Quill Project receives funding to expand research in Constitution Writing in the American West

NEWS |

Based at Pembroke, the Quill Project is a research group that has developed digital tools to enable the study of complex negotiated texts.  In recent months, in partnership with The Utah Valley University (UVU), they have explored the 1895 Salt Lake Constitutional Convention.  A much bigger joint project on Constitution Writing in the American West has now received a substantial boost with the announcement of a substantial grant from the American National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The three-year grant will expand the team of undergraduate researchers who are employed to work at UVU’s Center for Constitutional Studies, and enable them to explore the creation of three states in the western United States. Using the methodologies and software developed at Pembroke College by the Quill Project, this new phase of research will greatly expand understanding of state-formation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and will be of immediate benefit to researchers, educators, and law makers.

Dr Nicholas Cole, Director of the Quill Project and Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke, commented: “This work will enable us to study the complex web of influences that helped to form the states of the American West. It is an important addition to our portfolio of research projects. The National Endowment for the Humanities has recognized both the intrinsic value of this research, and the opportunities that it provides students to deepen their understanding of archival research and the latest digital techniques. The collaboration of Pembroke College with institutions like UVU enables research to take advantage of the expertise and resources of two very different institutions, and is a model of successful, transatlantic cooperation.”

UVU is an 'open-enrolment' university with a diverse student population of 40,000, many of them mature and first-generation students. This award is the first major institutional grant made by the NEH to UVU. The NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grants are highly sought after, and the programme has a success rate of less than 15%. Unusually, UVU was awarded the maximum possible award for this project on Constitution Writing in the American West—a further strong endorsement from the reviewers.

You can find out more about the Quill Project and their multidisciplinary research by visiting their website.