Minnesota Humanities Center

Online Content Session - Era Five: Slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction
2026-01-15 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Online
Explore the causes, course, and consequences of the Civil War, and evaluate the transformative potential and limitations of Reconstruction. Led by Dr. Rebecca Brückmann and moderated by Dr. Katharine Gerbner, this session will provide deep historical context, source analysis, and thematic framing.

View Dr. Rebecca Brückmann’s Bio

Rebecca Brückmann (pronounced “Brookman”) is an associate professor of History at Carleton College, who specializes in African American History. She completed her Ph.D. in Modern and Contemporary History at Free University Berlin, Germany, in 2014. She is the author of the monograph “Massive Resistance and Southern Womanhood: White Women, Class, and Segregation” (University of Georgia Press, 2021), which analyzes whites supremacist women’s resistance against Black Freedom activism in Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina from the 1940s to the 1960s. Her research on the Black Freedom Movement, the history of the Black Diaspora, Southern history, and the history of white supremacy has been published, e.g., in the Southern Quarterly, the South Carolina Historical Magazine, the European Journal of American Studies, and “Picturing Black History.” She is currently an Academic Leadership Fellow of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. At Carleton, she teaches courses on Black and African American history from the 14th through the 21st centuries, including “Black Perspectives on the Civil War and Reconstruction,” “Slavery in the Atlantic World,” and “Freedom Then, Freedom Now: Reconstruction to #BlackLivesMatter.”

All Content Sessions will be conducted via Zoom and a Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)-hosted Canvas learning community. Each session’s lectures and discussions will be recorded and registered participants will receive access to the Canvas course with session recordings, curated resources, and collaborative planning tools. High school U.S. History teachers and 5th and 7th grade educators are invited to participate in companion Pedagogy Sessions.
Registration
Content Sessions are open to all K–12 educators interested in historical content and source-based instruction. Educators are welcome to register for individual sessions that align with their interests and schedules. Join us for one or more sessions throughout the year.

This event is free but registration is required. Separate registration is required for each offering.

Registration Questions: Brittany.Rawson-Haeg@state.mn.us

Register Now

This offering is part of Navigating the U.S. History Eras: Content, Pedagogy, and Inquiry in the Classroom is a yearlong professional learning opportunity supporting implementation of Minnesota’s 2021 K–12 Academic Standards in Social Studies presented by MHC and MDE.
