Sangamon Sun

SIUE’s Jessica DeSpain Continues Efforts to Recover Work of American Women Writers

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is advancing in its role of leading a national effort to recover forgotten and little-known literature by women authors in digital environments. With the support of a $150,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant, SIUE’s Jessica DeSpain, PhD, is leading a team of 20 collaborators from across the country in the project Recovery Hub for American Women Writers. 

“After receiving an initial grant for the project in 2020, this additional investment from the NEH demonstrates the importance of this work for amplifying the voices and stories of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and LGBTQIA+ women,” said DeSpain, professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, and co-director of the SIUE Interdisciplinary Research and Informatics Scholarship (IRIS) Center. “This collaboration involves a series of implementation activities that will support a network of scholars as they share works by women writers through digital methods, and also provide support, mentorship and peer-review services for women in the digital humanities.” 

“Feminist scholars have been doing this recovery work in scholarly publications and classrooms for decades, with authors such as Zora Neale Hurston, Harriet Jacobs and María de Burton reappearing in print and digital publications,” DeSpain added. 

The Hub will operate as a mechanism for pooled funding bids and offer hands-on consultation to navigate project management, quality control, sustainability and peer review in order to increase the quantity and quality of recovery projects on American women authors. 

The long list of expert project contributors includes two institutional collaborators. The Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, led by Emily Rau, will design an online editorial environment for scholars to work on editing and publishing texts together. Additionally, Kristen Lillvis of St. Catherine University will design a resource library for students and teachers to find ways to learn about these texts as a part of their course work. 

“All of the projects will be linked to and showcased on a site hosted at SIUE’s IRIS Center that includes displays of projects and resources for recovery practitioners and educators,” DeSpain explained. 

The NEH-funded project began in February and will run for two years. To learn more about this project and the SIUE IRIS Center, call 618-650-2667 or visit iris.siue.edu. 

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