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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 (Ph.D. ’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:

Related Schools & Departments

Related Research Centers

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

Urbashee Paul

  • Motivated by the struggles of her upbringing, Urbashee pursued economics as her field of study as an undergraduate at Boston University.
  • Before coming to Northeastern, Urbashee worked at a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., and obtained a master’s degree in economics at the George Washington University.
  • With the guidance of Prof. Alicia Modestino, Urbashee is analyzing the impact of private and public summer jobs programs on students’ academic and future employment outcomes.
  • Specifically, Urbashee is investigating whether students placed in private, as opposed to public, sector summer jobs are likely to have better employment outcomes.
  • Urbashee was recently awarded a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation, enabling her to participate in research training and purchase datasets for her dissertation.
  • Urbashee's goal is to become an economist who studies and finds viable solutions to the deepening issues of poverty and inequality plaguing the youth in America.
  • In July, Urbashee's first co-authored economics working paper "Politicians Avoid Tax Increases Around Elections", was posted on SSRN...

Charles Lesh

  • Explored fields and methods of study he had not previously encountered through classroom experiences, engagement with faculty mentors, and research across the university.
  • Had an “a-ha!” moment for his dissertation topic after writing about graffiti writing and neoliberal space for Prof. Gallagher’s Globalization & the Geopolitics of Writing class.
  • Supported students and engaged in professional development as a Writing Center consultant and First-Year Writing instructor.
  • Served as a graduate fellow for the Center of Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research (CATLR), where he conducted a university-wide assessment of the co-op program.
  • With the help of Prof. Neal Lerner, Charles conducted assessment studies across the entire Writing Program while serving as the program’s Assistant Director.
  • Developed the term “GeoEthnography” for his dissertation to look at the way Boston graffiti writers make, and remake, social and public space through their rhetorical work.
  • Conferenced with Prof. Poe and Prof. Gallagher to develop a seminar paper into an article for publication in a flagship journal of Rhetoric and Composition...

Aja Watkins

  • Took Ethics and Evolutionary Games with Prof. Smead on theories regarding the evolution of particular behaviors.
  • Became a TA for Introduction to Logic, giving Aja a chance to hone her logic skills, and become more familiar with pedagogy and course prep.
  • Took Ecological Economics with Prof. Mattias Ruth which tied economics, physics, & biology together – another instance of interdisciplinary approaches.
  • Participated in a Dialogue of Civilizations focused on the Turkish migrant populations in Berlin & the particular social & economic challenges.
  • Completed the capstone course Intro to Mathematical Methods & Modeling with Prof. Solomon Jekel, & explored various applications of differential equations models.
  • Capped off her time at NEU with an Honors Interdisciplinary Thesis, using agent-based model to simulate & analyze school choice policies.
  • Aja is now pursuing a PhD in philosophy at Boston University...

Martin Narciso

  • Martin’s first co-op was with the Drug Enforcement Agency in Watertown, MA, assisting in drug-related organized crime investigations.
  • For his second co-op, Martin joined Boston Private Bank & Trust Co to combat money laundering and fraud.
  • Martin’s Capstone Project evaluated police program implementation to reduce biased crime against the LGTBQ community.
  • Martin valued the class Policing in a Democratic Society for connecting coursework with his law enforcement experience.
  • Martin held several leadership roles with the Filipino student association NU Barkada, which translates to “group of friends.”
  • Martin and the Huskies Environmental Action Team (HEAT) organized a proposal to reform on-campus composting behaviors.
  • After graduation, Martin plans to work with federal law enforcement to continue fulfilling his dream of helping others by preventing crime...