Spreading the Word

Spreading the Word

ICJS’s programs have not only supported the work of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. They have influenced and supported the work of staff at other historic sites, members of the scholarly community, and members of the general public. Monticello has hosted a variety of educational events and programs for decades; many of them were hosted under the umbrella of ICJS after its creation in 1994.

A large group of people standing and seated on the lawn in front of Monticello.

The “Straticello” seminar for K-12 educators was jointly sponsored by Monticello and Stratford Hall from 1985 to 2008. Starting in 1994, the year this group photo was taken, the program became part of ICJS's portfolio.

 

Cover of a brochure for a series of lectures about Thomas Jefferson.

The long-running “Jefferson and Monticello” course provided members of the general public an opportunity to learn about Jefferson and his world through 8 sessions taught by Monticello staff, offered through a partnership with the University of Virginia’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. This brochure (right) is from 2008.

DAACS

Monticello’s Archaeology Department is also home to the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS – http://www.daacs.org), an ambitious initiative that uses digital technologies to foster archaeological data sharing and collaboration among scholars, helping to advance our understanding of the evolution of slave societies in the early modern Atlantic.

Over the last 24 years, thanks to funding from organizations such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, DAACS has grown into the largest and longest-running archive of downloadable, comparable archaeological data for any specific region or period.

A critical component of this work is training and supporting a large network of archaeologists and historians who use material culture to conduct research on the experiences of enslaved communities and their descendants in the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean.

Under Saunders Director Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy (2003-2022), the ICJS’s international reach experienced a major expansion. To date, the ICJS has hosted over 500 domestic and international scholars from the United States, and 32 countries around the world. Our fellowships have supported not only academic historians and graduate students, but novelists, archaeologists, artists, librarians, journalists, musicians, and more.

This map shows the geographic origins of all of ICJS’s fellows, illustrating the worldwide reach of our fellowship programs.

Hover over a dot to see the place name and number of fellows from that location.

The work of ICJS departments is continually fueling new scholarship and discoveries, providing more and richer resources to understand Monticello and our shared history.

Cover of biography of Martha Jefferson Randolph featuring a portrait of her.

"The Family Letters Digital Archive – overseen by Lisa Francavilla, Retirement Series editor J. Jefferson Looney, and others at the International Center for Jefferson Studies – is a boon to scholars, students and anyone else who is interested in Martha Jefferson Randolph and her extended circle of family and friends."

- Cynthia A. Kierner, author of Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times (2012).