DH Fellow Presentation: "Building Back The Blacktop: Digital Humanities, Historic Preservation, & Activating the Archive"

Please join us for a showcase of the work undertaken by the Scholars’ Lab’s 2023-24 Digital Humanities Fellow, Jennifer Saunders. Jennifer’s fellowship project is a 3D digital reconstruction of the blacktop of St. Emma Military Academy in Powhatan, VA circa 1965. Though hundreds of students made memories on the grounds of this Black Catholic military boarding school between 1895 and 1972, most of its buildings were demolished soon after the school closed. This project aims to acknowledge the value of students’ experiences by restoring the landscape in an accessible, interactive way, and to explore digital methods as an element of the historic preservation toolkit.

Jennifer Saunders is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology with interests in archives, narrative-building and memory, and material culture. She is especially interested in how the past influences the present and future, a curiosity sparked by her background in archaeology. Her dissertation examines the role of archival material in historical narrative and community identity as it relates to St. Emma and its sister institution St. Francis de Sales School.

For more details about the Scholars’ Lab’s DH Fellowship program, please see our website.

Questions?

Contact Scholars' Lab Assistant Director for Public Services Laura Miller.