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Sarah Connell

English, PhD

2014

As the Assistant Director for the Women Writers Project (WWP) and Assistant Director for the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks, self-described “book nerd” Dr. Sarah Connell (PhD ’14) is central to Northeastern’s strong, supportive community of digital scholars. She is involved with directing a major digital humanities project (WWP) and leads a new NEH Collaborative Research grant. Sarah trains and mentors graduate students in digital text encoding, editing, and methods of digital analysis, and leads workshops and working groups on a range of digital humanities (DH) topics. She also co-teaches two undergraduate and graduate courses: Literature and Digital Diversity with Professor Elizabeth Maddock Dillon and NULab Project Seminar with Professor Julia Flanders. Here’s how Sarah got here:

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Sarah’s Path

Was introduced to early modern Irish literature in Prof. Patrick Mullen’s Irish Film & Literature course. Her dissertation topic was inspired by a paper she wrote for the class.

Patrick Mullen

Had faculty mentors from fields such as Irish culture, early modern literature, gender studies, text encoding, and more to shape her intellectual and professional development.

Became involved with the Digital Scholarship Group, first as an encoder for the Women Writers Project and then as a project team member with the Early Caribbean Digital Archive.

Digital Scholarship Group
women writers project webpage

Took on more leadership for the Women Writers Project throughout her program and eventually became their Assistant Director following graduation.

Women Writers Project
sarah connell and fellow graduates

Found a network of colleagues for research, teaching, and the development of programs in digital scholarship through the larger academic community in Boston.

Wrote her dissertation on the ways in which early modern writers used medieval legends and forms to construct national identity.

cavendish painting

Currently engaged in research into applying digital tools and methodologies to pre-Victorian texts, with a particular interest in examining how people wrote about the past.

Data Visualization

Currently working with the WWP team to develop an exploration interface for a bibliography to all the texts named, referenced, cited, or quoted in Women Writers Online.

WWP Intertextual Networks project
Students sitting outside on campus on a sunny day

Currently planning partnerships for the Digital Integration Teaching Initiative, which supports collaborations to bring digital tools, methods, and skills into CSSH classrooms.

Digital Teaching Integration Initiative
students walking through Snell Quad

Currently continuing development of the NULab’s programs in digital scholarship alongside Professor Julia Flanders, particularly the Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities.

Digital Humanities Certificate
“I’m in a position where almost everything I do, I would do for free, too. It’s nice to have a professional life that is rewarding intellectually and where I’m learning constantly.”

More Student Paths

Chinma Nnadozie-Okananwa

  • Law school is a big investment. That’s why Chinma was attracted to NU and the co-op process, which has allowed her to experience the legal environment before committing to the practice.
  • Chinma’s long-held love of reading and writing, specifically poetry, led to her to decision to major in English for her undergraduate education.
  • In her first year, Chinma took Early African American Literature with Professor Nicole Aljoe. It was the first time she had a Black professor and the opportunity to share lived experiences in a new way.
  • Chinma took Contemporary Poetry with Professor Eunsong Kim which explored readings that Chinma still uses today. She learned how poetry and art can affect real change, like through the Black Arts Movement.
  • Chinma is co-president of Our Voices: Women of Color, which is run through the Social Justice Resource Center and the Center for Intercultural Engagement and allows her to facilitate vital conversations.
  • Through Our Voices: Women of Color, Chinma attended Northeastern’s EMPOWER conference for students of color in 2019, where she gave a presentation about intersectionality.
  • In her second year, Chinma took Intro to Law, Policy, and Society with Professor Daniel Urman, which gave her the chance to explore the intersection between current events and law, furthering her interest...
Northeastern student Yasser Aponte works at The Food Project to help deliver fresh food to local communities in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Yasser Aponte

  • Yasser was in the Foundation Year program at Northeastern. The program was a rigorous deep dive into core subject classes that helped Yasser bridge the gap between the high school and college experiences.
  • Initially indecisive, Yasser’s interest in traveling and experience exploring different religious texts in high school led him to a double major in international affairs and religious studies.
  • Yasser took Issues in Cities and Suburbs with Professor Erin Graves in Fall 2018. As someone deeply invested in urban life, he found the course was an enlightening look at the problems endemic to cities.
  • Yasser’s first co-op was at the Boston Beer Company as a Program Operations and Event Assistant. He worked on inventory, public relations, directed brewery events, and maintained workspace organization.
  • Yasser went on a Dialogue of Civilizations to Europe in Summer 2019 and took Engineering Principles in Nature with Professor Sandra Shefelbine.
  • Yasser implemented and maintained community gardens all over Boston on deserted plots of land during his time as the Northeastern Campus Director for the campus’ United Nations Millennium Fellowship.
  • Yasser began working at the Food Project and at a farm in Dorchester, he maintained the farm, harvested crops, distributed produce through donations and food markets, and worked on overall logistics...

Benjamin Cooper Gould

  • Cooper’s dialogue, Challenges in Coastal Sustainability, and the course Ethics and Evolutionary games with Prof. Smead have been very impactful to him.
  • As part of a class with Prof. Kelting on harm and aid he was able to write and submit real anti-racist curriculum for pre-schools in Boston.
  • Cooper has been a PPE Peer Mentor, and he has also served as the PPE representative on the CSSH Student Advisory Council for three years.
  • Cooper spent much of the summer in 2019 in Hong Kong and Malaysia on dialogue, exploring challenges for coastal sustainability.
  • Cooper has had two co-ops, the first at Boston After School & Beyond, and the second at Dynasty Financial Partners, in New York City.
  • He has conducted independent research projects with the Marine Science Center, for which he received a grant, as well as in philosophy.
  • After graduation, Cooper is hoping to specialize in education justice, first by pursuing a Master’s in Education before teaching, and ultimately going into policy...