Borders, Belonging, and What We Leave Out: Teaching Partition
May 6 @ 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm PDT
In most U.S. classrooms, South Asia gets covered superficially through religion and Gandhi. Two hundred years of British colonial rule and extraction? Maybe a paragraph. Millions of South Asian soldiers in both World Wars? Not mentioned. Partition, over 15 million displaced, communal violence, 1-2 million dead? A paragraph, if that. The connections to contemporary politics, nationalism, and division? Never made. This workshop fills that gap. We trace the full arc – from British divide-and-rule policies through hastily drawn borders that split communities overnight, to what came after and continues to shape modern South Asia today. And through it all, the continued resilience of the people. This workshop opens up essential conversations about empire, borders, resistance, identity and belonging, shared trauma, the power of oral histories, and why this matters now.
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This workshop is open to everyone. Educators will also walk away with a resource guide of readings, videos, and book recommendations for K-12 classrooms.
Presenter Antika Singh, MSEd
Sponsored by Dr. Noreen Naseem RodrÃguez, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University
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PD Certificate will be provided by NJEA