In March 2014, a proposal, written by Ann Elizabeth Armstrong, received a $60,000 NEH Digital Humanities Start Up Grant for “Orientation for the Mississippi Freedom Project: An Interactive Quest for Social Justice.”  The award, one of 20 announced by NEH in 2014, supports the creation of an interactive, location-based platform for teaching the history of Freedom Summer.  This digital project will develop through a partnership between Ann Elizabeth (Western Program and Theatre), Bob DeSchutter (AIMS and EHS), and Elias Tzoc (Center for Digital Scholarship), all of whom are listed as project directors on the grant. The effort will also involve many other Miami faculty, veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, high school teachers, and staff at both the Mississippi State Civil Rights Museum and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

As part of its effort to lead a thoughtful conversation about the future of the digital humanities at Miami University, the Digital Humanities Working Group wrote a series of discussion papers on issues that deserve careful consideration by our community. They address matters ranging from promotion and tenure standards to the future of research and intellectual community.