and curriculum writing workshop in the San Francisco Presidio.
The program included presentations from Facing History, the Presidio Trust education department and historian, UC Santa Cruz professor Alice Yang, and Don Tamaki, a member of Fred Korematsu’s coram nobis legal team.
The group toured the EXCLUSION exhibit in the Presidio Officer’s Club, the temporary exhibition Then They Came For Me, and visited the former office of General John W. DeWitt, from which he issued the exclusion orders for all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast during WWII.
Educators in the group authored nine new lesson plans for students in grades 3-12. Each lesson is paired with a clip from Abby Ginzberg’s documentary, And Then They Came For Us. These lessons are available for all teachers in our digital educational toolkit.
This program was made possible by funding from the National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites program and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation in partnership with the Presidio Trust.