2021 Overview
In 2021, in COVID times, we confronted the “digital age” of our title with particular urgency. The first iteration of this Institute brought teachers in contact with manuscript, print, and digital texts, material and online participatory cultures, historical and imaginary worlds of whaling, to immerse participants in Melville’s thrilling “wonder-world” and to experience new inspiration, ideas, and methods to take back to their classrooms. We continued to offer a rich set of multimedia and multidisciplinary resources. Given that we now met in virtual spaces, a central goal of our workshops was also to produce an online archive of digital tools and pedagogies for future use. Although no prior digital experience or expertise is required, we welcomed curious and creative approaches to the diverse challenges instructors face in today’s classrooms.
The synchronous meetings of the Institute generally took place in two daily sessions: from 10:00am-12:00noon and from 1:30pm-3:30pm. Morning sessions were dedicated to the study of a sequential cluster of chapters from Moby-Dick. Participants were invited to enrich readings of selected chapters by sharing digital annotations and reflections in an online discussion forum. Resident faculty introduced themes and patterns from these chapters. A portion of morning sessions consisted of teachers “lowering” into two to four smaller “crews,” each guided by lead faculty, to explore together specific issues from the novel.
Afternoon sessions consisted of discussions about expert workshops, and panels presented by Institute faculty that provided important critical, historical, and pedagogical contexts that illuminated the book’s literary art. These seminars also situated the book’s questions, themes, and issues in the lives of twenty-first-century readers. There were also opportunities for engagements during which participants encountered varied exhibitions, archives, and collections (historical, aesthetic, and Melville-focused) afforded by the Museum and New Bedford.
Our limited time gathering together on Zoom will was supplemented by a variety of asynchronous learning activities including: recorded expert presentations, video resources, virtual field trips, and researching and creation of curricular approaches. Part of the collaborative endeavor of the virtual Institute was the collection of digital resources that can assist teachers and students to dive deeper into Melville’s work. We were involved in a collective research project to pull these treasures out of the ocean of the web to create a reference database that can benefit all who are engaged in learning from and about Moby-Dick.
Our communal reading of Moby-Dick took place between June 21 and July 1. We convened again after a four-day break for the Independence Day weekend to focus on pedagogical approaches and to share the lessons we had gathered and learned.
