About the project

Made by a learner for learners

This project stems from a MA course centered on Digital Humanities and U.S. Literary Studies. 

The Digital Humanities field is continuously evolving as fine technological tools to analyze cultural artifacts are developed. This ever-changing scenario may scare non-professionals away from exploring digital archives or other projects and digital cultural initiatives. Another significant hurdle to overcome is the linguistic one: Digital Humanities projects are mainly in English (at a proficient level). However, since the beginning, I envisioned a user-friendly digital project, designed especially for learners and non-native English speakers.

The "mission" of the project

As a teenager, I attended a language high-school; however, my English classes rarely touched upon U.S. culture and explored British literature almost exclusively. I fear I am not the only one who has had this experience. I may be mistaken, but I believe this is a missed opportunity for students whose contact with English derives mostly from listening to American music and watching American movies and TV series. Nevertheless, I am also conscious that teaching is a highly demanding job that also includes grading and bureaucratic tasks—adding digital projects and non-curricular classes to the mix may not be feasible for teachers.

In this conjuncture of students' interests and educational potentialities, this pedagogical website was born: it presents some of the constitutional American myths and their resonance in the music industry through the years. More specifically, the website is thought of as a tool for a class focused on this specific topic; therefore, the entire project was imagined for an audience of teenagers studying English in high school and for teachers to make the most of it as a ready-to-use tool, whose language and content are tailored for the abilities of students.

The purpose is that of making students more aware of the nature of myths, of how narrations produced by a nation can affect its perception abroad but do not necessarily reflect its social reality. Ultimately, the project aims to sharpen students' critical thought about the world they live in. In my small way, I like to think this project honors James Baldwin's inspirational article A Talk to Teachers: "The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated". 

Accessibility and tools

I have followed the #succeedwithdyslexia guidelines to improve readibility and to make the website dyslexia-friendly:

• it employs 13-point Verdana, a dyslexia-friendly font available on Google Sites;

• it divides the texts into paragraphs with headings;

• the most important words are in bold;

• readability is facilitated through high-contrast between text and background.

Graphic-designer Christian Boer has elaborated a font specifically for dyslexic people; unfortunately, I haven't been able to employ it directly in the website because it comes at a cost. However, if Verdana does not suit your needs, I signal that it is possible to download the free Dyslexie font Chrome extension, which adapts any page or website into the Dyslexie font.