2019-2020
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH CLUSTERS
The Collaborative Research Clusters give faculty the opportunity for a range of interdisciplinary research
The Dragon Prayer Book
collaborations. These Research
Convened by: Erika Boeckeler
Clusters bring together scholars and practitioners from different disciplines, both within and beyond the Northeastern University community, around a shared concern. This interdisciplinary program facilitates productive discussions and collaborations among the participants, with a view toward the development of joint projects, conferences, publications, and/or major grant applications.
YEAR IN REVIEW 2019–2020
Learn more about Collaborative Research Clusters on our website
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NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES CENTER
This research cluster brought together scholars from across the University for a Snell Library-wide exhibit on display in Fall 2019 that centered on an alternate reality game (ARG) showcasing and encouraging interaction with our research on the Dragon Prayer Book, Northeastern’s only medieval manuscript. The primary goal of this research cluster was to adapt our existing research – conducted over the past three years — on the text, music, provenance, and physicality of the prayer book, into a highly interactive Snell Library exhibit. This process will require ongoing, dialectical interdisciplinary exchange: everyone who participated in the various directions of the project was in conversation with the narrative designer — CAMD undergraduate Kieran Sheldon — in order to generate the specifics of the game and ensure that the game faithfully represents the Dragon Prayer Book team’s research and duplicates bibliographic methodologies. Dr. Celia Pearce, Associate Professor of Game Design at Northeastern, served as a creative advisor on this project. As part of her participation, Dr. Pearce made available to the project a new augmented reality app, the “Hidden Histories App,” created in CAMD’s game design program specifically for constructing game experiences around historical themes using archival documents. This app allowed the game to seamlessly interface with the manuscript and other historical materials to augment them with digital content. This is the first Snell exhibit of its kind and therefore a pilot project for future installations. We will be exchanging ideas with Dean of Libraries Dan Cohen and Facilities Manager Ethan Bren about the library as an interactive exhibit space and how this exhibit is part of the way Snell envisions its changing role and changing relationships to its holdings within a higher education system in flux.
