Applications are now being accepted for “Charles Dickens: Hard Time and A Tale of Two Cities,” a four-week summer seminar supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Directed by Prof. Marty Gould, the seminar will be held at UC Santa Cruz, home of the Dickens project. The seminar begins Sunday, 3 July 2016 and ends Friday, 29 July 2016.

The application deadline is 1 March 2016. Don’t miss this opportunity to spend a month on the beautiful California coast discussing Dickens with colleagues from across the country.

Designed for middle and high school teachers, the “Charles Dickens: Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities” seminar critically explores two of the most frequently taught of Dickens’s novels. Both of these texts are deeply engaged with political and social issues that are as relevant today as they were for Dickens and his contemporaries: education, labor reform, law, social revolution, and terrorism. Via a range of disciplinary fields and methods, the seminar considers how Dickens—and literature more generally—can promote historically-inflected cultural literacy while developing the ethical and political perspectives our students need in order to fully engage with contemporary social issues.

The 16 seminar participants will each receive a stipend of $3,300 to help offset the costs of travel and lodging. After the conclusion of the seminar, participants will be invited to remain in Santa Cruz for the week-long Dickens Universe conference, which will focus on Dombey and Son.

To learn more about the seminar and to find out how to apply, visit the seminar’s website: http://www.DickensNEH2016.com or email the director at mgould@usf.edu.