NYU History/Social Studies Collaborative

Integrating Constitutional Issues and Social Justice Perspectives throughout the U.S. History Curriculum

The NYU History/Social Studies Collaborative creates educational materials for secondary teachers, emergent teachers, and high school students aligning historical scholarship with best teaching practices. Our curricular materials explore a range of social justice, civil rights, and cultural issues in American history.  Resources focus on the application of constitutional principles and ideas and challenge students to consider the ways in which events of the past resonate in the present.  

The NYU History/Social Studies Collaborative includes university faculty, experienced social studies teachers, law students, and legal scholars.  All of our resources reflect evolving historical and pedagogical scholarship and seek to build students’ content knowledge, critical thinking skills, and ability to contextualize and engage in the events of their time and offer students opportunities to interact with this material in remote, hybrid, and in person settings.
 

pen resting on the constitution

Fault Lines in the Constitution

Classroom resources to accompany Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and The Flaws that Affect Us Today. Resources include images and excerpts from Fault Lines as well as additional contextualizing materials and student activities and extensions. Each packet engages students in constitutional and current events topics and discussions.
The Constitution with scales and a candle

Constitutional Controversies

Social studies resources for remote or in person instruction on historical and current events issues including abortion, immigration, impeachment, and birthright citizenship. Resources include text and visual sources and options for student access and engagement and were developed by educators and legal scholars.
illustration of two hands trying to touch made up of people

Reconstruction and Labor History

Inquiry and project based resources on Reconstruction and workers' rights and conditions in the United States since the beginning of the 20th century for middle and high school students featuring perspectives and statements from Eric Foner and Bryant Simon.
painted of a fist

Social Movements

Resources for middle and high school students and teachers in remote and in person settings focused on movements for social justice and equality in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Lessons examine African American civil rights, the LGBTQ+ rights movement, student movements of the 1960s, and Black Lives Matter. All of the resources include diverse and accessible materials and options for student engagement, inquiry, and interaction.
courtroom with the scales of justice

Contributors

Stacie Brensilver Berman, NYU Steinhardt
Robert Cohen, NYU Steinhardt
Ryan Mills, Edward R. Murrow High School
Debra Plafker, Oblong Road Learning
Sylvia Precht-Rodriguez, NYU Law
Allison Scharfstein, NYU Law

Historical Consultants

Eric Foner, Columbia University (Emeritus)
Cynthia Levinson, Author, Fault Lines in the Constitution
Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School
Maeva Marcus, George Washington University Law School
Rhonda Perry, Salk School of Science
Bryant Simon, Temple University
Steve Steinbach, Sidwell Friends School

Contact Us

Please contact us with any questions or suggestions for resources you would like to use with your students.   Email Stacie Brensilver Berman at smb278@nyu.edu.  We look forward to hearing from and working with you. 


This site was made possible with an NYU Steinhardt Diversity Grant.