Episode 2: Taught by Literature
Following the legacy of African American writer and activist Alice Dunbar Nelson, researchers Trinity Rogers '24 CLAS, Matt Villanueva '24 MA, and Jean Lutes, PhD, professor of English and Luckow Family Endowed Chair in English Literature, aim to recenter the work of Black female intellectuals through the Taught by Literature project. From uncovering lost literature to transcription and video production, the researchers have grown the project into an outreach effort and collaborate with other scholars, schools and programs to makes these important stories available to a wider audience.
Overlooked No Longer
A collaborative digital humanities project focuses on making visible the work of Black women writers to a new generation.
A prolific and thought-provoking author, activist and educator, Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875–1935) influenced some of the most celebrated writers of the Harlem Renaissance—and yet, her works don’t appear on many K–12 school reading lists.
Jean Lutes, PhD, is working with a dedicated group of scholars to change that. “Dunbar-Nelson is part of a long tradition of Black activists and intellectuals who have been advocating for racial justice for generations,” 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.
“These extraordinary stories are based on Dunbar-Nelson’s work teaching Black kindergarteners, but they never got their proper recognition,” Dr. Lutes recalls. “I was really excited by one short story called ‘His Heart’s Desire’ about a boy who wants a doll.”
“Being part of a project that rightfully puts Black literature in the forefront is incredibly rewarding.”
“Whether I am compiling documents, online resources or creating historical timelines, I am inspired by the direct impact we’re having on the teachers of the Philadelphia school district with whom we collaborate.”
Bringing these neglected stories the attention they deserves a labor-intensive and painstaking process. That’s why Dr. Lutes enlisted the help of several Villanova 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 Villanova’s Idol Family Fellows Program and the Anne Welsh McNulty Institue for Women’s 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’s 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’s long career as an educator—she taught from the age of 17 to 56 at the elementary, secondary and college levels—they have created curriculum resources that would be “scalable, relevant and adaptable” to multiple K-12 school systems.
First published in the Villanova Magazine and written by Megan Walsh-Boyle.