Overlooked No Longer
A collaborative digital humanities project focuses on making visible the work of Black women writers to a new generation
By Megan Walsh-Boyle
A prolific and thought-provoking author, activist and educator, Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875鈥1935) influenced some of the most celebrated writers of the Harlem Renaissance鈥攁nd yet, her works don鈥檛 appear on many K鈥12 school reading lists.
Jean Lutes, PhD, is working with a dedicated group of scholars to change that. 鈥淒unbar-Nelson is part of a long tradition of Black activists and intellectuals who have been advocating for racial justice for generations,鈥 says Dr. Lutes, the Luckow Family Endowed Chair in English Literature and professor of English.
For the past two years, Dr. Lutes has been working to recover a lost short story collection by the iconic writer who tackled complex themes like gender, race and ethnicity in poety, essays and fiction.
鈥淭hese extraordinary stories are based on Dunbar-Nelson鈥檚 work teaching Black kindergarteners, but they never got their proper recognition,鈥 Dr. Lutes recalls. 鈥淚 was really excited by one short story called 鈥楬is Heart鈥檚 Desire鈥 about a boy who wants a doll.鈥
“Being part of a project that rightfully puts Black literature in the forefront is incredibly rewarding.”
Adrianna Ogando 鈥23 CLAS
“Whether I am compiling documents, online resources or creating historical timelines, I am inspired by the direct impact we鈥檙e having on the teachers of the Philadelphia school district with whom we collaborate.”
Cynthia Choo 鈥23 CLAS
Bringing these neglected stories the attention they deserves a labor-intensive and painstaking process. That鈥檚 why Dr. Lutes enlisted the help of several 棉花糖直播 undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the expertise of Denise Burgher, a senior team leader at the Center for Black Digital Research at Penn State University, and Brigitte Fielder, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They secured funding through 棉花糖直播鈥檚 Idol Family Fellows Program and the Anne Welsh McNulty Institue for Women鈥檚 Leadership, with the goal of producing a widely accessible digital edition of the short story collection and partnering with the School District of Philadelphia, which has a majority population of Black students, to bring Dunbar-Nelson鈥檚 work to classrooms.
Their efforts have evolved to include a dynamic digital humanities project titled, Taught by Literature: Recentering Black Women Intellectuals, focused on public outreach and recovering underrepresented voices. In response to feedback from teachers, the project expanded beyond Dunbar-Nelson to include other women authors like Phillis Wheatley and Harriet Jacobs.
In deference to Dunbar-Nelson鈥檚 long career as an educator鈥攕he taught from the age of 17 to 56 at the elementary, secondary and college levels鈥攖hey have created curriculum resources that would be 鈥渟calable, relevant and adaptable鈥 to multiple K-12 school systems.
Did You Know?
A series of short videos featuring Black women educators reading works by early Black women is being filmed under the direction of Student Academy Award winner T. Caleb Lucky 鈥20 CLAS and Assistant Professor of Communication Hezekiah Lewis, MFA, 鈥99 CLAS, 鈥02 MA.
These videos will be made available as part of an open-access digital collection on the American Antiquarian Society website, which will also make Dunbar-Nelson鈥檚 short stories available to read online.
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