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Jennifer Tuttle, Ph.D., Dorothy M. Healy Professor of Literature and Health and director of the Maine Women Writers Collection, will present her research in New Orleans, September 7-9, at the American Literature Association Symposium, which will focus on Regionalism and Place in American Literature. Speaking on a panel called "Archives <--> Regionalism <--> Place," Tuttle will deliver a talk titled "Desperately Seeking Sarah: The Place of the Virtual Archive in Jewett Studies." 

The panel will explore the relationships of archives to issues of place and literary representations of regionalism. Tuttle will draw on her work directing the Maine Women Writers Collection (MWWC) on UNE's Portland Campus with a specific focus on its substantial collection of manuscript material related to renowned Maine author Sarah Orne Jewett. Her paper considers how archivists not only make manuscript materials accessible to researchers but also inevitably shape what can and cannot be found in the archives and how that material influences perceptions of Maine history and literary culture.

Tuttle's talk raises questions for discussion about the opportunities and challenges of regionally focused archives, such as the MWWC, in expressing Jewett's relationship to Maine and about what is gained and lost when digital surrogates of those materials populate a virtual archive alongside Jewett manuscripts from other libraries and locations. With the advent of the digital age, these questions are central to understanding the ways and reasons we value and use the actual manuscripts preserved in acid-free folders in UNE's Abplanalp Library.

Learn more about the Maine Women Writers Collection, visit www.une.edu/mwwc

Learn more about the College of Arts and Sciences, visit www.une.edu/cas

To apply, visit www.une.edu/admissions