Rising Form 11 students Rusham Goyal ‘25 and Helen Trottmann ‘25 presented at the annual World History Association conference in Pittsburgh on June 24. Their panel on "The Convergence of Insider and Outsider Perspectives in Teaching World History" was chaired by Upper School Social Studies teacher Dr. Amy Pozza and also included a paper presentation by Dr. Anne Hardgrove, an associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Rusham's paper discusses the subject of teaching the relationship between Hinduism and caste through complicating narratives with counterpoints brought by an insider perspective. It argues that incorporating these perspectives is critical to avoid the alienation of Indian Americans in high school classrooms and a vital act to counter harmful misinformation about caste, colonialism, and contemporary India.
Helen's paper offers an analysis of world history survey textbooks with a particular focus on the British colonization of India, drawing on the intersection of postcolonial theory and academic literature on the use of textbooks in pedagogy.
They are further developing their research projects for submission to other conferences and publications this year. Congrats to Rusham and Helen for representing Saint Mary's Hall as high school students at a conference of professional historians!