Alliance for Learning in World History
The Alliance for Learning in World History (ALWH) is a collaboration between educators and history scholars who seek to advance the teaching and learning of world history in classrooms in the U.S. and around the world. The Alliance sponsors yearly professional development programs that link leading practitioners in world history scholarship, curriculum, teacher preparation, professional development, and educational research. The ALWH was previously funded by the Social Science Research Council and the British Council and now draws on support from Columbia University and the World History Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Alliance is anchored at the University of Pittsburgh and serves as one of the primary education initiatives pursued by the WHC. Molly Warsh, Associate Director of the WHC and Head of Educational Outreach, serves as the Steering Committee Chair and primary contact for the ALWH.
The next ALWH professional development workshop will be "Energies in World History," held during the World History Association’s Annual Conference at the University of Pittsburgh, June 22-24 2023. Learn more about the workshop here.
Teaching World History Resources
The World History Center has proudly partnered with the National Humanities Center (NHC) to make materials and resources that are useful to both college and K-12 teachers of World History available. Through professional development workshops and submissions, the ALWH has contributed a database of world historical resources to the NHC’s Humanities in Class Digital Library. These are open access educational resources that include syllabi, assignments, lesson plans, and assessments.
To access the WHC’s resources follow this link to the ALWH’s group page. You can also access our resources from the Home page but clicking Groups and navigating to the Alliance for Learning in World History’s group page. In order to access resources, users must create an account, a free and easy process.
Interested in contributing? Please email ALWH@pitt.edu
Past Professional Development Opportunities
New Approaches to Frontier History
On June 11, 2022 the ALWH hosted a daylong professional development workshop on "New Approaches to Frontier History." The workshop features presentations from Dr. James Hill (University of Pittsburgh), Dr. Matt Matsuda (Rutgers), and Dr. Veronica Castillo-Munoz (UC Santa Barbara).
Teaching Indigenous History as World History
On June 12, 2021 the ALWH hosted "Teaching Indigenous History as World History," a professional development workshop for teachers. The webinar featured presentations from Dr. Bonita Lawrence (York University), Dr. Kyle Mays (UCLA) and Dr. Alaina E. Roberts (University of Pittsburgh).
Teaching the Global African Diaspora
On June 30, 2020 the ALWH hosted a day-long virtual professional development workshop on Teaching the Global African Diaspora.
Hot Topics in World History
On June 30, 2019 the ALWH hosted a one-day professional workshop for world history teachers titled "Hot Topics in World History," featuring sessions on teaching with comics led by Trevor Getz, maps in the world history classroom led by Ruth Mostern, and games in the world history classroom led by Bennett Sherry. The event drew teachers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and Virginia.
2018 Summer Workshop
On June 28th and 29th, the WHC hosted the Alliance for Learning in World History 2018 Summer Workshop at Pitt hosted by the Humanities Center at Pitt.