SIUE’s Rambsy to direct summer institute after NEH awards $106K

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded Southern Illinois University Edwardsville $106,002 to coordinate a summer institute for school teachers concentrating on an 1845 autobiography by Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave who went on to become a significant advocate for justice and civil rights.

Howard Rambsy II, PhD, professor in SIUE’s College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English Language and Literature, will serve as the director of the Frederick Douglass and Literary Crossroads Institute, which will take place in July 2019. Tisha Brooks, PhD, and Elizabeth Cali, PhD, both assistant professors in the Department of English Language and Literature, are resident lecturers for the project and co-wrote the grant with Rambsy. All three professors specialize in African American literary studies and regularly highlight Douglass in their courses.