Projects

María Ángeles Fernández Cifuentes, associate professor of Spanish

“Accessible Classics” is a student collaborative project that aims at making classic literary and educational texts accessible to people with reading difficulties. The project relies on the premise that access to reading is a universal right and that inclusive education can erode the borders that segregate communities and individuals.

The project launched with bilingual adaptations of Spanish literary texts (Don Quixote --an abridged version--, The Lay of the Cid, and Lazarillo de Tormes), which follow both the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) guidelines and the Inclusion Europe Standards. The multimodal format of the project, which combines images, texts, audio, and video, acknowledges the plurality of literacies and its vital role in promoting inclusiveness. Besides employing traditional methods such as “close reading”, students work on the adaptations with the aid of computational text analysis, data visualization, and stylometry.

Clayton McCarl, professor of Spanish and digital humanities

coloniaLab is a workshop for the collaborative digital edition of texts related to early Latin America. Since 2016, the project has engaged over 100 students in the transcription and TEI-XML encoding of manuscripts and rare print materials from the colonial period and nineteenth century. coloniaLab's work is divided into three main series, focusing on documents related to the history of Africans and their descendants in the Antioquia region of present-day Colombia, the Second Spanish Period (1783-1821) in Spanish Florida, and piracy on the coasts of Chile in the late seventeenth century. 

Clayton McCarl, professor of Spanish and digital humanities

Editing the Eartha M.M. White Collection is a project that engages UNF students, faculty and staff as archival researchers and digital editors. The project is centered on the electronic edition of personal correspondence and other documents, held in Special Collections at UNF's Thomas G. Carpenter Library, related to Eartha M. M. White (1876–1974), founder of the Clara White Mission and a leader of Jacksonville’s African American community. 

Constanza López Baquero, professor of Spanish

Embroidering for Peace and Memory is an annual event that takes place in March at UNF to commemorate Women's History Month. UNF students, faculty and staff from across campus gather to embroider on pieces of white cloth messages of peace and the stories of people around the world who have endured the violation of their rights. The Embroidering for Peace and Memory Digital Archive makes a selection of the embroidery produced in this project available online. The archive includes digital images, notes about the personal stories behind the embroidery, and metadata that makes the materials searchable and sortable by predefined categories. 

Andrea Adhara Gaytan Cuesta, assistant professor of Spanish and English

The term glitch, according to Rosa Menkmann, refers to “states of aggression, unaccepted sounds, disturbances.” As Menkmann explains, glitches “[a]re not a message, they don’t define, but, as silences, they can be used to re(define) its opposite, they exist as a regenerative device” (2010). Undesirable and inconvenient, the glitch allows the machine to do a performative act in the work of art, by showing its own imperfections. 

In Latin America, from the late 1990s until now, we have participated in what Mónica Delgado calls a “culture of glitch.” Most of our film consumption, she argues, from Argentina to Mexico, has been through an informal market that began with pirated Betamax and VHS videos, then copies of black-market DVDs, and most recently, illegal downloads of movies as digital files. 

During this time, the glitch has evolved from being an unintentional imperfection to be both an aesthetic concept and a deliberate technique that allows creators of experimental movies and short documentaries to playfully manipulate film for rhetorical purposes, usually as a form of social and political critique. The ludic character of these visual creations centers the filmmaking process itself and reclaims inferior production values as an essential part of the final product. Some of these shorts reinterpret classical films, like Sergio Pinedo’s Volivia,  (2014, https://vimeo.com/105923299), or the work of the Peruvian Illich Castillo in Qué tan lejos está el triunfo de la voluntad (https://vimeo.com/45901553). Other experimental filmmakers appropriate, combine, and alter material from YouTube, such as the Venezuelan short Se los bailan a todos/ Follow your leader  (2014, https://vimeo.com/100649085) by The Dataïsts, Maggy Almao and Antoine Marroncles, which parodies world leaders through manipulated footage of them dancing. The recovery and reinvention of Indigenous cultural tradition is also of interest of some filmmakers, as evidenced, for instance, by Oscar Nodal’s short Codex Remix (https://www.oscarnodal.com/works), a short film that uses pop culture elements to engage with and reinterpret the Codex Fejervary Mayer, a rare pre-Hispanic pictorial manuscript.

Josh Gellers, professor of political science and dean, Professional and Lifelong Learning

Enviro Rights Map is a dynamic, Google Maps-based resource that catalogs environmental rights throughout the world. The website was conceived as a means of democratizing information about environmental rights through a user-friendly, visually engaging format. It provides users with historical and current information regarding the prevalence of environmental rights and statements of public policy in national constitutions, and it is freely available for students, scholars, and the general public. Subsequent changes to environmental rights provisions and questions regarding the justiciability of these provisions are addressed in brief comments on country pages where appropriate. The project was developed by Josh Gellers at the University of North Florida, in partnership with Widener University Delaware Law School. Data for this website were compiled from the Comparative Constitutions Project, HeinOnline’s World Constitutions Illustrated, Global Environmental Constitutionalism by James R. May and Erin Daly, and The Environmental Rights Revolution by David Boyd. Research assistance was provided by students at UC Irvine (Sarah Entezari, Ioana Raducu, and Rehan Vaid), and Delaware Law School (Katharina Earle and Tyler Wilk).

Denise I. Bossy, professor of history
Keith Ashley, associate professor of anthropology

"Heca Utimile (Our Land)" is a project that aims to decolonialize local Indigenous history and tackle pervasive myths that position the Mocama (local Timucuas), Guale, and Yamasee peoples as irrelevant to local history, or merely the prequel to the real story. 

Student have developed DH modules in five major chronological/thematic groups that collectively offer a rich overview of the deep Indigenous history of our region from 10,000 years ago to the mid-seventeenth century. Additional modules will examine local Indigenous history from the 1660s-1702 (when the Yamasees and then Guales moved into our region), Indigenous survival after 1702 (when refugees of a massive assault emigrated out of our area), and the local Mocama community of Sarabay. The research and emerging scholarship are being converted to a public, digital audience through digital mapping and story-telling, including the creation of an alternative Indigenous walking tour of Fort Caroline.

Anne Pfister, associate professor of anthropology
Susie Mabry, international studies major (2025)
Quinnlan Nordheim, interdisciplinary studies major (2023)
Alexandria Kledzik, sociology major (2023)
Isabella Adeeb, communications major (2026)
McKenzie Neulinger, anthropology/biology major
Constanza López Baquero, professor of Spanish
Andrea Gaytán-Cuesta, assistant professor of Spanish

Nocheztli: La Grana Cochinilla (in production) explores intimate contemporary human interactions with cochineal, a scale insect first domesticated in Mexico as early as 2000 BCE and long commodified for the red dye it naturally produces. We follow individuals and families in Oaxaca, Mexico working with cochineal at various stages. We begin with production and harvest, see cochineal dye used in modern art and artisanal trade, and meet families and researchers revitalizing cochineal as a cultural and economic resource. Our film challenges assumptions about human orientations to insects and showcases how culturally-specific traditions are not seamlessly inherited but dynamic and contextual as knowledge endures periods of loss, reinterpretation, and reinvention.

Clayton McCarl, professor of Spanish and digital humanities

The North Florida Editorial Workshop engages students in the transcription and digital publishing of archival materials related to the history of the region. NFEW teaches students the theory and practice of digital textual editing, a scholarly process that challenges participants to think critically about written materials, analyze how we construct narratives, develop research skills, and play an active role in the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage material. 

María Ángeles Fernández Cifuentes, associate professor of Spanish
Johana Barrero, associate instructor of Spanish

The OER-Immersive Multimedia Materials Project project aims at the design and development of Open Educational Resources (OER) in the classroom as a model to integrate community-based learning and undergraduate research in lower and upper-level courses of the Spanish Program at UNF. It specifically involves the design of immersive educational materials with a focus on Virtual Reality and reading accessibility. The adaptability of digital technology becomes a key element of our project within the context of the emergence of new learning modalities that place accessibility at the center stage of educational innovation. This project is associated with “Accessible Classics: Digital Adaptations for People with Reading Difficulties”.

Anne Pfister, associate professor of anthropology

Observations through Photovoice is a semester-long project for Introduction to Anthropology students, piloted in 2015. Using photovoice, an ethnographic field method, UNF undergraduate students demonstrate their understanding of central themes in anthropology (socialization, for example) by taking digital photographs that capture cultural phenomena in their social worlds. Throughout the semester, students capture, classify, and contextualize images, they survey their fellow classmates’ photos, and add to their collections as they learn new anthropological concepts. Students demonstrate their understanding of basic, and increasingly-complex, anthropological concepts while simultaneously experimenting with contemporary qualitative research methodology.T his pedagogical strategy was adapted from Pfister’s ethnographic fieldwork with deaf youth participants and their families in Mexico City, Mexico.

Anne Pfister, associate professor of anthropology
Susie Mabry, international studies major (2025)
Alexandria Kledzik, sociology major (2023)

Papernest Media (PN) is an interdisciplinary multimedia project. The name Papernest is inspired by the nests Oaxacan paper wasps construct to house their colonies. We conceive of our website as a metaphorical “home” for media, ideas, and research exploring human-insect interactions and insect commodification, mostly in Oaxaca, Mexico. Our website experiments with the iterative processes of ethnographic research, documentary filmmaking, and multimedia field notes by using multimodal approaches to generate questions about anthropological phenomena. We suggest multimedia shifts the directionality of anthropological investigation by expanding the purview of what kinds of questions are asked and for diversifying opportunities for who asks these questions.

Chris Baynard, associate professor of geography and GIS
Felicia Bevel, assistant professor of history
Michael Boyles, coordinator of graphic design, Center for Instruction and Research Technology
Gordon Rakita, professor and chair, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
David Sheffler, associate professor and chair, Department of History

In cooperation with the Okefenokee Heritage Center and the African American History Committee, the Red Hill Cemetery Project seeks to document the oldest African American Cemetery in Waycross, Georgia. The cemetery is the site of several thousand burials dating from the nineteenth century. Early plat maps and oral traditions suggest that the cemetery predates the abolition of slavery. In the early twentieth century, pastors from the five major African American churches in Waycross signed a deed agreeing to share in the ownership and maintenance of the property. The last burial in Red Hill Cemetery occurred in the early 1960s. Over the last half century, the site has suffered from neglect, intentional vandalism, and aborted efforts at redevelopment, leaving the nearly six-acre parcel overgrown with brush and pines and marked by open graves and toppled monuments.

Clayton McCarl, professor of Spanish and digital humanities
Damiana Leyva Loría, community partner

Tierra was published in Yucatán by the Socialist Party of Southeast Mexico, beginning in 1918. The publication started as a daily newspaper, but following the election in 1922 of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Mexico's first democratically chosen socialist governor, Tierra was converted to a weekly magazine. Each issue sought to advance the agenda of Carrillo Puerto's government, which included the restoration of communal lands to rural communities, women's rights, education, and the elevation of the region's Indigenous past. Starting on May 1, 1923, thirty-three weekly issues were published prior to the assassination of Carrillo Puerto in January 1924.

Revista Tierra presents all the 1923 issues, with complete document images and an index of the recurring sections and the names of authors. Erin Garry (Spanish, 2024) and Peri Manwell (Spanish/art history, 2024) served as associate editors during the initial phases of the project. Over thirty other UNF students have contributed through transcription, TEI-XML markup, and the creation of Dublin Core metadata on the project’s Omeka website.

Andrea Adhara Gaytan Cuesta, assistant professor of Spanish and English
Constanza López Baquero, professor of Spanish

Shared Lines/Líneas Compartidas will be a vibrant, multilingual, and interactive digital archive dedicated to showcasing poetry from around the world. Derived from the work and archive done for 10 years at UNF’s International Poetry Festival of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, this project intends to bring together international poets, student voices, poetry clubs, and social media content, providing a dynamic space for collaboration and engagement. The archive will empower poets to share their works, participate in global conversations, and interact with a wider audience. Through a variety of features like international poetry festival recordings, conferences, workshops, student poetry submissions, and social media integration, "Shared Lines/Líneas Compartidas" will amplify voices and celebrate the universal art of poetry.

Leslie Kaplan, director, Hicks Honors College
Jack Davis (2021, BA, psychology; 2023 MS, Clinical Mental Health Counseling)

A "ghost" is a remnant of a prior usage of a space on campus. For instance, the Allen Lastinger Center for Florida History in the library used to be the library entrance, and the glass wall is a ghost that marks that change. UNF Ghost Tour invites students to explore the campus and the archives and document the history of the campus. Students in the Honors Ghost Tour class have produced a variety of projects that are housed on the Carpenter Library archives web page in addition to the Ghost Tour interactive map.

Andrea Adhara Gaytan Cuesta, assistant professor of Spanish and English
Constanza López Baquero, professor of Spanish

UNF Latinx is a collection of podcasts produced by students in the classes of Dr. Constanza López Baquero and Dr. Andrea Gaytán Cuesta.

In recent years, podcasts have become an important tool for higher education. This technology is especially valuable for Latinx students who wish to research and showcase their culture and document their experiences as Latinx in the United States. Podcasting offers these students the opportunity to be part of a wide-ranging knowledge of production, where they use critical thinking to analyze cultural differences from a variety of perspectives and prepare for the future by using digital media. Furthermore, these projects are collaborative, and require them to debate educational, social, and ethical issues in Latinx communities in the U.S. and in their countries of origin.

David Sheffler, associate professor and chair, Department of History
Chris Baynard, associate professor of geography and geospatial technologies
Michael Boyles, coordinator of graphic design, Center for Instruction and Research Technology
Ron Lukens-Bull, professor of anthropology and religious studies

The University of North Florida Pilgrimage Project combines interdisciplinary approaches with digital and STEM technologies and applies them to the study of pilgrimage. Broadly defined, pilgrimage encompasses the flow of people, ideas, technology and trade along a sacred or spiritual route. It also includes the range of meanings pilgrims and communities attach to pilgrimage practices. This project, which focuses on the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, grew out of a 2015 study abroad trip led by the Department of History and the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work. A subsequent trip in 2017 contributed additional materials including, soundscapes, images, landscape readings, 360° photographs, mapping projects, and interviews.

As this field-work/digital project moves forward, we will continue to conduct and record interviews to gain insights into contemporary pilgrimage practices and utilize GIS techniques to examine the economic, environmental, and spatial dimensions of pilgrimage. Future initiatives will include explorations of the business of pilgrimage with special focus on sustainability.

Publication through the Digital Humanities Initiative contributes to a more thorough and multidisciplinary understanding of the phenomenon of pilgrimage and encourages participation across disciplines and colleges. At the same time, by producing and disseminating new knowledge, students develop valuable research and technological skills essential for academic and career success. This is particularly important in contemporary workplaces that value both creativity and technological knowhow.

Laura Heffernan, professor of English
Tru Leverette Hall, professor and chair, Department of English
Clayton McCarl, professor of Spanish and Digital Humanities

The Viola Muse Digital Edition (VMDE) presents the notes and draft narratives of Viola B. Muse (1898-1981), who worked from 1936 through 1939 as an interviewer and writer in the Negro Writers Unit of the Florida Federal Writers Project in Jacksonville, Florida. Muse and the other writers in the Negro Writers Unit, including Zora Neale Hurston, attempted to document the achievements and folkways of African American communities in Florida, and in Jacksonville specifically. 

Constanza López Baquero, professor of Spanish

Voces y Caras: Latinx Communities of North Florida has grown from a series of interviews performed by students in the course SPN3351 Communication and Communities for Heritage Speakers of Spanish. These interviews focus on the rapidly growing Hispanic community of North Florida, which – as this project makes evident – is very diverse. The interviewees come from, or have connections to Spanish-speaking countries in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. They occupy different roles in our community; some are doctors, business executives, teachers, police officers, undocumented migrants, students, parents, etc. Some have been here for many years, and others came recently. Some escaped political repression and violence in their own countries, others came looking for a better future, and some came following their loved ones. They all represent a happy, vibrant, family-oriented, hard-working community whose members strive to achieve their goals and dreams. They have assimilated to American society while maintaining a strong cultural identity. This endeavor started in the spring semester of 2012, and has continued until the present time becoming an annual event.

Tru Leverette Hall, professor and chair, Department of English
Maureen McCluskey, instructor of English
Kailan Sindelar, assistant professor of technical writing

In collaboration with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and St. Johns Riverkeeper (SJR), Water Stories: A River Harvest is an oral history study and a theatrical production and digital program on the environmental and communal history of Jacksonville, Florida’s Ribault River/Moncrief Creek corridor. The river connects multiple African American neighborhoods of historical significance undergoing revitalization and environmental remediation. The project’s goal is to document, preserve, and augment community assets—economic, residential, environmental, communal—in this area of local historical significance: it contains the largest concentration of African American cemeteries in the state and is home to a large concentration of Black military veteran gravesites; it is the home of early 20th century African American philanthropist Eartha MM White and her farm that still supplies food to the Clara White Mission. It has also been the site of environmental degradation—having been the location of two superfund sites and having the largest concentration of septic systems in Duval County, further polluting the river.