Project Director

Jessica DeSpain is an Assistant Professor of American literature at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She studies nineteenth-century transatlantic reprinting and metaphors linking the body and text. DeSpain’s book Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Reprinting and the Embodied Book was published in 2014. She started researching the transatlantic reprint history of The Wide, Wide World in 2006 as part of her Center for the Book final project at the University of Iowa. Since moving the project to SIUE in 2008, DeSpain has been working with with a team of students each semester to complete the project.

Editorial Staff

Jill Anderson is an Associate Professor and the Program Director for secondary English Education in the Department of English Language and Literature at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Anderson’s research specializes in the American novel from the early republic to the antebellum period with an emphasis on transatlantic intertextuality and the female heroine.

Melissa White is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Skidmore College who  studies nineteenth-century American literature and textual studies. White is a Bibliographical Society student prizewinner for her book collection of The Wide, Wide World,which she subsequently donated to the University of Virginia’s special collections. White is an experienced editor of two digital projects and was a staff member and project manager for the pioneering Rossetti Archive from 2002-2005.

Jennifer Brady is a Lecturer in the Committee on Degrees in History and Literature at Harvard University and the Assistant Director of Studies in the America Field. She specializes in reader reception, book history, and the sentimental novel. She has written extensively about Warner’s fans and recently published a piece about this work in Commonplace.

Editorial Board

John Bryant is a full Professor at Hofstra University and the author of The Fluid Text, the theory of editorial practice that underpins the design of this project. Bryant is the primary investigator for a NEH Scholarly Editions Grant that is supporting the development of The Melville Electronic Library.

Julia Flanders is the Director of Northeastern University’s Women Writers Project (WWP), one of the most comprehensive digital collections of women’s writings available online, and an active member of the Text Encoding Initiative. Flanders is currently the primary investigator on an NEH Scholarly Editions Grant, Cultures of Reception, that puts women’s writing in the context of transatlantic reception history through the editing of reviews, letters, and journals.

Andrew Stauffer is a Professor at the University of Virginia, specializing in Romantic poetry. Stauffer is also the director of NINES a federated collection and peer-reviewing body for nineteenth-century digital humanities projects.

Current Project Team Members

Gabriel Borders
Summer 2015-Current

Elizabeth Korinke
Fall 2015-Current

Ben Ostermeier
Spring 2014-Current

Merissa Voyles
Summer 2016-Current

Melissa White
Summer 2016-Current

Past Project Team Members

Heather Asbeck
Spring 2014-Fall 2015

Carmen Connors
Spring 2014

Brianne Foster
Fall 2011-Spring 2012

Tiffany Fry
Spring 2014

Despina Hartley
Spring 2014

Brianne Harris
Fall 2012-Fall 2015

Kayla Hayes
Fall 2011-Spring 2013

Kiley Herndon
Spring 2014

Consuella Kelly
Fall 2011-Spring 2012

Christy Koester
Fall 2011-Spring 2013

Jessalyn Ludwig
Fall 2012-Spring 2013

Molly Marcum
Spring 2013-Spring 2014

Kristin Mefford
Fall 2013

Jennifer Roberts
Fall 2012-Summer 2015

Kelly Walsh
Fall 2010-Spring 2012

Kate Workman
Fall 2013-Spring 2015

Wendy Wyrostek
Fall 2010-Spring 2011