The New Deal Era's Federal Writers' Project: History, Politics, and Legacy

FAIN: EH-272497-20

Long Island University (Greenvale, NY 11548-1300)
Deborah Mutnick (Project Director: March 2020 to October 2022)
Shannon Carter (Co Project Director: October 2020 to October 2022)
Sara Rutkowski (Co Project Director: January 2022 to October 2022)

A four-week institute for 25 college and university faculty to study the history, accomplishments, and cultural legacy of the Federal Writers’ Project.

LIU-Brooklyn proposes a 4-week summer institute for 25 college and university faculty to study the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), part of the federally funded unemployment relief agency known as the Works Projects Administration under FDR during the Great Depression. The institute will focus on the FWP’s history, accomplishments, and literary legacy as our country’s first government-sponsored public history project, particularly with respect to its mission to document underrepresented stories about everyday American life and its impact on American literature. Given the extraordinary impact former FWP writers had on American literature, participants will also study creative works by former FWP writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Dorothy West, Richard Wright, and Meridel Le Seuer, alongside archival materials these same writers generated for the FWP. We invite applicants from diverse backgrounds and will reserve space for at least five non-tenure track or adjunct faculty.

Associated Products

NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers: The New Deal Era's Federal Writers' Project (Web Resource)
Title: NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers: The New Deal Era's Federal Writers' Project
Author: Deborah Mutnick
Author: Shannon Carter
Abstract: We used this website to publicize the program and recruit participants. It also served as the basis for a more sophisticated website in progress that archives the summer institute content and outcomes and will become a home for what we came to refer to during the institute as emergent FWP Studies.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: http://nehsummerinstitutefwp.liu.edu
Primary URL Description: NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers: The New Deal Era's Federal Writers' Project: History, Politics, and Legacy

The New Deal Era's Federal Writers' Project (Web Resource)
Title: The New Deal Era's Federal Writers' Project
Author: Deborah Mutnick
Author: Shannon Carter
Author: Claudia Jacques
Abstract: This website in progress archives the work of the 2021 summer institute on the FWP and serves as the basis for ongoing research, teaching, and public programming on what we have come to think of as FWP Studies.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: http://newdealfwp.com
Primary URL Description: Website in progress -- The New Deal Era's Federal Writers' Project

Documenting Slavery: The Impact and Import of the Federal Writers’ Project’s Slave Narratives (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Documenting Slavery: The Impact and Import of the Federal Writers’ Project’s Slave Narratives
Abstract: Among the many legacies of The New Deal’s WPA, the Slave Narratives of the Federal Writers’ Project hold an unprecedented place in our history. Capturing more than 2,300 first-person accounts of formerly enslaved people that were taken between 1936 and 1938, this collection of life histories, testimonies, and reminiscences constitutes the single most important documentation of a complex and fundamental chapter in America’s past. For historians, the significance of this collection is profound. For descendants of formerly enslaved people seeking to fill in stories of their ancestors, it provides dramatic evidence. And for everyone of any racial or ethnic background, these firsthand accounts of American slavery paint a vivid picture of a facet of our history that is otherwise largely erased. The Center for Brooklyn History hosted panelist Clint Smith, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the recent, widely acclaimed book How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America; historian John Edgar Tidwell who has written extensively on Sterling A. Brown, FWP’s national editor of Negro Affairs; and historian Catherine Stewart, author of the 2016 book Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project, for this conversation about the impact and import of the Federal Writers’ Project and Its Ex-Slave Narrative Collection. As Congress continues to debate a proposal for a 21st century Federal Writers’ Project Act, the panelists explored the urgency of continued efforts to archive the lived experiences and underrepresented stories of our diverse country. The program was moderated by Peabody Award-winning journalist and documentarian Brian Palmer. This program was made possible through funding by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, in connection with the NEH Summer Institute on the New Deal Era’s Federal Writers’ Project presented by Long Island University and Texas A&M University - Commerce. It is also part
Author: Clint Smith
Author: Catherine Simpson
Author: John Edgar Tidwell
Author: Brian Palmer
Date: 07/26/2022
Location: Virtual
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTVho6aiRvQ
Primary URL Description: URL for recording of public forum.

Meditations on Authenticity in Life Histories (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Meditations on Authenticity in Life Histories
Author: Richard Courage
Author: Amy Nejezchleb
Author: Naomi Williams
Author: Mary Hricko
Author: Martha Pitts
Abstract: Final participant panel presentation at NEH Summer Institute on the FWP 2021.
Date Range: 08/05/2021
Location: virtual
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_613lOStkL4oeNLeiV0vpcnRi95l3ji1/view

Indispensable Others: Rereading the Federal Writers' Project for the Lives of Asian Americans, Hoboes, Children, and People with Disabilities (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Indispensable Others: Rereading the Federal Writers' Project for the Lives of Asian Americans, Hoboes, Children, and People with Disabilities
Author: Greg Robinson
Author: Peter Sebastian Chesney
Author: Laura Carpenter
Author: Maggie Morris Davis
Author: D'Arcee Neal
Abstract: Final participant panel presentation at NEH Summer Institute on the FWP.
Date Range: 08/05/2021
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hm-q_gmDdawY27d725FxVDY8Emp9FQrD/view

Taking a Closer Look: Examining the Individuals, Communities, and Ideologies that Shaped Stories of the FWP (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Taking a Closer Look: Examining the Individuals, Communities, and Ideologies that Shaped Stories of the FWP
Author: Anna Kaplan
Author: Djelani Hamm
Author: Kathleen Brown
Author: Jose Angel Gutierrez
Author: Phyllis May-Machunda
Abstract: Final participant panel presentations at NEH Summer Institute on the FWP.
Date Range: 08/05/2021
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18cmB6FEoNak6KJYQDVfCexHe3WFPrKEs/view

FWP Legacies in Twentieth Century Literary and Media Studies (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: FWP Legacies in Twentieth Century Literary and Media Studies
Author: Wilson Chen
Author: Juan Rodriguez Barrera
Author: Maureen Curtin
Author: Daniel Gomes
Author: Alan Stein
Abstract: Final participant panel presentations at NEH Summer Institute on the FWP.
Date Range: 08/05/2021
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s768a5AWlpzKSjqz9E7iNq4rRJqo7ewF/view

Working through the FWP: Labor, Place, and Representation, Part 1 (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Working through the FWP: Labor, Place, and Representation, Part 1
Author: Michele Fazio
Author: David Leight
Author: Lionel Kimble
Author: Benji de la Piedra
Author: David Kipen
Abstract: Final participant panel presentations at NEH Summer Institute on FWP.
Date Range: 08/05/2021
Location: virtual
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zlJ2z1Pwk49RT7BaK3eLvko5Kxyr0DBc/view

Working through the FWP: Labor, Place, and Representation, Part 2 (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Working through the FWP: Labor, Place, and Representation, Part 2
Author: Michele Fazio
Author: David Leight
Author: Lionel Kimble
Author: Benji de la Piedra
Author: David Kipen
Abstract: Final participant panel presentations at NEH Summer Institute on the FWP.
Date Range: 08/05/2021
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dmq6dseLDpJ5EZGOykLuswuKgMiTGAVI/view

Oral History/Folklore Workshop (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Oral History/Folklore Workshop
Author: Phyllis May-Machunda
Author: Anna Kaplan
Author: Benji de la Piedra
Author: Alan Stein
Abstract: NEH participant-led workshop on oral history and folklore studies.
Date Range: 07/25/2021
Location: virtual
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zov2Q4t9DW-jA7cbRdZkcbiQnFGPV-9e

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