Prof Launches Open, Digital Book on Avant-Garde Artist Mina Loy
The peer-reviewed, open access, multi-authored, multimedia scholarly book, Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde, recently announced its official publication.
Spearheaded by Professor Suzanne Churchill, the launch is the culmination of a five-year collaboration supported by a generous Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Co-created by students, staff, and faculty at Davidson College, Duquesne University, and the University of Georgia, the open educational resource includes a manifesto, maps, timelines, bios, art exhibits, a 3D animation, a Twine game, a digital “flash mob” formation of feminist theory, and more.
The project aims not to create a comprehensive digital archive or open source wiki, but to provide a curated, multimedia, interactive platform for accessing and understanding Loy’s writing, artwork, and career.
Mina Loy (1882-1996) was an artist, poet, feminist, entrepreneur, inventor, and world traveler who consorted with nearly every avant-garde movement, including Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism, but was contained by none. The website documents her avant-garde affiliations, pursuing new modes of textual and visual expression in order to invite a closer, more informed engagement with her work.
Professor Churchill began this project in 2014 as a sabbatical investigation, supported by a Boswell Family fellowship, and collaborating with Andrew Rikard ’17 on early prototypes. Susan Rosenbaum from University of Georgia and Linda Kinnahan from Duquesne University joined in as co-principal investigators. Together they applied for and won a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant of $75,000 from the National Endowment for Humanities. They completed the terms of the grant on March 31 of this year, achieving and even surpassing the goals outlined in the grant proposal.
In addition to providing scholarly and pedagogical resources on Mina Loy and avant-garde theories, the site includes a DH Toolbox, where the authors share a DH Scholarship Theme that customizes WordPress to better support scholarly needs.