In the fall of 2023, I did an Honors Interdisciplinary Thesis. I created Lilith’s Shrine—a creative exercise exploring Lilith—and wrote a meta-analysis. This is the meta-analysis. It builds upon Persephone’s Garden, Brigid’s Labyrinth, and Lilith’s Shrine, three digital projects that combine the study of folklore, digital humanities, and gender. Each exhibit aims to immerse users into a unique learning experience and asks them to interact with ancient tales in distinctive ways.
A special thanks to my advisors Drs. Lawrence Evalyn and Lori Lefkovitz, for all of their help! Also much appreciation goes to Dr. Chris Gallagher for advising Brigid’s Labyrinth, and Kiki Samko, Miranda Outman, and Northeastern University’s WGSS department for guiding Persephone’s Garden.
See a plain version of this work here.
The Interdisciplinary Potential of Folklore, Digital Humanities, and Feminist Studies
An Analysis and Reflection on Persephone’s Garden, Brigid’s Labyrinth, and Lilith’s Shrine
Introduction
Persephone—Greek goddess of spring and queen of the underworld. Brigid—Celtic goddess and Christian saint. Lilith—Jewish midrash’s first woman. These female figures have consumed my mind for a year and a half. I have spent months unraveling and charting their presence in mythology and contemporary culture, leading me to discover the nuances in their particular histories. Their transformations in numerous mediums over time exemplifies their ability to adapt to modernity and persist in a contemporary world. I have used interdisciplinary approaches to examine these complex narratives in the hope that malleable and resilient multimodal methods facilitate the presentation of some of the richness of these characters.
The Honors Interdisciplinary Thesis (HIT) is a unique opportunity afforded to Northeastern University honors students interested in investigating a research topic that intersects multiple fields. The honors program has allowed me to determine the parameters of this thesis. I have taken advantage of this freedom and decided to use this assignment to not only construct a new digital exhibit (Lilith’s Shrine) but to explore two other substantial projects (Persephone’s Garden and Brigid’s Labyrinth) within the disciplines of focus.
My work is situated at the intersection of folklore, digital humanities, and women’s studies. My goal with each of these exhibits is to offer an academic alternative to the long-form essay and demonstrate the advantages of producing interactive research. I aim to present the reader—or maybe more appropriately, the user—with a multimodal experience to increase engagement. Each project surveys the complex and diverse potential of folklore and feminist studies and explores how digital humanities can facilitate a memorable experimentation with form. In this paper, I will describe each work and my intention and examine how the three digital projects were designed to be in conversation with one another. In addition, I will reflect on the newer research methodologies and technologies used and their ability to help us rethink these figures and their feminist potential. I argue that the blending of folklore, digital humanities, and women’s studies can lead to transgressive forms of research and artistic innovation that is immersive and provides users with a unique learning experience.
Persephone’s Garden
I have always had a fascination with retellings. As a kid, I quickly devoured fairy tales no matter the medium. I watched countless movies and read numerous books that engaged with narratives I knew by heart in imaginative ways. Folklore and fairytales are made to be retold. Their survival is dependent on their adaption and ability to assimilate to changing cultural climates. Cinderella could be a waitress (A Cinderella Story, 2004), popstar (Another Cinderella Story, 2008), and cyborg (Cinder, 2012). Little Red Riding Hood could appear in romantic horror films (Red Riding Hood, 2011) and the work of poet laureates (The World’s Wife, 1999). Fairytale and mythological figures achieved contemporary relevance through retellings, and I could not get enough.
In the fall of 2022, I accepted a co-op position at Northeastern’s WGSS (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) department as a program and editorial assistant. While working there, I had to complete a six-month independent research project and formally present my findings. I could select any topic as long as it related to feminism or queer studies. I knew this was my chance to dive deeply into feminist retellings and explore them however I wanted: unrestricted by form and free to be adventurous.
There were many characters I was fascinated by and considered making the centerpiece of my research, but none grabbed my curiosity and interest as much as Persephone. I was in the palm of her hand before the seed of this project entered my mind. I already knew of much of the material tied to the goddess and was eager for the chance to discover more. What was it about Persephone that had me and modern storytellers entranced? I was determined to find out.
The interdisciplinary nature of this piece was intentional. I wanted to engage with digital and physical materials and recognized that to do so, I would have to create a project that transcended the traditional written paper. I had lots of experience with the digital humanities through my work at the Women Writers Project, which made me feel confident in my ability to solve technical problems—or at least depend upon my mentors and peers to point me in the right direction.
Persephone’s Garden (https://jgraceo.github.io/pgarden.html) is a multimedia interactive exhibit that explores the Greek goddess of spring and queen of the underworld. Persephone is a goddess of liminal spaces, straddling life and death. Her annual journey to and from the underworld symbolizes the changing of the seasons. Persephone’s abduction is one of the most well-known Greek myths and is at the center of this work. This exhibit aims to capture a diverse range of discourse surrounding the goddess and her story.
Persephone’s Garden mimics a metro map and is tailored to users who want to navigate the underground like they would any other subway system. It is an imagined transportation service that can take one to a variety of destinations and sights. This piece was crafted so that anyone could explore the different threads of Persephone’s story at their own pace. Users can click on stops that interest them or venture through the entire exhibit. The route and itinerary are up to the viewer.
Persephone’s Garden attempts to employ a multitude of mediums often ignored in academic settings, particularly engaging with content produced online. There is an abundance of artifacts hosted in this piece: songs, children’s books, video essays, poems, art, novels, film, theater performances, academic texts, video games, and more. I have acted as curator and cartographer, inserting my interests and perspective into my retelling of Persephone’s story. My goal was to produce scholarship that exposed viewers to the benefits and possibilities of multimodal work.
This project explores a wide range of themes. It delves deep into the idea agency. It challenges the often antagonistic representation of Demeter in modern versions of the story. It ponders the definition of a feminist retelling and asks whose voices matter. It argues the harm in viewing the goddess’ story as one of perpetual victimhood. Persephone’s Garden not only pushes the boundaries of what a feminist retelling can look like but also shows what interdisciplinary feminist research can accomplish.
Brigid’s Labyrinth
In the spring of 2023, I was asked to undertake a new independent research project as part of my capstone class. The professor allowed us to follow our hearts, the only limitation being that it had to connect to the humanities. I immediately knew I wanted to continue my exploration of folklore, digital humanities, and feminism. I was uncertain who I would study and even debated diving deeper into Persephone’s story. Deciding to put my investigation of the Greek goddess on hold, I turned my focus to searching for a new figure. Top contenders included Morgan le Fey, Bloody Mary, and Lilith, but I eventually settled on the Celtic deity Brigid. I was invested in the feminist stories I heard about her and was curious about her existence in Pagan and Christian mythos.
The goal of this research was to continue exploring retellings and their feminist potential. My capstone was made to complement Persephone’s Garden and investigate similar overarching themes but with a specific examination of Brigid’s unique history. The quantity of retellings of Persephone’s story made Brigid’s absence more glaring. Brigid’s Pagan roots were claimed by the church, where she then transformed into Saint Brigid. Other versions of her exist in different cultural contexts. Brigid’s mythology is filled with feminist tales, and surprisingly, she does not take up space in our collective consciousness—especially in the field of women’s studies. Brigid deserved a reclaiming just like Persephone, but for distinct reasons and through different means. Using diverse resources and artifacts that engage with Brigid and her iterations, I aimed to create an exhibit that charted the goddesses’ history and identified her absences.
Brigid’s Labyrinth (https://jgraceo.github.io/brigid.html) is a choose-your-own-adventure text-based game. The user is inserted into a narrative and told to navigate a labyrinth that will teach them about the figure. Their surroundings are described, and they are given a prompt to help them decide where to go next. While there are no images, I wanted the player to feel like they had enough information to visualize where they were. The user is an agent in their learning and is asked to take an active role in picking the information they receive.
The player is tasked with reaching Brigid’s Healing Well. They are not told what the well is, only that they want to get to it, and that they will need to learn about Brigid before they get there. When researching Brigid, I realized that parts of her story seemed to have been ignored or misconstrued, and because of this, I knew I wanted the user to have choices that would affect what they would learn about her. They are given options at every turn, including the option to not play. The player is forced to make choices, sometimes granted the opportunity to retrace their steps, and other times lead to dead ends. Some passages are more limited or not as readily accessible as others. There are a few occasions where pathways will close if a player did not choose them first—this was implemented to represent instances where someone may have the intention to learn as much as possible, but even so, things slip through the cracks. Even diligent researchers miss things. Everyone has the chance to learn what most appeals to them. It seeks to place the user at the center of the learning process, allowing them to explore research in a unique and individualized way.
The user gets a score at the end of their journey detailing what type of adventurer they were that is calculated based on how many pages they got to. They are either given the label: A Speedy Journey, Cautious Explorer, or Enchanted by Brigid. This is accompanied by a description, so the user has a sense of where they fall on the spectrum. They are told their score before they reach the healing well, which asks them to reflect on their experience and what they have discovered about themselves as a learner.
While researching Brigid, I came to understand that to define her or ignore her ability to adapt and exist in multiple places simultaneously is to deny her agency. Choosing to see her as one thing and ignoring the rest would have been a disservice to her narrative existence. She is an amalgamation of many stories that exist in a range of contexts. We must tell every part of her story and put the confusion surrounding her at the forefront. We must not limit her by defining her, but that does not mean we should silence her and brush her aside because she is too complicated. My project does not capture everything about Brigid. There are pieces of her story not present, not because of my disinterest but because of the scope of the work. My goal with this piece was to challenge the user to think about the stories they value and why they value them, and to accomplish this, I choose a modality to represent this scholarship in a way that best served the figure I was trying to highlight.
Lilith’s Shrine
After completing Persephone’s Garden and Brigid’s Labyrinth, I actively sought research opportunities for students like me. I wanted the chance to create one more interdisciplinary digital project and perform a meta-analysis of my past work before graduating. The HIT was well suited to help me achieve this goal.
I immediately singled out Lilith, believing she would be a great figure to guide the first portion of this thesis. I had yet to explore a character from this type of mythology, only aware of her presence in the feminist movement. I also instantly acknowledged that I did not want to spend a majority of the exhibit informing the user of Lilith's history like I had in Brigid’s Labyrinth. That style was appropriate for what I wanted to say about the Celtic goddess, but it would not achieve what I needed it to with Lilith.
Lilith’s Shrine (https://jgraceo.github.io/lilith.html) is an interactive creative exercise that asks users to participate in the production of a new story about Lilith. The user is first told basic information about the figure and the tale involving her relationship with Adam and migration from the Garden of Eden. Participants are then asked to reflect on what they know about Lilith and to consider how she appears in their lives. They are prompted to write their own creative piece about her. The user is able to explore an interactive poem about the character where their responses from earlier make an appearance; this activity is meant to show how one’s perception of Lilith is entirely dependent on the storyteller. Additionally, Lilith’s Shrine includes the responses of other participants so that current users can see how others have engaged with Lilith. Each person is given the option to submit their writing, which is then displayed on my website. The exhibit closes out with a page of sources and artifacts that depict Lilith or themes tied to her.
Persephone’s Garden was about educating and presenting the viewer with a range of items to help them form their own understanding of Persephone and the discourse surrounding her story. Brigid’s Labyrinth asks the user to consider their agency in the learning process and accept the layered and complex existence of mythology. Lilith’s Shrine invites participants to create, reflect, and truly engage with the figure by prompting them to put their thoughts directly into the project. It places specific emphasis on the role of the author in characterization and utilizes the words of the user to exemplify this. It attempts to build a sense of community by presenting the meditations of past participants and continuously adding the work of the new. Here users are asked to consider their own agency as a storyteller. How can they contribute to the myth? What themes are meaningful to them? How can they add to the scholarship? I wanted viewers of the exhibit to feel like they were giving something valuable. They do not read the piece, write their thoughts, and walk away. Their words are recorded and read by others—if they choose. Their ideas do not exist in a vacuum but instead a communal space—which I believe is a feminist approach to research sharing. Lilith’s Shrine is here so that people can leave their mark and share their views, not so I can tell them what to think. This is something most traditional scholarship lacks. It is not something that would be possible without interdisciplinary methodology and production.
Research Process and Exhibit Creation
Each project followed a similar procedure. After deciding on a figure, I scoured libraries, databases, and the internet for materials. I spent most of my time collecting artifacts that helped me piece together who Persephone, Brigid, and Lilith were in a historical and modern context. I then synthesized all of these findings, drawing connections and generating a list of the main themes and points of tension. Developing an understanding of who these figures were and what their affiliated artifacts were saying about them was crucial in determining the best way to present their stories. I spent a week or two brainstorming the most effective way to communicate my research. Conveying something meaningful through modality was critical; therefore, selecting an exhibition style that represented the character was paramount. Exhibit creation took around a month and involved lots of user feedback. The presentation requirements were dependent upon the circumstance in which the work was produced.
Persephone Sets a Precedent
I had half a year to work on Persephone’s Garden and spent months gathering materials. I visited the Boston Public Library, met with specialists at my university, and surveyed Persephone’s prevalence on social media to get a sense of how people were discussing the goddess today. My exploration branched and tangled. Ideas intersected and became challenging to fully unpack without moving to an entirely new curiosity. This part of the research process is reflected in my final product. To help me amalgamate everything I had been learning, I generated a list of around fifty questions. This list allowed me to notice key themes and generalize what all of the artifacts were communicating about Persephone more broadly.
I struggled to select a way to present my findings. I was unfamiliar with a tool that would let me display images, videos, and texts while giving the user free reign to navigate the map. I considered building a website, but it seemed next to impossible given my lack of experience with HTML and the timeframe. I spoke to librarians, my co-workers at the WGSS department, and my supervisor at the Women Writers Project. After these discussions, I settled on a tool called H5P. It was not until around a month and a half before Persephone’s Garden was due that I discovered that H5P was not free and would likely not do everything I wanted. I scrambled for a new tool, briefly considering Story Map on Knight Lab, before settling on Prezi. I was not very happy with Prezi since I believed it would not feel professional, but it was the only application I felt could perform the necessary functions.
By the end of October, I had amassed a host of artifacts, laid out my findings, and picked a tool; all that was left was to write up the exhibit. It took around three weeks of intense work to construct all twenty-three stops. I had been planning the layout of the metro lines and the content they would include since September. When it came time to make clear distinctions between themes and topics, changes needed to be made. Stops need to be added, removed, merged, and separated. Every day I would look at my wall and debate whether a reorganization was in order. I worked on one stop at a time. I started by listing relevant materials and research; I would then synthesize the information.
Figure 5 (right): Planning for Persephone’s Garden metro map on October 26th, 2023
I received lots of valuable feedback from my coworkers and peers. We discussed everything from the aesthetics of the exhibits to its functionality. I altered the order of the lines and even added a slide that would point the user to the sections referenced at a given stop.
Brigid Offers a New Challenge
Researching Brigid was more challenging than investigating Persephone. Less information was available on the Celtic figure, and there was an apparent lack of retellings. I found a few short tales, but not many long form stories about the goddess. There was no single myth that defined her; instead there were bits and pieces that when examined together, allowed me to form a picture. Persephone had been a framed vivid painting while Brigid was a stained-glass window, each piece from a different craftsman with a unique perspective.
My preliminary research unveiled two intriguing stories. The first detailed a time when Brigid helped a young woman receive an abortion. The second claimed she invented the whistle so that women being sexually assaulted could quickly receive assistance. Unlike other fairytale characters, Brigid’s stories seemed to not only be refreshingly absent of misogyny, but overtly feminist. The more I learned about her, the more jarring the lack of modern retellings became. These tales were not as fleshed out and solid as Persephone’s abduction, but they offered authors the chance to generate meaningful feminist narratives. Why were people not trying to retell and highlight Brigid when the stories connected to her felt so relevant to contemporary audiences?
As I got further into my investigation, I discovered that many sources attempted to define and categorize Brigid. The more I learned, the more I understood that Brigid and her stories are not clear-cut. I got the sense that people were either intentionally or accidentally ignoring her multifaceted and ambiguous history. Writers would sometimes dismiss her Pagan roots in favor of her persona as a Christian saint or narrow her characteristics to fit their story. My goal for this project was to continue to push what a retelling could look like by presenting my research in an unconventional form. I spent a long time brainstorming what product or medium would be best suited for Brigid and her story. I started to play around with this idea of choice and what it means to make people cognizant of how they pick what to learn and what to ignore. This is where the idea of Brigid’s Labyrinth began to take shape.
By chance, I had been learning all about digital tools in a Digital Writing class during the same semester as my capstone. There, we were introduced to Twine—an application for interactive storytelling. I had no prior experience with the tool, so getting acquainted with it took some time. Similar to Persephone’s Garden, I sat down and drafted the different pathways, but it soon became clear that it would be much harder to plan than the metro map. I had a list of topics I knew I wanted to write about but had a difficult time visualizing their connection. When I got to the point where I felt the project was falling behind because of my inability to make these decisions, I just sat down and wrote. I eventually started to get my bearings, and the labyrinth began to take shape. I then had to decide which passages would be easily accessible and which knowledge I would make the user work for. I determined that information that was harder for me to obtain would be more challenging for the user to unlock.
I received feedback from my classmates in a mandatory peer review roundtable. I included a note with my draft mentioning specific things I wanted advice on and any information I needed to alert the reviewer of. I gained an invaluable perspective by hearing directly about the user experience. I got to test my scoring system and check for bugs. My use of only text was also affirmed; users felt that adding pictures and videos would pull them out of the exhibit.
Learning about the User Through Lilith
After initial research, I realized modern retellings of Lilith’s story were limited—similar to Brigid. I observed that many creators would use the name “Lilith” to evoke the mythological figure but would not necessarily attempt to retell or renew her narrative. I noticed that many works would use Lilith’s name to make the audience think of her connection to the feminist movement or her history as a baby eating demon. I acknowledged that there were a substantial number of narratives engaging with Lilith from fifty years ago, but focusing on those would have limited the mediums examined since most were poetry or short stories. I also wanted to differentiate my research; while retellings were vital to constructing an understanding of Lilith outside of Midrash, I did not want it to be the focal point of this work.
I knew that Lilith fell between Brigid and Persephone in terms of popularity; this was a point I wanted to take advantage of. What did people know about her? Which images or moments of her mythology stuck with people? Who was she to contemporary audiences? It was these questions that made me realize the need for an interactive and response generating component.
I recognized that I would first have to inform people of Lilith’s history and narrative. While many may have heard the name, I wanted to ensure they had a solid comprehension of who she was before I asked them to write about her. Having just used Twine for Brigid’s Labyrinth, I felt it would be well-suited for this project and created the main part of the exhibit using that tool. I created a short informative section on the figure to provide the appropriate quantity of detail. Using Google Forms, I then sent a survey to a few of my peers, asking them about their interactions with Lilith. Their responses were collected before the completion of the project since I wanted viewers of the exhibit to see what others had written. I had to integrate people’s submissions into digestible sections within the Twine file. I worked with my advisors and peers to create an interactive poem where the words submitted by the user would reappear. Both the composition and coding of the poem took a very long time.
Certain portions of the project had to be coded in Twine and on my website—such as the source page and user responses. This is because I wanted people who have previously entered Lilith’s Shrine to easily access these sections without having to click through the entire exhibit. I worked hard to learn HTML and design a website to serve as the landing page for my research. I plan to add all new user responses to my website (https://jgraceo.github.io/lilithresponses.html).
Evaluation of Digital Tools
I heavily debated which digital tools I would use for my projects. While I have experience with technology—and certain coding languages—I did not always feel prepared to tackle a new application.
The Multipurpose Use of Slide Shows
As previously mentioned, when working on Persephone’s Garden, I had to change tools at the last minute. I was begrudgingly relegated to using Prezi due to time constraints, but in the end, I think it was the right path. Prezi was extremely easy to use, and I quickly picked up its interface. There were not a lot of opportunities for customization, but it was more diverse than the other tools that I considered. After the completion of Persephone’s Garden, I seriously assessed hand-coding the exhibit into my website. While Prezi accomplished what I needed it to, it did not feel like a format that would be taken seriously. I ultimately decided against translating the piece directly onto my website since I knew that I wouldn’t be substantially changing any of its features. Additionally, once I realized that Prezi could be easily embedded into my website, I felt that my concern about having to send out a Prezi link to share the project was irrelevant.
Interactive Storytelling: A Perfect Platform for Engaging Users
Twine was a tool I knew I would have a difficult time mastering. Prezi was built for people who understood the basics of technology, whereas Twine depended upon a rudimentary understanding of code. Prezi’s user interface is meant to be as easy to interact with as Google Slides or Powerpoint while Twine involves writing code in two different syntaxes. I spent most of my time figuring out how to code using Twine’s specific syntax and how to integrate HTML when needed. It took hours to figure out how to make options disappear upon second viewing, and even changing the color of the text was time-consuming. I was constantly searching forums for answers; however, once I knew how to do a function it was easy to replicate. The creation process went much faster once I finished the first twenty percent of Brigid’s Labyrinth and understood all the mechanics I wanted to utilize.
When it came to using Twine for Lilith’s Shrine, I had a similar experience. Things I had done before were easy to implement, but this time, I was looking to perform more complex operations. I used Twine for very different reasons for both projects, which meant that while the learning curve was less severe the second time around, I did spend a similar amount of time trying to get Twine to perform how I wanted it to for both projects. Figuring out how to email submissions was especially difficult. I had to rely on the help of others with a much greater knowledge of both CSS and HTML to assist me in mimicking the email option present on other websites. While this was very challenging to figure out, one benefit of Twine is that it allows writers to download their creations as an HTML file. HTML files are adaptable and easily shareable. It took seconds to upload the Twine portions of Brigid’s Labyrinth and Lilith’s Shrine to my website.
Presenting the Work
Discussing these interdisciplinary projects comes with its own set of challenges. A majority of my analysis and critical thought is grounded in the exhibits themselves. I heavily considered every decision, from the background color to the project’s name. These thoughts are hard to convey in a formal presentation when I am operating off the assumption that not every audience member has interacted with the exhibit. It is hard to summarize over 10,000 words of content within the exhibits where the essential component is how the user interacts with the work—only 5,000 words in the case of Lilith’s Shrine. Much of the presentation ends up being an explanation of the research process and exhibit creation instead of a demonstration of the findings.
I formally presented Persephone’s Garden to my WGSS coworkers and other Northeastern University students and faculty. This type of presentation was one of the requirements of the project. I discussed my research for around thirty-five minutes before audience members took part in a Q&A. I was very invested in this portion of the presentation. I was ecstatic hearing people engage with my work in a deep and meaningful way. The questions and responses I received showed that people not only took my research seriously but cared about its continuation.
I later submitted Persephone’s Garden to an academic journal interested in sharing multimodal projects done by undergraduate students. My exhibit was not accepted, but I felt flattered that my coworkers believed in the piece enough to push me to submit it. While Persephone’s Garden did not make it into that journal, it was accepted into the selective 2023 Undergraduate Research Forum at Northeastern University.
Brigid’s Labyrinth involved a much less formal presentation. At the end of the semester, each member of my capstone class spoke about their project and received informal feedback. I explained the challenges of creating the exhibit and all the analysis I did behind the scenes. I was very happy to see how others had enjoyed my work.
The HIT does not require a formal presentation, but it asks its participants to display their work at the RISE Expo. I plan to submit a proposal for this fair and create a poster explaining my interdisciplinary research this upcoming spring (2024).
Takeaways and Areas to Keep Exploring
Persephone’s Garden was invaluable in helping me understand the significance of challenging form. I had never had the opportunity to explore a topic where the final product was not in some way restricted or dictated to me. My passion for this project fueled my interest in learning HTML and prompted me to make a website where my work could be displayed. This piece made me think more about the user experience. After this exhibit, I wanted to explore different tools that let me have more control over the user’s journey. This piece was made based on my creative whims, but I began to realize—based on feedback—I had built a memorable encounter for viewers, and I wanted to delve into this aspect.
Brigid’s Labyrinth let me focus more on user interaction, but at the expense of other important components. One of my biggest concerns regarding Brigid’s Labyrinth was its lack of analysis. The feminist critique was unavoidable in Persephone’s Garden in a way I don’t think is true of my project on Brigid. The critical thinking was directed toward the design and structure. Most of the exhibit is about providing the user with information on the figure—there isn’t much analysis present. While I considered the feminist implications of Brigid’s stories—which of course affected how I formatted the work—it is not something I talked the user through explicitly.
After finishing Brigid’s Labyrinth, there were still things I wanted to improve. I wanted to do more investigation into how users interacted with the exhibit. How willing were people to take risks? How many people decided to replay the game? What were people drawn to? These are the kinds of questions I would still like to explore. I didn’t have the capability to see this information at the moment, but I hope to find a way to get that data and then really unpack what it tells us about how people learn.
Brigid’s Labyrinth made me interested in collecting qualitative data and field research. I wanted to chart how people responded to the information I presented to them. I also became interested in how exhibits like these can be a learning tool. All of these elements are represented in Lilith’s Shrine. I was motivated to gather responses from my peers and frame the exhibit so the user’s thoughts were a necessary component. Figuring out how to provide the user the ability to email me their writing was hard, but it means I can see the interactions between participants and my work. If I eventually start receiving a high volume of emails, the process of manually adding replies to the website will need to be altered to something more scalable—I don’t currently see this as being a problem. I eagerly await the publication of Lilith’s Shrine and the responses it will generate.
It was recently recommended to me that these exhibits would benefit from an integration of all three project styles. I couldn’t agree more. Giving Persephone’s Garden, Brigid’s Labyrinth, and Lilith’s Shrine the chance to include informative, investigatory, and creative sections would certainly enhance the experience. Doing this would allow the user to learn, play, and create with each figure. These additions would take an immense amount of time to execute but are something I will be considering for the future of this research.
Conclusion
These three projects exemplify how folklore, digital humanities, and gender studies are well-suited to be explored together. Feminist studies predominantly address and confront systems of oppression, and digital humanities is uniquely situated to highlight the voices silenced by these systems. This type of interdisciplinary scholarship is transgressive and resistant to the gatekeeping of knowledge by higher institutions. The internet has enabled non-academics to enter and contribute to discourse, which is especially significant to consider when researching a genre like folklore as it is dependent on utilization by everyday people. Your thoughts on the relationship between Hades and Persephone can be uploaded to YouTube. Your intricate drawing of Brigid can be posted to Instagram. Your poetry praising Lilith’s feminist history can be shared on Tumblr. These myths have been passed down over hundreds of years, and now because of modern technology, we have a way to observe and consider their individualized effects. The contemporary study of folklore does not make sense without the inclusion or reference to the digital. Songs, movies, and video essays are all mediums that heavily engage mythology and are best discussed when their content is easily accessible to the viewer. These exhibits allow me to share digital artifacts and include visual components absent in physical papers. These pieces grant participants the opportunity to interact with these stories in a unique and deeply personal way while also acknowledging that modern investigations of these figures should not be limited to published literature.
My scholarship aims to highlight the user’s agency in not only interpreting these narratives but also in adding to them. Producing interactive research increases the likelihood that the content will have an impact on both the creator and the user. Being an active participant in a scholar’s work allows for more meaningful interactions. I believe that so many people are enthusiastic about my work because each of their experiences is singular but also collaboratively created. These projects require a user, and the user requires the exhibit to go on the journey. My involvement in feminist and queer studies has certainly encouraged me to integrate this approach. I do not consider myself the arbiter of these stories; these tales cannot be defined, and the inclusion and utilization of these particular digital spaces are meant to convey that. Persephone, Brigid, and Lilith cannot survive if people do not retell their stories. The interdisciplinary study and presentation of their narratives is how we fairly assess their histories and help them maintain modern relevance.