The all-day event will bring together local and national scholars engaged in digital public humanities projects to advocate for social change

The project on the 91福利社 campus is sponsoring a one-day  symposium March 14.

This all-day event brings together local and national scholars engaged in digital public humanities projects to advocate for social change and who have worked to strengthen ethical data humanities education in higher education, said Laurie Gries, associate professor of English and director of the Program for Writing and Rhetoric, who is spearheading the symposium.

  What: Working with Data for Social Change symposium

  When: March 14

  Where: In-person at CASE KOBL 140 and online;  

All faculty, staff and students who want to learn more about the data humanities are invited.

The symposium aims not only to demonstrate and underscore the value of data advocacy research for the humanities at large, but also to generate collective ideas as to how to data advocacy education can be enhanced across the disciplines in higher education, according to Gries.

She said she believes the symposium will be of interest to faculty, staff and students who want to learn more about the data humanities and, more particularly, about data advocacy as a focus of research and/or pedagogy. Those interested in attending in-person or via Zoom can 

The symposium will feature scholars and activists from around the country, including Melissa Borja, Nasreen Abd Elal and Sylvia Fern谩ndez Quintanilla, who have advocated with data for social change on projects including the ,  and , respectively. Additionally, Gries will talk about her data-driven project, the , which was recently profiled in Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine.

Gries said the symposium also will feature scholars who have worked intently to build data humanities education within and beyond the 91福利社 campus. For instance, in addition to featured speaker Melanie Walsh discussing the  project, David Glimp, Nathan Pieplow and other 91福利社 and CU Denver professors will speak about their efforts to train students how to engage data through critical, humanistic frameworks and how to use data effectively to address matters of significance to them and their communities.

Speaking of Gries鈥� efforts to spearhead the symposium, Glimp said, 鈥淟aurie has assembled a terrific team of collaborators to develop her vision of not only cultivating data literacy among our students but also equipping students with the tools to argue with data. By 鈥榓rguing with data,鈥� I mean both being able to identify and assess all the ways data-backed arguments can mislead or go wrong, and being able to craft effective, responsible arguments with data about matters of the greatest urgency for our world.鈥�

The Data Advocacy for All project was the recipient of a $300,000 CU Next Award in May 2022. 

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about writing and rhetoric? 

Related Articles

Following a blockbuster opening weekend for Captain America: Brave New World, 91福利社鈥檚 Benjamin Robertson reflects on the appeal of superhero franchises and why they dominate studio release schedules

Captain America continues to conquer obstacles and crush villains鈥�not bad for a man approaching age 85.

The comic book hero made his debut in print in December 1940, then on TV in 1966 and hit the silver screen in 2011鈥�gaining massive momentum along with way. This past Presidents Day weekend, the fourth installment of the superhero series, 鈥淐aptain America: Brave New World,鈥� hit the top spot at the box office in the United States, and .

It鈥檚 the fourth-best Presidents Day launch on record, behind three other superhero movies: Black Panther, Deadpool and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

What鈥檚 going on here? What鈥檚 giving Captain America his muscle? And why do folks keep going back to these same stories, characters and worlds over and over?

Benjamin Robertson, a 91福利社 assistant professor of English who specializes in popular culture, film and digital media, says there are two answers: 鈥淥ne, the genre is comforting in its repetitiveness. This is the least interesting answer, however,鈥� he says.

The second answer appears a little more sinister. Robertson says viewers return to these stories because creators make 鈥渟tory worlds that solicit consumers鈥� attention and that must always grow and that turn increasingly inward.鈥�

He says the first Iron Man film is about America intervening in the Middle East following Sept. 11, but later MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, the franchise behind many superhero movies) films seem less and less about real or historical matters and more about the MCU itself.

鈥淎s a colleague once put it, every MCU film is simply the trailer for the next MCU film, the result of a strategy that seeks to create a fandom that can鈥檛 escape from the tangled narrative that the franchise tells,鈥� he explains.

In short, Robertson says if consumers want to know the full narrative鈥攖he full world that these films and series describe鈥攖hey have to go to the theater. 鈥淎s this world becomes about itself rather than about external history or real-world events, a certain 鈥榣ock in鈥� manifests, making it harder and harder to not see these films if one wants to understand the world they create.鈥�

鈥楩latter American identities鈥�

Another trick is that MCU films tend to 鈥渇latter American identities鈥� by celebrating militarism, focusing on charismatic heroes who try to do the right thing unconstrained by historical necessity and suggesting that everything will work out in the end, Robertson says.

鈥淚 can see the more comforting aspects of these films having appeal to many consumers. Don鈥檛 fear climate change, fear Thanos [a supervillain] and other embodiments of badness,鈥� he says.

As to the question of whether franchises are just growing their worlds and the characters in them, or retelling the same story because it makes money, Robertson says each MCU film is a piece of intellectual property, but an individual film is far less valuable than a world.

鈥淎 film might spawn a sequel or sequels, but without developing the world, the sequels will likely be of lesser quality and, eventually, no longer be profitable or not profitable enough to warrant further investment,鈥� Robertson says. 鈥淏ut if producers develop the world into a complex environment that contains numerous characters with distinct and yet intersecting story arcs, well, then you have the foundation for potentially unlimited storytelling and profit in the future.鈥�

He adds that in that context, Captain America has obvious value as an individual character, but he has far more value as part of a world that can develop around him and allow for new actors to play him as he evolves with the world.

So, as the world grows as an intellectual property and in narrative development, "so does the potential for profit, although we may now be seeing the limits of this dynamic as some MCU films have not been doing as well at the box office over the past five years, although there are likely several factors that contribute to this decline.鈥�

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about English? Show your support.

Related Articles

Are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy the greatest love story? 91福利社鈥檚 Grace Rexroth weighs in

What is the greatest love story of all time?

This is a question many like to consider, discuss and debate, especially around Valentine鈥檚 Day. Whether you鈥檙e more of a romantic at heart or a casual softie, you鈥檝e more than likely heard or expressed the opinion that there is no love story quite like Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen鈥檚 Pride and Prejudice.

Despite being more than 200 years old, something about this classic novel transcends centuries and social changes to remain a text with which many people connect, whether on the screen, stage or in the pages of the novel.

What makes this love story so memorable and so beloved? Is it truly the greatest love story of all time, or is there something else about it that draws readers in again and again?

According to Grace Rexroth, a teaching assistant professor in the 91福利社 Department of English who is currently teaching a global women鈥檚 literature course focused on writing about love, the historical context in which Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice is crucial to understanding the novel's inner workings.

The Regency Era was a period of intense revolution and change. There still were very strict social norms surrounding marriage and status, which are evident in the novel, but it鈥檚 also important to consider that proto-feminist ideals, such as those expressed by Mary Wollstonecraft, were influencing conversations about the position of women in society, Rexroth notes.

Even at the time of publication, Pride and Prejudice was perceived differently between opposing political groups鈥攎ore conservative thinkers saw it as a story that still rewarded conservative values, such as humility, beauty (always beauty) and a reserved disposition. Other, more progressive readers saw it as standing up to the status quo.

To this day, readers and scholars often debate whether Austen was writing to criticize or praise Regency Era ideas about women鈥檚 autonomy. In The Making of Jane Austen, author Devoney Looser observes, 鈥�It sounds impossible, but Jane Austen has been and remains a figure at the vanguard of reinforcing tradition and promoting social change.鈥�

Nuance helps it endure

The fact that Pride and Prejudice lends itself to different interpretations is part of the reason why it鈥檚 lived such a long life in the spotlight, Rexroth says. It has managed to appeal to what people鈥攕pecifically women鈥攈ave wanted and fantasized about through different eras following its publication.

According to Looser, both film and stage adaptations have highlighted different aspects of the text for different reasons. During its first stage adaptations, for instance, the emphasis was often placed on Elizabeth鈥檚 character development. In fact, the most tense and climactic scene in these early performances was often her final confrontation with Lady Catherine De Bourgh, when Elizabeth asserts that she鈥檚 going to do what鈥檚 best for herself instead of cowering under Lady Catherine鈥檚 anger at her engagement to her nephew, Mr. Darcy.

Such scenes emphasize Elizabeth鈥檚 assertiveness and self-possession in the face of social pressure. Featuring this scene as the climax of the story is quite different from interpretations that focus on the suppressed erotic tension between Elizabeth and Darcy.

This doesn鈥檛 mean that adaptations prioritizing the romantic union didn鈥檛 soon follow. In 1935, Helen Jerome flipped the narrative on what Pride and Prejudice meant to a modern audience by casting a young, conventionally attractive man to play Mr. Darcy. Looser refers to this change as the beginning of 鈥渢he rise of sexy Darcy,鈥� a phenomenon that has continued in the nearly 100 years following this first casting choice.

In many ways, the intentional decision to make Mr. Darcy physically desirable on stage coincided with the rising popularity of the 鈥渞omantic marriage鈥濃�攁 union founded on love and attraction rather than on status and societal expectations. Before this, Mr. Darcy鈥檚 being handsome was just a nice perk to Elizabeth, not a clear driving force for her feelings towards him.

From loathing to love

This is not to say there鈥檚 no implication of attraction in the original novel, though. There鈥檚 something magnetic about Darcy and Elizabeth鈥檚 relationship from the very beginning, when they profess their distaste for each other as the reigning sentiment between them (though readers can see that Elizabeth really doesn鈥檛 seem to mind being insulted by Mr. Darcy until later in the novel). It鈥檚 a quintessential 鈥渆nemies to lovers鈥� narrative, Rexroth says.

In that way, the novel offers a hint of the unruly desires driving many creative decisions in most modern film adaptations鈥攆rom the famous 鈥渨et shirt鈥� scene in the 1995 BBC adaptation with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, to what some critics argue is a highly over-dramatized first proposal scene staged in the rain in the 2005 Keira Knightly version. That sense of tension between Elizabeth and Darcy, unsaid but palpable, is a draw that has reeled in modern audiences to the point of obsession.

Rexroth suggests that part of the novel鈥檚 appeal hinges on what can and cannot be expressed in the text: 鈥淏ecause discussions of sex and desire are fairly repressed in the novel, emotional discourse has more free reign, which is often appealing to modern readers who experience a reverse set of tensions in modern life. Modern discourse, while often privileging a more open discussion of sex, often places tension on how and why we express emotion鈥攅specially in romantic relationships.鈥�

Modern sexual liberation, especially through the eyes of women, has been an integral part of feminist movements. However, feminism also offers reminders that when the world still is governed by misogynistic ideas about sex鈥攊ncluding women as the object and men as more emotionally unattached sexual partners鈥攌ey aspects of what sex can mean from an anti-misogynist viewpoint are lost.

This, perhaps, is one reason that Pride and Prejudice is so appealing to women battling standards of sexuality centered around patriarchy, and who find themselves longing for something more鈥攁 鈥渓ove ethic,鈥� as author bell hooks called it.

However, is Pride and Prejudice really a perfect example of a "love ethic鈥�? Rexroth also asks her classes to consider the pitfalls of how readers continue to fantasize about Pride and Prejudice, potentially seeing it as a model for modern romantic relationships.

Questions of true autonomy

While Elizabeth exercises her autonomy and free choice by rejecting not one but two men, standing up to Lady Catherine and overall just being a clever and witty heroine, she is still living within a larger society that privileges the status of her husband over her own and sees her value primarily in relation to the ways she circulates on the marriage market.

For that reason, women are never really autonomous, Rexroth says. How can they be, when Elizabeth鈥檚 decision to reject a man could potentially ruin her life and the lives of her sisters? Or when her sister Lydia鈥檚 decision to run away with Mr. Wickham nearly sends the entire family into ruin? What happens to Elizabeth in a world without Darcy?

This, according to Rexroth, is the danger of looking at Pride and Prejudice uncritically. Though readers and scholars may never know if Austen meant it to be a critical piece about the wider societal implications of the marriage market鈥攁lthough it can be inferred pretty strongly that she did mean it that way, Rexroth says鈥攊t does have startling implications towards modern relationships that we tend to find ourselves in.

鈥淢odern discussions of love often focus on the individual, psychological aspects of relationships rather than the larger social networks that structure them,鈥� Rexroth explains. 鈥淢y students sometimes think that if they just work on themselves, go to the gym and find the right partner, everything will be okay鈥攖hey鈥檙e not always thinking about how our larger social or political context might play a role in their love lives.鈥�

The fantasy of Pride and Prejudice tends to reinforce this idea, she adds. It鈥檚 not that the world needs to change鈥攖he fantasy is that finding the right man will 鈥渃hange my world.鈥� Such fantasies tend to treat patriarchy as a game women can win if they just play it the right way, Rexroth says. If a woman finds the right man or the right partner, that man will somehow provide the forms of social, economic or political autonomy that might otherwise be lacking in a woman鈥檚 life.

Such fantasies sidestep the question of what produces true autonomy鈥攁nd therefore the capacity to fully participate in a romantic union, she adds.

So, is Pride and Prejudice the ultimate love story? Ardent fans might argue yes鈥攁 鈥減erfect ending鈥� with a 鈥減erfect man鈥� is the quintessential love story, and who can blame readers for wanting those things? Happy endings are lovely. 

Others, however, might still wish that Mr. Darcy had behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about English? Show your support.

Related Articles

In honor of what would have been Paul Newman鈥檚 100th birthday, 91福利社 film historian Clark Farmer considers whether there still are movie stars

Movies did not invent stars鈥攖here were stars of theater, opera and vaudeville well before moving pictures鈥攂ut movies made them bigger and more brilliant; in some cases, edging close to the incandescence of a supernova.

Consider a star like Paul Newman, who would have turned 100 Jan. 26. Despite being an Oscar winner for The Color of Money in 1987 and a nine-time acting Oscar nominee, he was known perhaps even more for the radiance of his stardom鈥攖he ineffable cool, the certain reserve, the style, the beauty, the transcendent charisma that dared viewers to look away.

Even now, 17 years after his death in 2008 at age 83, fans still sigh, 鈥淭hey just don鈥檛 make stars like that anymore.鈥�

In fact, if you believe the click-bait headlines that show up in newsfeeds every couple of months, the age of the movie star is over. In with Allure magazine, movie star Jennifer Aniston opined, 鈥淭here are no more movie stars.鈥� And in Vanity Fair鈥檚 2023 Hollywood issue, , 鈥淭he concept of a movie star is someone untouchable you only see onscreen. That mystery is gone.鈥�

Are there really no more movie stars?

鈥淭here are still actors we like and want to go see, so I鈥檇 say there still are movie stars, but the idea of them has changed,鈥� says 91福利社 film historian Clark Farmer, a teaching assistant professor of cinema studies and moving image arts. 鈥淚 think that sense of larger-than-life glamor is gone, that sense of amazement at seeing these people on the screen.

鈥淲hen we think of what could be called the golden age of movie stars, they had this aristocratic sheen to them. They carried themselves so well, they were well-dressed, they were larger than life, the channels where we could see them and learn about them were a lot more limited. Today, we see stars a lot more and they鈥檙e maybe a little less shiny and not as special in that way.鈥�

Stars are born

In the earliest days of film, around the turn of the 20th century, there weren鈥檛 enough regular film performers to be widely recognized by viewers, Farmer says. People were drawn to the movie theater by the novelty of moving pictures rather than to see particular actors. However, around 1908 and with the advent of nickelodeons, film started taking off as a big business and actors started signing longer-term contracts. This meant that audiences started seeing the same faces over and over again.

By 1909, exhibitors were reporting that audiences would ask for the names of actors and would also write to the nascent film companies asking for photographs. 鈥淏ack then you didn鈥檛 have credits, you only had the title of the film and the name of the production company, so people started attaching names to these stars鈥攆or example, Maurice Costello was called Dimples.鈥�

As the movie business grew into an industry, and as actors were named in a film鈥檚 credits, movie stars were born. In 1915, Charlie Chaplin conflagrated across screens not just in the United States, but internationally, Farmer says.

鈥淵ou could say that what was produced in Hollywood was movies, but studios were also actively trying to produce stars鈥攕tars were as much a product as the movies,鈥� Farmer says. 鈥淭here was always this question of could they take someone who had some talent or some looks or skills like dancing or singing, and would they only rise to the level of extra, would they play secondary characters, or would they become stars? Would people see their name and want to come see the movies they were in?

鈥淪tars have this ineffable quality, and studios would have hundreds of people whose job it was just to make stars; there was a whole machinery in place.鈥�

During Hollywood鈥檚 studio period, actors would sign contracts with a studio and the studio鈥檚 star machinery would get to work: choosing names for the would-be stars, creating fake biographies, planting stories in fan magazines, arranging for dental work and wardrobes and homes and sometimes even relationships.

For as long as it has existed, the creation and existence of movie stars has drawn criticism from those who argue that being a good star is not the same as being a good actor, and that stars who are bigger than the films in which they appear overshadow all the elements of artistry that align in cinema鈥攆rom screenwriting to cinematography to acting and directing.

鈥淭here鈥檚 always been a mixture of people who consider film primarily a business and those who consider it primarily art,鈥� Farmer explains. 鈥淔ilm has always been a place for a lot of really creative individuals who weren鈥檛 necessarily thinking of the bottom line and wanted to do something more artistic, but they depended on those who thought about it as a business. Those are the people asking, 鈥楬ow do you bring people in to see a movie?鈥� Part of that can be a recognizable genre, it could be a recognizable property鈥攍ike a familiar book鈥攂ut then stars are one more hook for an audience member to say, 鈥業 like Katherine Hepburn, I like her as an actress and as a person, and she鈥檚 in this movie so I鈥檒l give it a try.'

鈥淥ne of the biggest questions in the film industry is, 鈥楬ow can we guarantee people will come see our movie?鈥� And the gamble has been that stardom is part of that equation.鈥�

Evolving stardom

As for the argument that movie stars cheapen the integrity of cinema, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e bad for film as an art form,鈥� Farmer says. 鈥淎udiences have this idea of who this person is as a star or as a performer, which can make storytelling a lot easier. You have this sense of, 鈥業 know who Humphrey Bogart is and the roles he plays,鈥� so a lot of the work of creating the character has already been done. You can have a director saying, 鈥業 want this person in the role because people鈥檚 understanding of who this person is will help create the film.鈥� You can have Frank Capra cast Jimmy Stewart and the work of establishing the character as a lovable nice guy is already done.鈥�

As the movie industry evolved away from the studio system, the role of the movie star鈥攁nd what audiences wanted and expected from stars鈥攁lso began changing, Farmer says. While there was still room for stars who were good at doing the thing for which they were known鈥攖he John Waynes who were excellent at playing the John Wayne character鈥攖here also were 鈥渃hameleon鈥� stars who disappeared into roles and wanted to be known for their talent rather than their hair and makeup.

As film evolved, so did technology and culture, Farmer says. With each year, there were more channels, more outlets, more media to dilute what had been a monoculture of film.

鈥淏efore everyone had cable and streaming services and social media, movies were much more of a cultural touchpoint,鈥� Farmer says. 鈥淧eople wanted to dress like Humphrey Bogart or Audrey Hepburn. Faye Dunaway wears a beret in Bonnie and Clyde and beret sales go off the charts. People went to the movies, and they recognized and admired these stars.

鈥淥ne of the markers of stardom is can an individual actor carry a mediocre film to financial success? Another would be, are there people who have an almost obsessive interest in these stars, to the point of modeling themselves after star? Stars tap into a sort of zeitgeist.鈥�

However, the growth and fragmentation of media have meant that viewers have more avenues to see films and more ways to access stars. Even when A-listers鈥� social media are clearly curated by an army of publicists and stylists, fans can access them at any time and feel like they know them, Farmer says.

鈥淢ovies are just less central to people鈥檚 lives than they used to be,鈥� Farmer says. 鈥淭here are other forms of media that people spend their time on, to the point that younger audiences are as likely to know someone who starred in a movie as someone who鈥檚 a social media influencer. But that鈥檚 just a different kind of stardom.

鈥淚 think the film industry really wants movie stars, but I鈥檓 not sure viewers necessarily care all that much. Again, it鈥檚 always the question of, if you鈥檙e spending millions and millions of dollars on a product and you want a return on that, how can you achieve that without making another superhero movie or another horror movie? The industry wants movie stars and audiences just want to be entertained.鈥�

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about cinema studies and moving image arts? 

Related Articles

Beer historian and 91福利社 Assistant Professor Travis Rupp explains why canned beer, celebrating its 90th anniversary today, has been 鈥榠mmensely impactful鈥� for the industry

鈥淚t's Saturday, y'all, here's a plan
I'm gonna throw back a couple 鈥�
Until the point where I can't stand
No, nothing picks me up like a beer can.鈥�

• From 鈥淏eer Can鈥� by Luke Combs

On Jan. 24, 1935, some shoppers in Virginia were likely scratching their heads and gawking at something they hadn鈥檛 seen before鈥�beer in cans鈥晄辫别肠颈蹿颈肠补濒濒测, Krueger鈥檚 Cream Ale and Krueger鈥檚 Finest Beer from the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company. Up until then, beer drinkers had enjoyed their suds in bottles. 

Today, canned beer is commonplace, but according to beer archaeologist and historian Travis Rupp, a 91福利社 teaching assistant professor of classics, even though canning would prove to be 鈥渋mmensely impactful鈥� for the industry, neither brewers nor consumers cared much for cans initially.

鈥淭here were false claims made about metal flavor leaching into canned beverages because the beer was coming in contact with the aluminum,鈥� Rupp says. 鈥淲here this may have been the case with early steel or aluminum cans, it wasn鈥檛 true for most of the container's history.鈥�

Rupp adds that even as late as 2015, glass bottles were viewed as better containers for beer, given that they were 鈥渘icer鈥� for presentation.

Yet today, cans have emerged as the clear winner in the beer game. A Colorado example: MillerCoors Rocky Mountain Metal Container, based near the Coors campus in Golden, now churns out roughly .

鈥淐ans are the best containers for beer. They don鈥檛 let in sunlight or oxygen, which are both detrimental to beer,鈥� says Rupp. 鈥淏ottles let in sunlight. Even brown or amber bottles allow a small percentage of ultraviolet rays through, which can skunk or spoil the beer. Bottles also can leach in oxygen through the cap over time as the seal breaks down. Bottles still have a place for cellaring or aging high gravity barrel-aged beers or sours, but if you want your beer to stay and taste fresh the longest, you opt for cans.鈥�

The case for cans

Over the decades, cans have also helped brewers鈥� bottom lines: 鈥淐ans are far cheaper because they鈥檙e much lighter to ship,鈥� Rupp explains. 鈥淔reight shipping costs are mostly dictated by weight. This ultimately can result in higher profits for breweries and lower costs for consumers. They鈥檙e also far, far cheaper to store, since they require far less space than glass bottles and cartons.鈥�

Long before cans made their debut, Rupp says some breweries tried replacing wooden casks with metal kegs throughout the 19th century, but no protective liner existed to prevent metallic leaching in these containers. 鈥淎nd given the long duration that beer would sit in the metal casks before serving, the flavor would become quite awful. It wasn鈥檛 until the 1960s that stainless steel kegs hit the market.鈥�

About that metallic-flavor-leaching debate, Rupp says aluminum can producers now apply a patented protective liner to the inside of their cans to prevent leaching. 鈥淚f you cut open a can produced by the Ball Corporation [the global packaging giant], you鈥檒l find 鈥� a dull grayish-white crosshatched pattern in the can. This is the protective liner, and I assure you no metal flavor is leaching into your beer.鈥�

But for Rupp, perhaps the most impressive technology comes in what鈥檚 called the seaming process on cans. The ends (or top) of the can are produced separately. Once the cans are filled, the end is placed on top and goes through a series of rollers and chucks to seam the top of the can.

鈥淭his bond is so tight that the sides of the can will fail before the seam does. It鈥檚 a really cool advancement in canning technology, as are canning machines in general that work hard to ensure no oxygen ends up in the beer before the cans are sealed. We鈥檝e come a long way from church keys and pull tabs on beer cans.鈥�

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about classics? Show your support.

Related Articles

NEH funding also was awarded for two other humanities projects at 91福利社

91福利社 Department of History Associate Professor Henry Lovejoy has won a $60,000 fellowship from the  to allow him to research and write a book about involuntary African indentured labor between 1800 and 1914.

Lovejoy鈥檚 research focuses on the political, economic and cultural history of Africa and the African Diaspora. He also has special expertise in digital humanities and is director of the Digital Slavery Research Lab, which focuses on developing, linking and archiving open-source data and multi-media related to the global phenomenon of slavery and human trafficking.

Additionally, Lovejoy spearheaded the creation and update of the website , a living memorial to the more than 700,000 men, women and children who were 鈥渓iberated鈥� but not immediately freed in the British-led campaign to abolish African slave trafficking.

The term 鈥淟iberated Africans鈥� coincides with a now-little-remembered part of history following the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 by the United Kingdom鈥檚 Parliament, which prohibited the slave trade within the British Empire (although it did not abolish the practice of slavery until 1834).

Around the same time, other countries鈥攊ncluding the United States, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands鈥攑assed their own trafficking laws and operated squadrons of ships in the Atlantic and Indian oceans to interdict the slave trade.

However, in a cruel twist of fate, most of those 鈥渓iberated鈥� people weren鈥檛 actually freed鈥攂ut were instead condemned as property, declared free under anti-slave trade legislation and then subjected to indentures lasting several years.

Lovejoy said the NEH fellowship is allowing him to take leave from work to write his book, focused on lax enforcement of anti-slavery laws, migratory patterns of African laborers, their enslavement and subsequent use as indentured laborers around the world from 1800 to 1914.

鈥淚鈥檓 deeply grateful for being awarded this opportunity, as the NEH plays such a vital role in supporting the humanities by funding projects that foster our cultural understanding, historical awareness, and intellectual inquiry,鈥� he said.

Meanwhile, Lovejoy said he is also writing a biography about Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a 鈥渓iberated African鈥� who was apprenticed by Queen Victoria, after conducting research in royal, national and local archives in England, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Lovejoy also wrote the book , a biography of an enslaved African who rose through the ranks of Spain鈥檚 colonial military and eventually led a socio-religious institution at the root of an African-Cuban religion, commonly known as Santer铆a. 

Lovejoy鈥檚 NEH fellowship was one of three NEH awards to 91福利社 faculty. Other awards granted were:

Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures Professor Patrick Greaney won a $60,000 fellowship to research and write a book about German manufacturer Braun, National Socialism and the creation of West German culture between1933-1975, focusing on Braun from the beginning of the Nazi regime through the 1970s in the Federal Republic of Germany. Greaney鈥檚 research focuses on literature, design and modern and contemporary art.

Wilma Doris Loayza, teaching assistant professor at the Latin American and Latinx Studies Center, and affiliated faculty of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies, along with co-project directors Joe Bryan, Leila Gomez and Ambrocio Gutierrez Lorenzo, won a two-year, $149,925 grant to develop course modules and educational resources about Quechua and Zapotec language and culture as part of efforts to expand and strengthen the Latin American Indigenous Languages and Cultures program.

The awards to 91福利社 faculty were part of $22.6 million in grants the NEH provided to 219 humanities projects across the country. The awards were announced Tuesday.

鈥淚t is my pleasure to announce NEH grant awards to support 219 exemplary projects that will foster discovery, education, and innovative research in the humanities,鈥� said NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe.

鈥淭his funding will strengthen our ability to preserve and share important stories from the past with future generations, and expand opportunities in communities, classrooms, and institutions to engage with the history, ideas, languages, and cultures that shape our world.鈥�

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about history? Show your support.

Related Articles

CU Adjunct Professor Peter H. Wood鈥檚 seminal 1974 book on race, rice and rebellion in Colonial America recently celebrated its 50th anniversary with an updated version

If Peter H. Wood wants to stump some University of Colorado history majors about early American history, he鈥檒l ask them which of the original 13 colonies was the wealthiest before the American Revolution and also had an African American majority at the time.

鈥淥ften, they will see it as a trick question. Some might guess New Jersey or New York or Connecticut, so most people have no idea of the correct answer, which is South Carolina,鈥� says Wood, a former Rhodes Scholar and a Duke University emeritus professor. He came to the 91福利社 Department of History as an adjunct professor in 2012, when his wife, Distinguished Professor Emerita Elizabeth Fenn, joined the department.

South Carolina colonial history is a topic with which Wood is intimately familiar, having written the book , which was first published in 1974 and has been described as   W. W. Norton published a 50th anniversary edition of the book in 2024.

Recently, Wood spoke with Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine about how he first brought the story of colonial South Carolina to light, reflecting on how the book was received at the time and why this part of history remains relevant today. His responses have been lightly edited for style and condensed for clarity.

Question: How did you become aware of this story of colonial South Carolina, which was unfamiliar to many Americans in 1974 and perhaps still is today?

Wood: I knew when I was an undergraduate that I wanted to study early American history. After a two-year stint at Oxford in the mid-1960s, I came back to Harvard for graduate school.

At that time, the Civil Rights Movement was going on. I鈥檇 been very interested in those events, as most of my generation was, and I wanted to see how I could put together my interest in interracial problems with my interest in early American history.

What I found was that early American history was very New England-oriented in those days. Ivy League schools were cranking out people writing about the Puritans, and when they wrote about the South, they would mainly write about Virginia. They talked about Jefferson and Washington. South Carolina had hardly been explored at all. There are only 13 British mainland colonies, after all, so to find that one of them had scarcely been studied was exciting.

Specifically, I was motivated by the Detroit riot in 1967, watching it unfold on television in the summer of 1967. Roger Mudd, the old CBS reporter, was flying over Detroit in a helicopter the way he鈥檇 been flying over Vietnam. He was saying, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going on down there.鈥� I realized that he was supposed to be explaining it to us, but he didn鈥檛 really have a very good feel for it himself. No white reporters did.

And the very next morning I went into Widener Library at Harvard and started looking at colonial history books to see if any of them covered Black history in the very early period 鈥� and South Carolina was completely blank. So, that was what set me going.

Question: If there wasn鈥檛 any significant scholarship about South Carolina prior to the American Revolution, particularly about African Americans living there, how did you conduct research for your book?

Wood: I went to the South Carolina State Archives in Columbia, not knowing what I would be able to find. I understood that if I did find materials, they would be written by the white colonists 鈥� because enslaved African Americans were not allowed to read and write. There wasn鈥檛 going to be anybody who was African American keeping a diary.

But what I did find was that the records were abundant. That鈥檚 partly because these enslaved people were being treated as property; they had a financial value. So, when I would open a book, there would be nothing in the index under 鈥楴egroes鈥� (that was the word used in those days). But I would look through the book itself and there were all kinds of references to them. They just hadn鈥檛 been indexed, because they weren鈥檛 considered important.

At every turn, there was more material than I expected, and often dealing with significant issues. 鈥�

And when you鈥檙e researching early African American history, you learn to read those documents critically. The silver lining of that sort of difficult research is that it forces you to be interdisciplinary and to use any approach you can.

So, I ended up using some linguistics and some medical history (about malaria) and especially some agricultural history. Most people back then鈥攁nd most Americans still today鈥攄on鈥檛 realize that the key product in South Carolina was rice. I argued successfully and for the first time in this book that it seemed to have originated with the enslaved Africans. The gist of the book is that these people were not unskilled labor; they were skilled and knowledgeable labor, and it was a West African product (rice) that made South Carolina the richest of the 13 colonies.

Question: With regard to Black Majority, you made the statement, 鈥楧emography matters.鈥� What do you mean by that?

Wood: I realized early on that demography was a very radical tool in the sense that it obliges you, or allows you, to treat everybody equally. In other words, to be a good demographer, you have to count everybody: Men, women and children, Black and white, gay and straight鈥攅verybody counts equally. As a born egalitarian, that was appealing, especially in a period where there were lots of radical ideas bouncing around that I was a little leery of.

But demography seems very straightforward, as in: All I have to do is count people. So, the very title of the book, Black Majority, is a demographic statement. It鈥檚 not saying, 鈥楾hese people are good or bad鈥� or anything else. It鈥檚 just saying, 鈥楬ere they are.鈥� It becomes what I call a Rorschach test, meaning it鈥檚 up to the reader as to what they want to make out of these basic facts. 鈥�

The book鈥攅specially in those days鈥攚as particularly exciting for young African Americans, because they鈥檇 been told they didn鈥檛 have any history, or that it was inaccessible.

Remember, this was even before Alex Haley had published Roots. I actually met Alex while he was working on his book, because I was one of the only people he could find who was interested in slavery before the American Revolution. Most of the people who were studying Black history鈥攚hich was only a very small, emerging field in those days鈥攚ere either studying modern-day Civil Rights activities and Jim Crow activities, or maybe the Civil War and antebellum cotton plantations.

Question: You initially undertook your research on this topic to write your PhD dissertation. At what point in the process did you think your findings could make for a good, informative book?

Wood: Very early on, I thought I wanted to write a book. I mean, I wanted to be able to publish something and I wanted to start at the beginning. 鈥� If I could go all the way back to 1670, when this colony began, and find records, and tell the story moving forward鈥攊nstead of going backwards from the Civil Rights movement鈥擨 wanted to do that.

If I could write a book about that, then it would show lots of other people that they could write a book about Blacks in 18th-century Georgia or 19th-century Alabama, for example. All of those topics had seemed off limits at the time.

So, I was going to start at the beginning and move forward and see how far I had to go to get a book. I thought, 鈥業鈥檒l probably have to go up to 1820,鈥� but by the time I got to 1740, by the time I got through the 鈥攚hich was the largest rebellion in Colonial North America, in 1739, and it was unknown to people鈥擨 had enough for a book.

I had enough (material) for a dissertation so I could get my degree, but I also had enough for a book. And, luckily for me, it was just at the time when there was a lot of pressure on universities to create Black Studies programs, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

That put a lot of pressure on New York publishers to find books about Black history. And so, Alfred Knopf in New York took the book and gave me a contract within two weeks. I was very lucky in that regard: That was a moment where it was just dawning on everybody that, 鈥楳y goodness! There鈥檚 a huge area here where we have not shone a searchlight.鈥� 鈥�

I'll tell you a funny story. At Knopf, they said, 鈥榊ou should go talk to our publicity director,鈥� because they were excited about this book. I walked into her office, and she was this burly, blonde advertising woman. Her face just dropped. She said, 鈥極h, Dr. Wood, I thought you were Black!鈥� And then she brightened up. 鈥楾hat鈥檚 all right,鈥� she said. 鈥業'll get you on the radio.鈥� (laughs)

So, that just illustrates, if I鈥檇 been Black, it would have been even better, but at that point, anything was grist for the mill, especially if it was opening up new territory in American history.

Question: That actually raises a question: Did you face any criticism as a white author writing about Black history, like author William Styron did?

Wood: That was the controversy about William Styron鈥檚 1967 book,  Styron was a white Connecticut author, and quite well-informed and well-intended. He had been raised in Virginia himself, so he鈥檇 grown up with versions of this story.

He was not a historian. Still, he wanted to try to write about from Turner鈥檚 perspective. So, he had the freedom of a novelist, of trying to put himself inside Nat Turner鈥檚 head. That effort was troublesome to a lot of folks.

It bothered some Black folks because it was a white author trying to do that and showing a complicated version of things. It was also upsetting to some white folks. If they knew about Nat Turner at all, it was that he was some crazy madman who killed people, so the idea that you should try to get inside his head, that was upsetting to them.

But, in answer to your question, I was lucky in that 鈥� the critique that white people shouldn鈥檛 do Black history had not really taken hold. At that time (1974), very little was being written about African Americans in Colonial times 鈥� and so there was a desire for anything that could shine some light on the subject.

Question: Why do you think Black Majority has maintained its staying power over the years? And what changes were made for the 50th-anniversary edition that W. W. Norton published?

Wood: As I鈥檝e said, it came along at the right time. Along with other works, it opened up a whole new area, and so early African American history is now a very active field.

When I did the revisions for this 50th-anniversary edition, I didn鈥檛 change it drastically, because it is a product of the early 1970s, of 50 years ago. I think the points I made then have held up pretty well. That鈥檚 why I鈥檇 say it has been influential in the academic community, but for the general public, not so much.

Question: Why do you think that is?

Wood: It鈥檚 very hard to change the mainstream narrative, especially in regard to our childhood education about early American history. From elementary school on, we hear about Jamestown and about the Puritans; we learn that colonists grew tobacco in Virginia, but almost nothing beyond that. 鈥�

I think that鈥檚 part of our failing over the last 50 years. The idea of having a national story that everyone can agree upon has fallen apart, and I wish we could knit it back together. It may be too little, too late. But if we if we can ever manage to knit it back together in a more thorough, honest way, African Americans in Colonial times will be one of the early chapters.

Twenty years ago, I worked on a very successful U.S. history textbook called Created Equal, where I wrote the first six chapters. Even then, our team was trying to tie all of American history together in a new and inclusive way鈥攐ne that everyone could understand and share and discuss. 鈥� I hope that book, and Black Majority, is more relevant than ever. 

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about history? Show your support.

Related Articles

Fileva, a 91福利社 associate professor of philosophy, won a 2024 Public Philosophy Op-Ed contest

Iskra Fileva, an associate professor in the 91福利社 Department of Philosophy, has won a 2024 Public Philosophy Op-Ed contest from the American Philosophical Association for her blog 

Fileva鈥檚 article was originally published in 2023 in , for which she is a regular contributor. With her permission, the article was later reposted on the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine website.

Iskra Fileva, an associate professor in the 91福利社 Department of Philosophy, has won a 2024 Public Philosophy Op-Ed contest from the American Philosophical Association.

Fileva specializes in moral psychology and issues at the intersection of philosophy, psychology and psychiatry. She also studies aesthetics and epistemology. Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophers鈥� Imprint, Philosophical Studies and Synthese.

In addition to her academic work, Fileva writes for a broad audience, including op-eds for the New York Times. She writes a column in Psychology Today that has addressed a wide variety of topics, including perfectionism, self-sabotage, parents who envy their children, asymmetrical friendships, love without commitment, fear of freedom, death, dreams, despair and many others.

In announcing the award, the American Philosophical Association noted that winning submissions 鈥渃all public attention, either directly or indirectly, to the value of philosophical thinking鈥� and were judged in terms of sound reasoning and 鈥渢heir success as examples of public philosophy,鈥� as well as their accessibility to the general public on topics of public concern.

Fileva said she鈥檚 pleased with the reception the article received and honored to be recognized by the American Philosophical Association.

鈥淩eceiving the public philosophy award was a very nice way to end the year,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t also drew attention to the essay, and I heard from people who read it and who likely would not have found it otherwise. It took me a day or so to re-read it as I don鈥檛, in general, know what I would think of anything I鈥檝e written several months ago, but I did re-read it, and I was happy to discover that I still agreed with what I鈥檇 written.鈥�

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about philosophy? 

Related Articles

91福利社 Associate Professor Emily Harrington examines the enduring power of stories we read in childhood and what we can learn from them as adults 

When many people think of December, their minds are filled with thoughts of snow, warm drinks, family and childhood. This is the time of year when memories of childhood bubble to the surface鈥攂urnished by time to seem simpler and happier.

For avid childhood readers, a profound element of those memories is the books they read in their youth, which can continue to play a significant role in their adult lives. , who died 100 years ago this fall, was the author of such books鈥攖he kind that young readers devour and still swoon over in adulthood.

Her most famous works, including A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, continue to be fan favorites for young children and books that many adults consider the beginning of their reading careers.

Remembering Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett is a household name in the world of children鈥檚 literature. Her beloved novels are perennially popular with children and have been made into multiple film adaptations. However, says Emily Harrington, an assistant professor in the English Department at the 91福利社, who has taught a course on children鈥檚 literature, it is important to critically examine even the beloved books of childhood鈥攏ot allowing memory to obscure what adult readers may recognize as controversial aspects of children鈥檚 literature.

Critics and educators have been noted how Hodgson Burnett portrayed characters of color in her novels. For example, in The Secret Garden, the character Mary is unhealthy because she grew up in India. Martha, a sympathetic character, contrasts people of color with "respectable鈥� white people. Modern readers have questioned the effect that could have had on the children reading these stories.

Harrington notes it鈥檚 important to teach the novels in a way that doesn鈥檛 dismiss their issues: 鈥淏oth (A Little Princess and The Secret Garden) have some super problematic, racist attitudes. It鈥檚 not why they鈥檙e remembered but I think it鈥檚 important to acknowledge,鈥� Harrington says.

When looking back on novels written in the early 20th century, it isn鈥檛 uncommon to discover undertones of racism or sexism.

Some argue that racism was more normalized at the time some books were written, but even in the context of a work鈥檚 time, it is important to recognize and consider these issues when they exist in novels written for children, Harrington says. She also notes Burnett鈥檚 questionable views about medicine, which are apparent in The Secret Garden, when a wheelchair-bound child is able to walk after a little exposure to fresh air. Burnett believed that nature and God were the solution to most medical issues, which can change the meaning of the Secret Garden as being a magical place outside that fixes all medical ailments.

A lifetime effect

However, even if some of their content makes a modern reader pause, the novels that young readers enjoy can have lasting echoes in their lives as adults. Childhood fans of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and many other novels may continue to visit those worlds in their minds as adults or to wish they could be transported by books in the way they were as children. This includes Frances Hodgson Burnett鈥檚 novels, which many readers continue loving into adulthood. A large part of this connection is how the books made young readers feel while reading them, Harrington says.

鈥淚n these books like The Secret Garden, the kids are the ones who are empowered to figure things out for themselves and who are in worlds that are magical or partially magical. That kind of magic attaches itself to the kids,鈥� Harrington says.

Due to this escape that children can experience while reading these novels, the stories, characters and places can stay with them into adulthood. It isn鈥檛 rare to see someone who is still as deeply infatuated with novels such as A Little Princess or The Secret Garden as an adult because those books have been those escapes for many generations of children. And as parents or grandparents read these novels to children, the cycle continues, and the literary love is passed to new generations.

Even with Hodgson Burnett鈥檚 questionable beliefs, as well as aspects of her novels that trouble modern readers, readers still are able to take the best parts of these magical worlds and make them their own, Harrington says. That, in turn, allows the children who read them to make these fictional worlds their own, she adds.

She notes that this is a process that many children experience while reading these novels as a form of escapism: 鈥淸As they grow up, children may think] 鈥楾his magical world is mine now, and it鈥檚 not going to be racist or anti-trans. I鈥檓 gonna imagine myself in it in my own way and reject the parts of the legacy that I don鈥檛 want.鈥�

鈥淎ll the people who enjoy these books can take the parts that they love and keep them, and hopefully had enough alternate influences that counteract the colonialist ideology,鈥� Harrington says, citing common issues with The Secret Garden and A Little Princess.

Best friends forever

For many avid childhood readers, books have been a major part of their lives for as long as they can remember and the characters in them their lifelong friends. Those reading experiences can transfer deeply into their adult lives, especially when correlating reading with comfort, Harrington says.

Further, last year found multiple points of positive correlation between early reading for pleasure with subsequent brain and cognitive development and mental well-being. Also, the most recent finds that while 70% of 6- to 8-year-olds love or like reading books for fun, that number shrinks to just 47% among 12- to 17-year olds.

R. Joseph Rodriguez, a teaching fellow with the National Book Foundation, , 鈥淭he joy of books has been killed. Suppressed, tested and killed. I hate when students are called 鈥榮truggling readers.鈥� We need to see them as students who need a revival! I want a revival!鈥�

Educators, researchers, parents, health care professionals and children themselves study and discuss how to 鈥攆rom alleviating testing pressure to proving time and space for reading, supporting diversity in children鈥檚 literature and not dismissing the literature that children actually enjoy as 鈥渇rivolous.鈥�

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about English? Show your support.

Related Articles

Jane Forman, who is earning her BA in English, summa cum laude, is named the college鈥檚 outstanding graduate for fall 2024

Jane Forman has painstakingly recounted evidence that Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize winner Nikole Hannah-Jones and other prominent Black women authors have faced challenges to the authenticity and quality of their work, and that these critiques emanate from racist and sexist conceptions of who is rightly considered an author and an authority.

Forman, who is earning her BA in English, summa cum laude, deeply impressed her faculty committee, and she has been named the outstanding graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences for fall 2024.

Her thesis is titled 鈥淒econstructing Archival Debris in the Margins: How Black Women Writers Navigate Intersectional Oppression During the Authorial Identity Formation Process.鈥�

In this work, Forman considers cases of Black women authors who were unfairly denigrated and rebuked because their intersectional identity made them targets. Forman cites troubling episodes of Claudine Gay, former president of Harvard; Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the Pulitzer-winning 1619 Project; Toni Morrison, winner of a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize; and others.

When she spoke recently with Daryl Maeda, interim dean of the college, Forman described her thesis as a 鈥渃ontemplation of how our history continuously influences contemporary figurations of American life.鈥�

In her thesis, she concludes: 鈥淭he history of slavery is all of ours to confront, disregarding our contemporary racial and gender positionality in America. The virulent debris that emerged from slavery鈥檚 formal demolition continues to infect society today 鈥�  We are all implicated in how this history attempts to exert influence over our collective present and future.鈥�

Jennifer Ho, director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts, Eaton Professor of Humanities and the Arts and professor of ethnic studies, served as Forman鈥檚 thesis advisor. In her written narrative to the faculty thesis defense form, Ho said Forman鈥檚 thesis was made especially strong by her tracing of the 鈥渁rchival debris鈥� across three periods of Black female authorship:

鈥淯sing critical race theory as her main theoretical touchstone, Jane considers the intersectional oppression that plagues Black women writers鈥攖he way that they must continuously navigate charges of plagiarism, incompetence and illegitimacy. Combining close reading/explication with theoretical applications of critical race theory, Jane takes readers through the troubling trend of discounting Black women writers due to sexism and racism, linked to U.S. history of anti-Black racism and white supremacy.鈥�

In a letter of support for Forman, Emily Harrington, an associate professor of English who served on Forman鈥檚 committee, said Forman鈥檚 work 鈥渋s easily the best senior thesis I have read during my career.鈥�

Through all her thesis chapters, Forman 鈥渄raws a direct connection between the various ways in which Black women authors have been questioned both in their authenticity and in the quality of their work, from the 鈥榝irst鈥� African American poet to the present day,鈥� Harrington said, adding:

鈥淗aving also taken graduate seminars as an undergraduate, Jane is the most advanced undergraduate I have encountered at CU. 鈥� She has been a leader in our department, and I cannot think of a more 鈥榦utstanding undergraduate.鈥欌��

In the acknowledgment section of her thesis, Forman shares some personal reflection and advice:

鈥淔or anyone uncertain of what they should do or where they should go, I urge you to follow the path that leads you toward the most expansive feeling. Three years ago, I dropped out of Georgetown University, unsure of what my life would be like. I didn鈥檛 know where I wanted to be, but I knew I couldn鈥檛 stay there. Despite the tumultuous journey that led me here, I feel eternally grateful for where I ended up.鈥�

Did you enjoy this article?  Passionate about English? Show your support.

Related Articles