History Professor Named as Master Scholar for U.S. Education Department Program
Dr. Melissa Walker, an Associate Professor of History at Converse College, has been selected to serve for one year as Master Scholar for the Teaching American History in S.C. project. The project, which is funded by a three year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, is designed to provide professional development to S.C. public school teachers by helping them to create lesson plans, establish networks and share teaching strategies. As Master Scholar, Dr. Walker will develop the curriculum for the three 10-day Summer Institutes to be held in June and July.
“Dr. Walker’s capability in her field is apparent,” said Marshall Angle, Director of Teaching American History in S.C. “Her teaching methods and the types of mentoring relationships she has with Converse students are just what are needed to enable the grant to continue to be successful.”
The 2004 Summer Institutes will be held at the local level in the three main geographical areas of the state: the Lowcountry (a tri-county consortium of three school districts: Charleston, Berkeley County and Dorchester 2); the Midlands (Richland 2 School District); and the Upstate (Greenville School District). “During the institutes, we will utilize local resources of the region such as museums, libraries and historic sites,” said Dr. Walker.
A native of Maryville, Tenn., Dr. Walker serves as the executive secretary of the Southern Association for Women Historians and is a member of the Executive Council of the Rural Women’s Studies Association. She is author of All We Knew Was to Farm: Rural Women in the Upcountry South, 1919-1941 (John Hopkins University Press 2000) and co-editor of Southern Women at the Millennium (University of Missouri Press 2003). Her edited collection of oral histories, Stories From the Land, is forthcoming from University of South Carolina Press. She has recent articles in Oral History Review, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Agricultural History, Journal of East Tennessee History, The Southern Historian, and Popular Culture Review. She is recipient of the John Trotwood and Mary Daniel Moore Memorial Award from the Tennessee Historical Association and the National Mortar Board Award for Excellence in Advising. She was Joseph J. Malone Faculty Fellow to Syria in 1998. At Converse, Dr. Walker received the O’Herron Award for Faculty Excellence in 2002 and the Kathryne Amelia Brown Award for outstanding teaching in 2001.