NEH Distinguished Teaching Professors

Deborah Parker
Project Summary (2008-2011)

Teaching the Divine Comedy with Digital Resources Across the Humanities Curriculum

During the next three years I will be overseeing a number of activities related to The World of Dante.

• Assess the effectiveness of the teaching materials on the site in conjunction with a group teachers working in different disciplines.
• Assess ways in which visual material enhances reading comprehension.
• Incorporate the teaching resources on the site and assess their effectiveness in three different courses.
• Create materials to clarify the astronomical allusions in the Comedy.
• Organize a workshop at the end of the grant period.

During the first year I would coordinate with the teachers who have agreed to use the site and its online teaching materials. This twelve person group includes literature and specialists, historians, an art historian, a Religious Studies scholar, and high school teachers.  Teaching materials will be assembled on a Collab site that will allow for sharing and feedback.  During the three-year period I will team teach a new course with a historian, Dante’s Florence in addition to offering regular courses on the Inferno and Purgatory. The use of the site in three courses, one team-taught and interdisciplinary, will furnish illuminating comparative information about how students in different disciplines employ the site’s components. A combination of student narratives and in-depth exit interviews will provide illuminating data on the efficacy of this pedagogic initiative. These initiatives will allow us to assess the impact of visual material on reading and critical thinking skills. During the second year I will work with two astronomers to develop digital material that will clarify Dante’s astronomical references. At the end of the fellowship I will convene a workshop to present the results of these various collaborative endeavors. The combination of activities I have outlined will allow us to refine the use of digital resources in the humanities curriculum and assess their effect on critical thinking and reading skills.