Clark State Community College assistant professor of English literature and composition Tabitha Parker has been accepted into the elite Scholars Program for the University of Kansas' Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP).
BBIP is a collaborative research project that seeks to increase the number of black-authored texts in the study of digital humanities. It is a digital initiative developed by the Project on the History of Black Writing, based in the English Department at the University of Kansas. The project works to diversify the digital humanities and public literacy programming by digitizing mostly understudied African American novels while using a metadata schema that helps ensure these novels remain in the cannon of present day and future literary studies. BBIP is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).
“My goals for this work include research, teaching and publication,” said Parker. “This project provides access to largely understudied works by various authors of color. This, alone, creates a more comprehensive foundation to my own knowledge of African American literature, and, in turn, I have more resources to bring into my classrooms, as well.”
Parker said more of these past works are being digitized and made accessible, thus providing scholars with more voices from which to learn. “This allows readers to better witness the voices that inspired more of the well-known greats, such as Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr. or even the local Paul Laurence Dunbar,” she said. “Then, ultimately, these voices push current research projects into new places with new discoveries.”
To date, BBIP has digitized 1,600 mostly understudied African American novels, out of nearly 4,000 identified texts; upon completion of their archive, BBIP will be the largest archive of African American novels in existence with broad access for research and teaching.
Parker said while she teaches various genres of literature, her primary focus has always been African American literature. “My background includes graduate work in this literary cannon, as well as curriculum development and presentations/conferences on not only the importance of African American literature but how this history/literature has helped shape our present society.”
Fall semester of 2020, Parker will be teaching a section of ENG 2300: Great Books that will focus solely on African and African American voices. Parker said this course will highlight the depth of African American literature with its parallel to identity, strength in self and rise above oppression. “The beauty of these lessons, however, is that they apply to any person, regardless of background, and they ultimately serve to strengthen a person’s existing voice and power of self,” said Parker.
Parker said everything read in her Clark State course is brought to life by paralleling it to present day society, studying its current place in the world and then comparing that to “our own” place in the world, and working to bring literature to life as authentically as possible. Parker encourages high levels of engagement and activity in her class.
“We must know our history to understand our present,” said Parker. “African American literature is vital because it teaches the history of our country, and this is a history that belongs to all of us. This is also a history that teaches why many of our country’s schools are still largely segregated, why many children of color are succeeding at a lower rate than their white counterparts, and why the wealth gap between races is still largely divided.”
Parker has been a leader creating curriculum for African American literature courses at the collegiate level and regularly presents on topics of current cultural issues, particularly that of how the history of slavery in the U.S. continues to shape present day society. She was co-creator of the grant-funded DIVE program, which worked to promote diversity and inclusion for students seeking employment and mentorship within the Bay County area. Additionally, in 2016 she was co-winner of the Association of Florida College’s Equity Commission Best Practices for Diversity and Inclusion Studies, in regard to her work both inside and outside of the classroom.
“Studying African American literature is to study what it means to be human on various levels,” she said. “And it is the most important lesson one can learn.”