During the Workshop week, each Landmarks participant will begin a Workshop project focused on a theme of his or her choosing.  The project will be one of two types:  1) research directed toward curricular and course development or 2) research directed toward the composition of an analytical essay.  During the course of the Workshop, participants will lay the foundation for their projects by drawing material from presentations, readings, site tours, and archival research.  At the conclusion of the Workshop, each participant will submit a 900 word abstract profiling his or her project, which will be developed during the 2008-2009 academic year.  

      The Workshop Research Abstract will identify the structure and long range goals of the participant’s project, as well as specify resources discovered and employed during the course of the Workshop.  These Workshop abstracts (with the creators’ permission) will be posted on the “Henry Ford and the History of American Industry, Labor, and Culture” website.

     Workshop participants might, for example, consider exploring any one of the following themes in relation to the legacy of Henry Ford:  industrialism, labor unions, the Great Depression, the Progressive Movement, World Wars I and II, race relations, civil rights, ethnicity, immigration, corporate development, urban expansion and decline.  Projects of merit that are submitted between July 2008 and June 2009 will (with the creators’ permission) be posted on the website in their entirety. 



Ford Motor Co - Rouge Plant - Assembly Line in 1940'
courtesy of the Wayne State University