Congratulations to the twelve MLA members who are among the winners of the National Endowment for the Humanities grants announced in August 2021. Their projects include a free online resource for teaching Spanish to heritage learners; a digital publication of the notes of Viola Muse, a writer who took part in the Florida Federal Writers Project; a two-week institute on transcendentalism and social reform; and much more.
Wendy Belcher, Princeton University
Project Title: African Humanities Folkloric Project: Written Medieval Stories on Healing and Justice from Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia Project
Description: Preparation for digital publication of 180 African Marian stories preserved in parchment manuscripts, which will be cataloged, transcribed, and translated from Ge’ez (classical Ethiopic) into English.
Project Title: Increasing Access to and Developing Digital Tools for Early African Literature
Project Description: The creation of a web-based platform and tools to enable scholars to search and engage with a unique online collection of African literature.
Robin Bernstein, Harvard University
Project Title: The Trials of William Freeman (1824–1847): A Story of Murder, Race, and America’s First Industrial Prison Project
Description: A history of incarceration in Auburn, New York, through the story of William Freeman, who was convicted of a quadruple murder in 1846.
Margaret Boyle, Bates College
Project Title: Identity and Multilingualism through Picture Books
Project Description: A two-week, hybrid institute for twenty-nine elementary school teachers to develop equitable teaching strategies using picture books.
Janine Fitzgerald, Fort Lewis College
Project Title: Yo Soy Porque Tú Eres: recursos para el aprendizaje de Español en contexto (Resources for Teaching Spanish in Context)
Project Description: Development of a free online OER (open educational resource) for teaching Spanish language using humanities collections to heritage learners.
Lauren Goodlad, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Project Title: Unboxing Artificial Intelligence: An International Collaboration Bringing Humanities Perspectives to AI
Project Description: Planning of an international collaboration on the topic of bringing humanities perspectives to the creation of artificial intelligence.
Laura Heffernan, University of North Florida
Project Title: Documenting Black Jacksonville: The Viola Muse Digital Edition
Project Description: Preparation for digital publication of the interview notes of Viola Muse (1891–1981), a writer who took part in the Florida Federal Writers Project from 1936 to 1940.
Casey Kayser University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Project Title: Pandemics in History, Literature, and Today
Project Description: A two-week, residential institute for thirty-six middle and high school educators that would provide comparative perspectives on the 1918 and 2020 global pandemics.
Lauren Klein, Emory University
Project Title: Data by Design: An Interactive History of Data Visualization
Project Description: The creation of a born-digital publication documenting and analyzing the history of data visualization from the eighteenth century to the present.
Sandra Petrulionis, Thoreau Society, Inc.
Project Title: Transcendentalism and Social Reform: Activism and Community Engagement in the Age of Thoreau
Project Description: A two-week, residential institute for twenty-five college and university faculty members on transcendentalism and social reform.
Lynn Ramey, Vanderbilt University
Project Title: Immersive Global Middle Ages Institute for Advanced Topics
Project Description: A 28-month initiative for fourteen participants to learn about the use of immersive digital technologies for teaching and learning about the global Middle Ages through in-person and virtual workshops hosted by the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and Vanderbilt University.
Sandra Spanier, Pennsylvania State University
Project Title: The Letters of Ernest Hemingway
Project Description: Preparation for print publication of volumes 6, 7, and 8 of a scholarly edition of the letters of American author Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961).
Charles Stivale, Purdue University
Project Title: Translation of the Seminars of French Philosopher Gilles Deleuze
Project Description: Preparation for online publication of English translations of seminar lectures delivered by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925–95).
Miriam Udel, Emory University
Project Title: Children’s Literature and Modern Jewish Culture
Project Description: Writing a book examining Jewish identity as constructed in Yiddish-language children’s literature.