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.