Taught by Literature Conference Presentations

Villanova English major Ben Marcoulier '27, English MA student Julia Reagan '26, and Dr. Crystal J. Lucky presented together Friday, November 7th at the Society for the Study of American Women Writers 2025 Conference in Old City, Philadelphia. The roundtable highlighted the public humanities project Taught by Literature (https://www.taughtbyliterature.org/), which works to honor the legacy of Black author and activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Taught by Literature was founded by Dr. Jean Lutes, Denise Burgher, and Dr. Brigitte Fielder to make Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s work digitally available and to support educators in teaching early Black women intellectuals in their classrooms, from kindergarten to college.

Bringing together undergraduate and graduate students and professors, Taught by Literature invites Black women educators to present their work for a broader audience, engages students in the archives and the process of textual recovery, and works with public school teachers to develop curricular resources. Representing each of these elements of Taught by Literature’s collaborative process, panelists focused on the impact of reading and teaching Black women’s writing and thought from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Dr. Lucky drew on her twenty-five years of advocacy as a diversity consultant at a wide range of secondary schools to promote the power of robust collaboration between university professors and K-12 school districts. Ben Marcoulier shared his summer research at the American Antiquarian Society historicizing Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s short fiction within the social context of its time. You can see the digital exhibition he developed on the short story “The Grievances of the Books” here. Finally, Julia Reagan presented an overview of her work developing secondary school curriculum on Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s WWI-era poem “I Sit and Sew” (available here) and leading a professional development session with School District of Philadelphia teachers.

Poetry (and Coloring Pages) from Taught by Literature

Just in time for the last day of poetry month, the Taught by Literature project, directed by Dr. Jean Lutes, has added poetry to its website!

The project is adding poetry by historical Black women writers to its freely available resources. The team is especially excited to launch its coloring page project, which will make coloring pages of Black women intellectuals available as downloadable PDFs. The team's first coloring page is an original illustration of Alice Dunbar-Nelson's poem "I Sit and Sew," first published in 1918.

TBL's poetry curricular materials, designed for middle and high school teachers, went online yesterday, with the introduction of "I Sit and Sew." The educator's guide and slides were created by TBL graduate assistant Julia Reagan, in consultation with the scholars and other students on the TBL team.  

Julia has worked with TBL graduate assistant Katy Kessler throughout the 2024-25 academic year to produce curricular materials to accompany TBL's Lifting Their Voices video series, which features contemporary Black women educators reading short texts by historical Black women writers.  Katy has also been writing social media posts for TBL to spread the word about the project's new resources.

You can learn more by visiting TBL's poetry webpage and/or video series. 

Drawing by Taylor McManus, inspired by Alice Dunbar-Nelson's "I Sit and Sew" 

Tues, Nov. 12: Black Boys, Dolls, and Textual Histories: Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s “His Heart’s Desire” (1900)

Coming up on Tuesday, November 12th...

This virtual forum features Jean Lutes, Denise Burgher, Trinity Rogers, and Brigitte Fielder of Taught by Literature, a collaborative digital humanities project that re-centers Black women writers, beginning with the work of African American author and activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson. The speakers will use Dunbar-Nelson’s short story, “His Heart’s Desire” (1900) to explore the challenges scholars face in recovering little-known African American texts when confronted by multiple textual variants, manuscripts without dates, and a readership unfamiliar with an author’s work.  A remarkable short story about a boy who wants a doll, “His Heart’s Desire” is one of twelve short stories Dunbar-Nelson wrote in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries about children living in a poor urban neighborhood. The stories were inspired by her work teaching Black kindergarteners at the White Rose Mission in New York City.  

Lutes, Burgher, Rogers, and Fielder will discuss Taught by Literature’s comprehensive digital resource for educators based on two different versions of Dunbar-Nelson’s story──the original written during the 1890s and published in a 1900 newspaper and a revision published at a later date──as well as its significance for the histories of boyhood, race, and material culture.

You can learn more and register for this virtual event here.

Taught by Literature Featured in New Podcast Episode

The Taught by Literature Project--as well as Dr. Jean Lutes, Trinity Rogers '24 CLAS, and Matt Villanueva '24 MA--has been featured in a recent podcast episode of the series Research that Resonates, which is produced for Villanova's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. 

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.

For more information on the project, you can read previous coverage on our blog, and please listen to the podcast!

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Reading Books like Browsing Costco Aisles

Reading Books like Browsing Costco Aisles    

By Trinity Rogers, VU Class of 2024 and Research Fellow for the Taught by Literature Project

Three weeks ago, I had the opportunity to fly to Pasadena, California for the C19: The Society of Nineteenth Century Americanists Conference with the Taught by Literature Project, which is supported by the Idol Family Fellows Program of the McNulty Institute. Dr. Lutes and I flew to California together and met up with TBL's Co-Founders Dr. Brigitte Fielder and Denise Burgher. Since I joined the project in my sophomore year, I've only ever gotten to be with our whole team in-person once before, in 2022, so it’s always a pleasure to be able to see everyone. We attended different conference sessions on everything from "What's Next in Florida" to Dr. Fielder's very own "Methods for Unending History from William San Pascual Still’s Underground Rail Road (1872)" in which we were lucky enough to hear her sing! The conference, interestingly titled "The End", matched my own solemn emotions as I walked through different sessions. I've been a student fellow with TBL for over two years, and my first conference presentation ever was with them, and so was my last. Dr. Lutes, Denise, and I presented on a panel titled "Gen Z & C19: A Roundtable on Affirming Student Scholars" along with faculty from Haverford College, Queens College, The University of Delaware, University of Southern Indiana, and the University of Connecticut.   

I was surprised to see that I was the only student scholar on our panel, and a bit nervous that I would be the only representative of Gen Z. As it turns out, I was the only representative of Gen Z on the panel, but not in the room. I was pleasantly surprised to see Gen Z scholars in the room who gave head nods and quiet snaps of encouragement as I shared my points and answered questions. While I wouldn't ever want to be the only voice of a generation (entirely too much pressure), I did enjoy being able to share my own thoughts and ideas on how faculty can better support their Gen Z students in research and in and out of classrooms. I was just as excited to mix and mingle with other generations as well, both within the conference and on our expedition to San Diego to film the legendary Dr. Frances Smith Foster.   

After about a three-hour long drive from Pasadena to San Diego at around six a.m., Denise, Dr. Lutes, and I arrived at the home of Dr. Frances Smith Foster. We were greeted first by a banner on her front door that read "RICKY'S HOUSE" and featured a portrait of her small, older, white dog, Ricky. When Dr. Foster opened the door, we were greeted both by her and the infamous Ricky. We were able to set up to film in under thirty minutes, and filmed Dr. Smith Foster reading an excerpt written by the (legendary) nineteenth-century writer and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, with Ricky at her feet. Afterwards, Dr. Smith Foster answered some questions we had prepared, and she offered probably the best comparison I had heard in a while: "Approach anthologies, and all books really, as if you were at Costco. Try the samples, test it out first, but if it's not for you, then keep it pushing." This, I knew, was just one of the reasons she was incredibly legendary, and I felt honored to have met and spent time with her. I think everyone should approach books and experiences like Costco – take advantage of the opportunity to test it out before you buy it in bulk and commit to something you may not even enjoy.

Image Description: (from left to right) Dr. Amari Johnson, Myself, Dr. Frances Smith Foster, Caleb Lucky, and Darius Pickett. The filming team and myself with Dr. Frances Smith Foster. 

Image Description: (from left to right) Denise Burgher, Myself, Dr. Jean Lutes out to lunch after filming in San Diego. 

Image Description: Ricky sitting in on filming 

Image Description: (from left to right): Denise Burger, myself, Dr. Brigitte Fielder, and Dr. Jean Lutes on the last day of the C19 conference.