CLCS Awards in the Public Humanities 2022/2023 Cohort: Nat McGartland & Shannon Neal

Hyattsville Teens + Book Arts

Project Description:

Our hands-on public humanities project will bring Book Arts education to the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System. The bi-weekly workshops will join the Teens Create series at the Hyattsville Branch this Spring. By bringing tools, materials, and touchable examples to our workshops, we aim to make Book Arts accessible following the CAARES principles of equity and equal access. Workshops will include: letterpress printing, book binding, paper making, creating bookmarks and postcards, and engaging with reading and writing through experimental poetry. These workshops aim to build leadership skills, creative confidence, artistic skills, and engagement with the humanities outside of a test-based environment.

Bios:

Nat McGartland is a PhD candidate in English working in digital studies and the history of the book. She is particularly interested in the affordances of technology—both print and digital media—and our affective responses to its material and visual properties. As a BookLab Graduate Assistant, Nat works on critical making and craft activism. Her protest art has been featured in the New York Times, Reuters, Politico, and more. As an instructor, she teaches introductory writing, media studies, and digital humanities. Nat is also the chair of the Graduate English Organization (GEO).

Shannon Neal explores affect and trauma in global modernist literatures, with an eye to gender and sexuality, visual arts and culture, and the reverberations of imperialism. Prior to entering the Masters in English literature program at the University of Maryland, they worked in the field of public humanities in archives, libraries, and museums. They earned a BA in English from Washington College and are a current Poetry Screener for Cherry Tree: A National Literary Journal @ Washington College.