Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

FAIN: HAA-256146-17

Davidson College (Davidson, NC 28036-9405)
Suzanne W. Churchill (Project Director: January 2017 to May 2021)
Susan B. Rosenbaum (Co Project Director: July 2017 to May 2021)
Linda Arbaugh Kinnahan (Co Project Director: July 2017 to May 2021)

Participating institutions:
Trustees of Davidson College (Davidson, NC) - Applicant/Recipient
Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA) - Participating Institution
University of Georgia (Athens, GA) - Participating Institution

A multimedia research project, including a public crowdsourcing component, exploring the work of early 20th century artist and writer Mina Loy.

A pressing need in digital humanities is for multimodal, user-directed narratives that situate evidence, interpretation, and arguments in ways that allow readers to understand the scholarly project. Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde is a scholarly website that charts the career of the 20th century writer and artist Mina Loy. Using Loy as a case study, our goals are to: provide access to and interpretations of Loy’s work in diverse media, using new digital modes of textual and visual expression to invite closer, more informed and interactive engagement; develop a theory of the en dehors garde (literally, “coming from the outside”) that accounts for contributions of women and people of color who have been excluded from conventional formulations of the avant-garde; and, conduct an experiment in public humanities scholarship that involves students in transforming scholarly methods and products, tests new processes for peer review, and sets UX design standards for digital scholarship.

Associated Products

Mina Loy migrates to Maine (Blog Post)
Title: Mina Loy migrates to Maine
Author: Suzanne Churchill
Abstract: This blog post, part of a "news/events" blog we added to our project website, reports on the project architects' work session and meeting with Loy's executor in Maine in January.
Date: 01/30/2018
Primary URL: http://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: A scholarly website dedicated to avant-garde artist, writer, and inventor Mina Loy (1882-1966), including scholarly essays, bios, maps, documents, and other visualizations and interactive features.
Secondary URL: http://mina-loy.com/sightings/mina-loy-migrates-to-maine/
Secondary URL Description: A blog post about the Maine work retreat.
Blog Title: "News/Events"
Website: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

Mina Loy in the DH Classroom (Blog Post)
Title: Mina Loy in the DH Classroom
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Abstract: a blog post about a cross-institutional collaboration, in which students researched, drafted, critiqued, and revised bios of avant-garde figures who moved in Loy's circles or were influenced by her.
Date: 12/21/17
Primary URL: http://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: A scholarly website dedicated to Mina Loy.
Secondary URL: http://mina-loy.com/sightings/mina-loy-in-the-dh-classroom/
Secondary URL Description: a blog post about the biography project.
Blog Title: News/Events
Website: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

Modernist Portraits by Kim Rae Taylor (Blog Post)
Title: Modernist Portraits by Kim Rae Taylor
Author: Linda Kinnahan
Abstract: blog post about oil portraits of older modernist women writers and artists, including a beautiful portrait of Mina Loy
Date: 01/22/2018
Primary URL: http://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: Scholarly website dedicated to Mina Loy.
Secondary URL: http://mina-loy.com/sightings/modernist-portraits-by-kim-rae-taylor/
Secondary URL Description: Blog post about portrait of Mina Loy by Kim Rae Taylor.
Blog Title: news/events
Website: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

Mina Loy descends on D.C. (Blog Post)
Title: Mina Loy descends on D.C.
Author: Suzanne Churchil
Abstract: Blog post describing the NEH ODH meeting for project directors' meeting, attended by Suzanne Churchill and Linda Kinnahan. The post lists the ideas and plans generated by the meeting.
Date: 02/10/18
Primary URL: http://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: Scholarly website dedicated to Mina Loy.
Secondary URL: http://http://mina-loy.com/sightings/mina-loy-descends-on-dc/
Secondary URL Description: blog post on project directors' meeting.
Blog Title: news/events
Website: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

Interview: Navigating the Avant-Garde & the Digital Humanities (Blog Post)
Title: Interview: Navigating the Avant-Garde & the Digital Humanities
Author: Charlotte Whalen and Jade French
Abstract: Transcript of Whalen and Jade's interview with project architects Suzanne Churchill, Linda Kinnahan, and Susan Rosenbaum.
Date: 02/20/2018
Primary URL: https://medium.com/decorating-dissidence
Primary URL Description: Blog/online magazine about Modernist, Feminism & the Arts
Secondary URL: https://medium.com/decorating-dissidence/navigating-the-avant-garde-collaboration-community-the-digital-humanities-63074c5d9726
Secondary URL Description: interview with project architects
Blog Title: Interview: Navigating the Avant-Garde & the Digital Humanities
Website: Decorating Dissidence

Mina Loy Sized Up on Medium (Blog Post)
Title: Mina Loy Sized Up on Medium
Author: Suzanne Churchill
Abstract: announcement about interviewed published on Decorating Dissidence.
Date: 02/21/18
Primary URL: http://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: scholarly website dedicated to Mina Loy
Secondary URL: http://mina-loy.com/sightings/mina-loy-sized-up-on-medium/
Secondary URL Description: blog post about publication of online interview.
Blog Title: news/events
Website: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

Climbing Costa San Giorgio (Blog Post)
Title: Climbing Costa San Giorgio
Author: Linda Kinnahan
Abstract: Linda Kinnahan reports on her visit to Italy and pilgrimage to various sites where Loy lived, frequented, and exhibited work.
Date: 03/21/2018
Primary URL: http://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: scholarly website dedicated to Mina Loy
Secondary URL: http://mina-loy.com/italy/climbing-costa-san-giorgio/
Secondary URL Description: blog post including photos and narrative of visit to various sites where Loy lived in Italy.
Blog Title: news/events
Website: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde wins NEH Grant (Blog Post)
Title: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde wins NEH Grant
Author: Suzanne Churchill
Abstract: blog post about our project receiving a generous NEH Digital Studies Advancement Grant--thank you!
Date: 10/10/2017
Primary URL: http://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: scholarly website dedicated to Mina Loy
Secondary URL: http://mina-loy.com/sightings/mina-loy-navigating-the-avant-garde-wins-prestigious-neh-grant/
Secondary URL Description: Blog post about winning NEH DHAG grant.
Blog Title: news/events
Website: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

Digital Humanities Project Wins Prestigious NEH Grant (Blog Post)
Title: Digital Humanities Project Wins Prestigious NEH Grant
Author: Lisa Patterson
Abstract: Davidson College features article on their website announcing that our project has received an NEH Grant.
Date: 08/02/2017
Primary URL: http://davidson.edu
Primary URL Description: Davidson College website
Secondary URL: http://www.davidson.edu/news/news-stories/170802-digital-humanities-neh-grant
Secondary URL Description: Article on NEH grant award.
Blog Title: News
Website: Davidson College

DH and Visual Culture: "Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-garde" (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: DH and Visual Culture: "Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-garde"
Abstract: Presentation on the historical avant-garde and Mina Loy as a prototype for digital humanists today, willing to forge new territory, reinvent genres, break down hierarchies, and try to engage new publics.
Author: Linda Kinnahan
Author: Suzanne Churchill
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Date: 03/27/2018
Location: Duquesne University
Primary URL: http://www.duq.edu/assets/Documents/english/_pdf/DH%20SERIES%20EVENTS.pdf
Primary URL Description: schedule of events in series of public talks and workshops
Secondary URL: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_tznePFRlueYzGMdd5PgG3Sjuj3nzCIVsXrt24IRE8o/edit?usp=sharing
Secondary URL Description: Google slides shown as part of our presentation

Workshop: Pedagogy and the Digital Humanities (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Workshop: Pedagogy and the Digital Humanities
Author: Suzanne Churchill
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Abstract: Short presentation on the Index of Modernist Magazines as a model of sustainable DH research involving undergraduates, followed by design thinking session for participants to develop their own ideas for collaborative DH projects.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://www.duq.edu/assets/Documents/english/_pdf/DH%20SERIES%20EVENTS.pdf
Primary URL Description: program of events, including workshop.
Secondary URL: http://https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EgqiRJISvjLMure6TKJlSzJrksjqoaW5J5dBj1Tpv2k/edit?usp=sharing
Secondary URL Description: Google slides used in workshop.
Audience: Graduate

Mina Loy & Digital Humanities: Navigating the Avant-Garde (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Mina Loy & Digital Humanities: Navigating the Avant-Garde
Author: Sara Crangle
Abstract: Participating on a Mina Loy Roundtable, Sara Crangle discussed our project, using slides and presentation notes prepared by Suzanne Churchill, Susan Rosenbaum, and Linda Kinnahan
Date: 07/13/2017
Primary URL: http://dorothyrichardson.org/society/conference_2017_prog.htm
Primary URL Description: Program for "Remaking the New: Modernism and Textual Scholarship Conference," 13-14 July 2017, Graduate Centre, Queen Mary University of London.
Secondary URL: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PhoKVo9clQzuZfQjzxUHVPPQ6GErTKkIvXbmrfhhZbc/edit?usp=sharing
Secondary URL Description: Google slides prepared for Sara Crangle
Conference Name: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PhoKVo9clQzuZfQjzxUHVPPQ6GErTKkIvXbmrfhhZbc/edit?usp=sharing

Biography Project - cross institutional collaboration (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Biography Project - cross institutional collaboration
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Author: Linda Kinnahan
Author: Suzanne Churchill
Author: Emily McGinn
Author: Gesina Philips
Author: Sundi Richard
Abstract: During the fall of 2017, Rosenbaum, Kinnahan, and Churchill each taught a course relevant to the project, giving us an opportunity to pilot a cross-institutional project with students and digital librarians at our respective schools (Emily McGinn, UGA; Gesina Philips, Duquesne; Sundi Richard, Davidson). The “Biography Project,” as it came to be called, involved students at Davidson, Duquesne, and UGA in researching and writing short biographies of figures connected to the historic avant-garde (chiefly Dada, Futurism, Surrealism) who were associated with Loy. A truly collaborative effort, we established and followed a shared template for the project and involved students in peer-reviews of at least two biographies authored by students from other schools. In workshops conducted by digital librarians at each school, students considered the technical and conceptual particularities of gathering and “cleaning” data, writing for a digital platform, and conducting peer review through the open platform Hypothes.is.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://loybioproject.wordpress.com/
Primary URL Description: This website (not open to the public) was used for students to post their biography drafts and peer critique one another's writing using a Hypothes.is group we created for the occasion.
Secondary URL: http://courses.suzannechurchill.com/eng394-f17/assignments/biography-project/
Secondary URL Description: This is the assignment given to students at Davidson taking Suzanne Churchill's class ENG 394: The Avant-Garde. Assignments for students at UGA and Duquesne were nearly identical.
Audience: Undergraduate

Mina Loy on the Pittsburgh Stage (Blog Post)
Title: Mina Loy on the Pittsburgh Stage
Author: Linda Kinnahan
Abstract: Blog post reporting on a public talk delivered by Churchill, Kinnahan, and Rosenburg, and a workshop conducted by Churchill & Rosenburg, at Duquese University in March.
Date: 04/21/2017
Primary URL: http://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: scholarly website devoted to Mina Loy
Secondary URL: http://mina-loy.com/news-events/mina-loy-on-the-pittsburgh-stage/
Secondary URL Description: blog post on Duquesne public talk and workshop
Blog Title: news/event
Website: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde

Digital Baedeker: A Feminist Experiment with Mina Loy’s Archive (Book Section)
Title: Digital Baedeker: A Feminist Experiment with Mina Loy’s Archive
Author: Suzanne Churchill
Author: Linda Kinnahan
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Editor: Linda Anderson
Editor: Ahren Warner
Abstract: This essay provides an overview of the structure and goals of the digital platform “Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde” in the context of archival theory and practice.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/
Primary URL Description: website for Edinburgh University Press
Secondary URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UmMS4vWGo8dG2ak2919LLA_6K7JxREp5z79h2LUaHTs/edit?usp=sharing
Secondary URL Description: Link to Google doc with contents of co-authored article.
Access Model: print volume
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Book Title: The Contemporary Poetry Archive: Essays and Interventions
ISBN: TBD

“Feminist Designs: modernist digital humanities & Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde” (Article)
Title: “Feminist Designs: modernist digital humanities & Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde”
Author: Suzanne W. Churchill
Author: Linda Kinnahan
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Abstract: In Part 1, we contend that design is fundamental to feminist digital humanities. “Design” refers to structures and to the process of inventing them; it also encompasses matters of style and aesthetics. If modernist studies is to thrive in a digital age, we must attend to questions of style and UX (user experience) design. To give design its due is a feminist act. It involves considering the audience’s needs and interests, recognizing them as partners in the scholarly endeavor, and embracing style and aesthetics as crucial to the work of digital humanities. Feminist design also entails rethinking the processes of generating and disseminating knowledge and reinventing our scholarly methods in order to break down hierarchies, encourage open exchanges of expertise, and reflect the diversity of human creative production. In Part II, we discuss Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde, an experiment in modernist digital humanities that aims to move questions of design from the periphery to the center of scholarly attention (http://mina-loy.com/). Loy serves not only as a representative of women in the avant-garde, but also as a model for what digital humanists can be, if, like Loy, we dare to design radically new forms and processes.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/24692921.2018.1505255
Primary URL Description: Link to article in FMS
Access Model: Open access for limited time, then subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Feminist Modernist Studies
Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Handiwork: Mina Loy, Collage, and the En Dehors Garde (Article)
Title: Handiwork: Mina Loy, Collage, and the En Dehors Garde
Author: Suzanne W. Churchill
Author: Linda Kinnahan
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Abstract: This article is part of a special series on the Visualities blog, edited by Alix Beeston, exploring digital archives connected to modernism’s visual cultures. Over the next few months, contributors to the forum will introduce and model the uses of online resources spanning art, film, media, book history, print cultures, and more. In attending to specific visual artifacts from these collections, they will also reflect on issues of methodology raised by developing and using digital archives, including in times of crisis and remote working. In this piece, the creators of Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde share from their experiments with working collaboratively online to produce new, creative modes of theory-making—and to account for the material conditions of artistic and scholarly labor.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://modernismmodernity.org/forums/posts/handiwork
Primary URL Description: link to article in M/m Print Plus Edition
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: M/m Print Plus Edition (the online, open access edition of the scholarly journal Modernism/Modernity)
Publisher: Modernist Studies Association

“Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde”: a case study of collaborative DH design (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: “Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde”: a case study of collaborative DH design
Author: Suzanne W. Churchill
Author: Linda A. Kinnahan
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Abstract: A case study of the project Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde (https://mina-loy.com/), a peer-reviewed, digital, multimedia scholarly book that charts the avant-garde migrations of artist, writer, feminist, inventor, and entrepreneur, Mina Loy. This open educational resource offers digital scholarly narratives and visualizations to contextualize and interpret Loy’s writing, art, and designs. The case study includes a description, time frame, outcomes, resources, funding, workflow, challenges & opportunities, next steps, publications & presentations, and a contributors list.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.21428/51bee781.4a3e9679
Primary URL Description: link to case study on website
Access Model: open access

Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde (Web Resource)
Title: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde
Author: Suzanne W. Churchill
Author: Linda A. Kinnahan
Author: Susan Rosenbaum
Abstract: Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde is a peer-reviewed, digital, multimedia scholarly book that charts the avant-garde migrations of artist, writer, feminist, inventor, and entrepreneur, Mina Loy. This open educational resource offers digital scholarly narratives and visualizations to contextualize and interpret Loy’s writing, art, and designs. It includes a Mina Loy Baedeker (scholarly essay collection) that charts Loy’s relationship to Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism and related materials including timelines, maps, art exhibits, a Twine game, close readings that interlink a text with its interpretation, student-authored biographies and other projects (“New Frequencies”), and a crowd-sourced feminist theory of the en dehors garde (“Flash Mob”)—our feminist alternative to the avant-garde. DH practitioners who want to adapt our model can find our custom WordPress “DH Scholarship Theme, site documentation, and instructional videos in an open GitHub repository, which can be accessed from the DH ToolBox featured on our homepage.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://mina-loy.com/
Primary URL Description: Link to scholarly website homepage

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