Picture here from Left to Right: Julian Chambliss (Professor of English and Co-Director of the DHLC), Brayden Chrisman (2nd year, English Education major), Carter Brown (5th year, triple major in Data Science, Psychology, and Film Studies), Esther Bienek (2nd year, double major in English and Digital Storytelling), Lorraine Inman (2nd year, double major in Games and Interactive Media and English), Natalie Liliensiek (3rd year, double major in English and Arabic), K Sluder (4th year, Women’s and Gender Studies major), Sydney Logsdon (4th year, double major in English and Environmental Studies and Sustainability), and Allison Doneth (3rd year, double major in Neuroscience and History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science)
The Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition Lab (DHLC) has recently made significant progress in its interdisciplinary research. Below are brief updates on key projects currently being worked on:
Creativity in the Time of COVID-19 (CTC-19)
The Creativity in the Time of COVID-19: Art as Medicine project, funded by a $3 million Mellon grant, began in 2021 and culminated in a four-year initiative showcasing how art provided a lifeline during the pandemic. Led by the Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition Lab (DHLC) at Michigan State University, the project collected over 2,000 pieces of artwork from diverse global communities, focusing on emotional and creative responses to COVID-19. The accompanying exhibitions at MSU and satellite locations around the U.S. highlighted the artistic expressions that helped people cope with grief, isolation, and loss, emphasizing the healing and transformative power of creativity during crises. The DHLC team played a critical role in curating these exhibitions, digitizing the artworks, and creating a global archive that allowed remote audiences to explore the artworks and listen to personal stories behind each piece. Notable exhibition dates included October 3–14, 2024, at the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities LookOut Gallery at MSU, and October 3–11, 2024, at (SCENE) Metrospace in East Lansing.
In addition to the exhibitions, the project was accompanied by a two-day conference, Art as Medicine, held on October 10–11, 2024, at the LookOut Gallery and the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) Theatre, MSU. The conference delved into themes of creativity, healing, and accessibility, with a strong focus on disability and the importance of making artistic spaces inclusive for all. The keynote speakers were Dr. Georgina Kleege —blind activist, writer, emeritus Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, and disability accessibility consultant for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Tate Galleries— and Dr. G. Gabrielle Starr, President of Pomona College and a Guggenheim Fellow who has served on Governor Gavin Newsom’s California Higher Education Recovery with Equity Taskforce, which addressed the challenge universities faced in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.The DHLC’s commitment to accessibility was reflected in discussions on disability theory, arts in health, and the intersection of systemic inequities revealed during the pandemic. The team’s thoughtful planning ensured that the exhibitions and the conference were accessible to a wide range of audiences, including through the integration of QR codes for digital access to audio descriptions and readings of the student-written artist narratives. These efforts demonstrated the DHLC’s dedication to fostering an inclusive environment where art served as a tool for healing, connection, and social justice.
The DHLC team successfully presented their work on “Creativity in the Time of COVID-19” at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and UURAF. The presentations focused on how accessibility measures were integrated into the MSU exhibition, with particular emphasis on ensuring the inclusivity and enjoyment of gallery exhibitions for all attendees. The team’s research on accessibility in galleries has garnered positive feedback for its innovative approach to overcoming barriers to engagement.
DHLC Researchers CTC-19 Presentations
Farah Daddo, Marissa Malleck, and Quynh Tong presented their findings on a poster: “Art in Medical Education: Using arts to improve medical students’ understanding of living with disabilities.” (Presented at UURAF and Diversity Research Showcase)
Natalie Liliensiek, Esther Bienek, and K Sluder presented their findings on a poster: “Creative Crisis Responses: An Examination of Cross-Temporal Pandemic Art.” (Presented at UURAF)
Abigail Brooks, Brayden Chrisman, and Lorraine Inman presented their findings on a poster, “Redefining Accessibility in Museum Spaces: Methodologies and Practices for a More Inclusive Future”, at the Diversity Research Showcase in Fall of 2024, receiving an Honorable Mention. This spring, they presented the same project at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research and the MSU University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum, receiving top marks at the latter.
Allison Doneth, Natalie Seitz and Yiğit Akan presented their findings on a poster: “Examining the Effects of Enculturation on Narratives and Interpretation of Music Excerpts” at the Diversity Research Showcase 2024, Lyman Briggs Symposium 2024, University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum 2025, and National Conference on Undergraduate Research. They received a 5th place award at the Diversity Research Showcase 2024.
Comics as Data (CaD)
The DHLC’s CaD project offered a comprehensive analysis of LGBTQA+ comics and graphic novels published in North America through the Comic as Data North America dataset. Researchers focused on representations of queer culture and sexual taboos. The findings shed light on how comics reflect and influence societal shifts, offering new insights into the medium’s evolving role in modern culture.
DHLC Researchers CaD Presentation
Carter Brown, Lorraine Inman, and Sydney Logsdon presented their findings on a poster: “A Chronology of Controversial Comics: Representations of Queer Desire Amidst American Comic Censorship in the Twentieth Century.” (Presented at UURAF, Diversity Research Showcase, and NCUR)
Music and Narrative
The DHLC is in the final stages of drafting an article based on the “Role of Narrative in Music Perception” project. This article, which investigates the qualitative data from participant responses, will soon be submitted to the American Journal of Undergraduate Research. The research explores the ways in which enculturation influences cognitive music processing, contributing to our understanding of the relationship between narrative structures and musical perception.
DHLC Researchers Music and Narrative Presentations
Natalie Seitz, Allison Doneth, and Yigit Akan presented their research on a poster: “Examining the Effects of Enculturation on Narratives and Interpretations of Music Excerpts.” (Presented at the Diversity Research Showcase, NCUR, and UURAF)
Poetry and Aesthetic Pleasure
The DHLC has recently completed further research for the article, “Aesthetic Experiences of Poetry: Patterns in Real-Time Responses to Sonnets.” The article, which explores the emotional and cognitive responses of readers to poetry, will be submitted to Style Journal for publication. This research offers a new perspective on how readers experience aesthetic pleasure through poetry and its cognitive impact.
Lorraine Inman led additional studies with undergraduate students.
New Projects in DHLC
In AY24-25, the DHLC has embarked on a number of new initiatives and projects designed to support greater engagement with public digital humanities. Comics as Data (CaD), builds off the work of the Graphic Possibilities Comic Research Workshop led by Professor Julian Chambliss. In the DHLC, researchers are developing new projects using the Comic as Data North America (CaDNA) dataset. Leveraging the interdisciplinary nature of our undergraduate researcher cohort, the CaD team is exploring historical and contemporary comic trends.
Art as Medicine
Additionally, the lab is eagerly anticipating the upcoming Art as Medicine initiative, which will introduce creative works reflecting diverse pandemic experiences into the MSU College of Human Medicine’s curriculum. This spring, the DHLC presented at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Pittsburgh, building on their impressive track record, including winning the all-around first-place prize at last year’s University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum.
Graduate Student Spring Fellowship 2025
In the 2024-2025 academic year, Dr. Julian Chambliss and Cheyenne Symonette proposed a graduate student fellowship to further the Lab’s potential for engaging graduate student-led research. In consultation with Dr. Natalie Phillips, lab lead Sydney Logsdon, and incoming Lab lead Lorraine Inman, we discussed how best to integrate this new research stream into the Lab’s existing workflow. We determined that an independent research project with access to the Lab’s resources (physical space, consultation with faculty and students, and a $500 award) would be the best decision. Cheyenne and Dr. Chambliss created a description of the fellowship and its requirements and circulated this to the English Department’s graduate students. April Best successfully won the fellowship.
Best describes her project: “I hope to gather the threads of their poetry and lives together in a map that visualizes the life of each poet. The map would trace the birthplace and final resting place as well as where in the United States they were working during their literary contributions during the Harlem Renaissance. The map would include brief biographical information about each poet as well as the titles of publications that published their poetry. This map would help aggregate disparate information regarding the lives of these artists in one visual. I hope the map illustrates where and when these poets lived and worked and helps to fill out parts of the Harlem Renaissance story that have been obscured. A geographic and historical mapping of their lives and literary work is one step towards recovering new facets of this era in American history.“
Scholarly Editing: Voices and Perspectives
As part of the DHLC’s support of the Voices and Perspectives section of Scholarly Editing (SE), Dr. Julian Chambliss and DHLC GA Cheyenne Symonette have conducted interviews that will appear in Volume 42 of the journal. Chambliss and Symonette serve as editor and associate editor of the Voices and Perspectives section. This section of SE is dedicated to publishing transcripts of conversations and interviews with recovery practitioners. For volume 42, Chambliss interviewed MSU Emeritus Professor Gordon Henry and Professor Ellen Cushman from Northwestern University about their work on Indigenous language preservation. Ms. Symonette interviewed Professor Andrea Roberts from the University of Virginia about her work on preserving black heritage spaces. Volume 42 of Scholarly Editing is scheduled to be published in May 2025.