Congratulations to Professor Inger Brodey and her team of dedicated collaborators for being awarded their second grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities!
This grant will support the development of their digital humanities project, “Jane Austen’s Desk.” The project imagines a virtual reproduction of Jane Austen’s Chawton Cottage where users can interact immersively online “to bring Jane Austen’s writing room–and her world–to life.”
In the College of Arts and Sciences’ coverage of this endowment, Brodey said, “It’s going to feel like a 360-degree view of the room: you can go left and right, up and down, and hover over various objects. For instance, clicking on a painting of a ship will make the ship rock and the waves splash, and it may take you to maps showing the travels of Jane Austen’s family members and illustrate how she traveled vicariously through extensive correspondence with them.”
This project extends the goals of the popular Jane Austen Summer Program and Jane Austen & Co. to support humanities programming about Austen’s world. Following the pandemic and their virtual work to produce JASP and Jane Austen &Co., Brodey was inspired to expand and support the accessibility of Austen’s life and work to an even wider audience.
From the reproduction of Austen’s desk, project collaborators also envision future digital renderings of Austen’s novels.
Please join us in celebrating the incredible work of Professor Brodey and her team!
