2021 Hidden Histories Teacher Research Fellowship

Connecting Virginia’s Past to the History of Japanese American WWII Incarceration


Putting Knowledge Into Practice

October 20, 2021 (4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time)

Target Audience: Division-level contacts for history and social science contacts, teachers, community members, local school board members, and general public

Series information: The History & Social Science Program at the Virginia Department of Education will offer a three part series on Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) history and content that teachers can use in their history and social science instruction.

Session Details: This is the final session of the Asian American and Pacific Islander History Professional Development Series. In this session, three teachers who have been developing curriculum and lessons around the AAPI experience will share both their knowledge and their pedagogy in bringing AAPI stories into their teaching. Each has been working with the Library of Virginia to explore its collections on AAPIs in Virginia and are writing new lessons based on their research and work with outside consultants. The goal will be to have participants gain additional knowledge and feel more comfortable about ways to teach about AAPIs in their classrooms.

October 20, 2021 Registration Link = https://doe-virginia-gov.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9-1pmAmJSm-6kbBOHc7bXg


Full Spectrum Features and The Library of Virginia are pleased to announce the Hidden Histories Teacher Research Fellowship. The fellowship will provide educators with specialized training and access to Library of Virginia resources to conduct research into Japanese-American incarceration during World War II. Fellows will also be given access to Full Spectrum’s collection of short narrative films about the incarceration (entitled “Hidden Histories”), as well as the award-winning digital history tool The Orange Story. Over the course of the summer, fellows will work with Full Spectrum Features staff members, Library of Virginia staff members, and historians to learn more about and pursue research around Asian American history, both nationally and in the commonwealth, with particular attention to the history of Japanese-American incarceration and Executive Order 9066. The fellowship award includes a $2,000 stipend as well as a $500 discretionary stipend to cover travel, conference fees, or other related project expenses.

The goal is for the Fellow to walk away equipped with deep knowledge of Japanese American WWII incarceration history, relevant to local Virginia history. Using these learnings, Fellows will develop and conduct accredited professional development workshops for other Virginia-based K-12 teachers, to equip them with the tools to teach the history of Japanese American WWII incarceration, contextualized with an introduction to Asian American history, in their classrooms.

The Library of Virginia and Full Spectrum Features are seeking three Fellows that have an interest in researching Asian American history and how to apply primary resources, like narrative film, as a teaching tool in classrooms. 


Meet Our 2021 Hidden Histories Fellows:

Craig Blackman (Chesapeake) 

Craig Blackman is a thirty-five-year educator from Chesapeake, Virginia. He currently teaches Dual Enrollment American History at Indian River High School. Recently, he published a book entitled The Long Journey Home: The Untold Story of Forgotten Soldiers, the story of how a diverse group of post-millennial students in his AP US History class honored twenty-five Gold-Star families in Chesapeake. Craig was named the National VFW Teacher of the Year in July of 2015 because of the project. Blackman graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981 and an M.Ed. from Penn State University with a focus in American History in 1989. Actively involved in social studies education, Blackman served as the President of the Virginia Council for Social Studies from 2010-2013 and has been a presenter at the Virginia Council for Social Studies Conference and the National Council for Social Studies Conference. Blackman, an active member of New Life Providence Church in Virginia Beach, lives in Chesapeake with his wife Joette, a TV producer, and daughter Brooke, a nutritionist. His other daughter Sydney, is a purchasing agent for a design studio in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Grateful to be chosen for the Hidden History Teaching Research Fellowship, he hopes to communicate a more complete narrative of WWII to his students. Very few Virginians understand the impact of WWII on the Japanese American community in the commonwealth. 

Areas of Interest: primary sources


Dustin Lee (Fairfax County Public Schools) 

My name is Dustin Lee. I am of Chinese and Korean descent. I was born and raised in Maryland and now reside in Virginia with my wife and two kids. I’m a 4th grade teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools and have previously taught grades K, 2, 3, and 5. The Hidden Histories Research Fellowship gives an opportunity to learn more about Virginia’s past with the history of Japanese American Internment Camps. I’m thrilled and honored to be a part of the project to help tell the story of Japanese Americans by providing resources teachers can use in their units of study. 

Areas of Interests: I’m aware of the history of the internment camps as a whole, but I’m not familiar with any stories specific to Virginia.


Lynn Moore (Prince William County) 

I am a middle school history teacher in Northern Virginia. I have a history background with an undergraduate in history and I am pursuing a master’s degree in American history. American history, with the focus on undertold and untold stories is my passion that I pursue in my free time and in my teaching. I am very excited to work with you on this new fellowship. This is an extremely important story to bring to the forefront of American and Virginia history. I can’t wait to dig into the archives of the Library of Virginia and to learn from my colleagues about their research! 

Areas of Interests: Photography detailing the experience of Japanese Americans in Virginia before, during, and after Japanese American incarceration.

Details: 

  • Application Deadline (Passed): June 16, 2021
    • $2,000 cash stipend with an additional $500 for travel, conference fees or other related expenses
    • 60-80 hours including research, historian-led workshops, lesson plan development, and professional development training for other Virginia-based educators

  • Deliverables:
    • A lesson plan for educators to utilize in their classrooms
    • A teacher workshop for 10-15 Virginia-based educators (w/ professional development credits for attending educators)
    • A set of documents to be added to the online primary resource collection Document Bank of Virginia (DBVa)

This project was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program.