Public Humanities at Dartmouth College
HomeWorksLearning from 19th century women about the richness of “Staying at Home.“
Our Project
Imagine if Stay-At-Home were not a temporary order but a way of life, as it was for many women during the nineteenth century. How did women writers rise to the challenges of domesticity as a feminine ideal, experiencing home as a site of constraint as well as opportunity, in an artistic as well as personal sense?
We believe
Women writers from the past newly speak to a broad audience in the present moment, now that millions of people have been under stay-at-home orders and have experienced, in highly gendered and racialized ways, the restructuring of the workforce, the economy, and the political landscape.
WE WILL EXPLORE
What do the lives of 19th century women writers teach us not only about stay-at-home orders, but also about women’s labor during times of crisis? And, what can we, the Pandemic generations of 2020, learn from these women?
FREE Curricula
Our aim is to engage students in local public and private middle schools, college students, and senior citizens. (And also the curious web surfer.) We provide free curricula, projects ideas and resources. Please join us!
M0re about “HomeWorks”
Core Questions
The HomeWorks Collective
Our Four Teaching Modules
Diverging Domesticities
"What is home? How does our view change when we listen to voices from diverse backgrounds?"
Pictured: Emily Dickinson's The Homestead
Art and the House Beautiful: the Victorian Poet Michael Field
"How do women writers use the home as a site of political and artistic expression?"
Pictured: Michael Field's Paragon House
Writing Home
"How do home and crisis intersect in Civil War Literature?"
Pictured: Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Victorian Mothers and Children at Home
"How do women writers and photographers represent domesticity as an alternative to adventure?"
Pictured: Green Gables Heritage Place which served as the setting for the Anne of the Green Gables novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery
