If you would like to subscribe to Project Nota's Newsletter, sign up at here.
Project Nota is an intergenerational and international group consisting of 24 members, ranging from high school students to teachers and professors. We draw attention (nota bene!) to the letters and works (nota) of famous women (notarum) by focusing on the digitization of texts, translating these texts into English, French, and Spanish, and increasing their overall accessibility through providing our produced materials for free and making lesson plans.
Project Nota - Summer 2021 Newsletter
A Letter from the Founder and Director of Project Nota
Dear all,
This past year since I founded Project Nota in September 2020 has been a blast working with the 24 members of Project Nota. Ninth grade me reading Laura Cereta’s works for the first time with ardens animus (to use her words) would not have imagined a year later finding such amazing friends and companions through our shared vision for women’s Latin at Project Nota. From producing more than 30 materials this past year, collaborating with other organizations such as Lupercal and Project Vox, and presenting at the American Classical League, all would not have been possible without Project Nota’s members’ work and the love and support we have received from the wider classics community. For someone who is still fairly early on my classics and life journey, this means so much and goes a long way. Thank you for paying attention to our mission as Project Nota strives to see and show the world more holistically by making truths more accessible. This is not just about women; it is not just about classics; it is about the world that we commonly share.
I cannot wait for what’s to come and hopefully meet or get to know some of of you better along on this journey!
July 4th, 2021,
Fengrui (Sophia) He
Highlights from the Past Year
Project Nota's Materials
Most Latin students don’t even come into contact with works written by Women Authors until university, or not at all. By even considering using any of our materials or lesson plans into your curriculum, you’re contributing to a more diverse future in the Classics Community!
Project Nota has produced more than 30 materials on more than five main female Latinists, including digitizations, translations into English, Spanish, and French, as well as lesson plans that teachers can directly use in their classrooms.
Author(s) included: Caterina Imperiale, Camille de Morel, and Anna Memorata
Includes: Power Points, a lesson plan sample, and 50 poems digitized and translated with commentaries in English and French
To access and download more materials like these for free, please visit our Resources page here.
Project Nota at the
2021 American Classical League
Project Nota presented as a panel at the American Classical League's Annual Institute on June 25th, 2021. In our session “Project Nota: Expanding the Scope of Materials Available in Latin Classrooms to Promote Diversity and Inclusion," we discussed how too often in Latin classrooms, students read texts written from one narrow perspective that is created by the era, social class, race, and gender of the authors that are read (Caesar, Vergil, Cicero, etc.). Students from diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds, as well as female students, can struggle to see themselves in ancient texts. Many students go their entire career without reading a single Latin word written by a woman. In response, Project Nota's panel consisting of both students and teachers from diverse ethnic, geographic, and educational backgrounds, shared their own stories and introduced Project Nota's materials (which you can find here), lesson plans in particular, that can help integrate female Latinists's works in classrooms.
Project Nota Advisory Board
Project Nota has established an advisory board that will offer general guidance and advice for Project Nota's strategic decisions. It is our honor to have Sally Haslanger, professor at MIT, Christia Mercer, professor at Columbia, and Roberta Stewart, professor at Dartmouth as current members of our advisory board.
Sally Haslanger
Christia Mercer
Roberta Stewart
Ways to Join Project Nota
1. Project-Based Volunteering: Summer
If you would like to volunteer part-time for Project Nota, we have a project-based volunteering program through which you can volunteer for only specific projects.
For this summer, the following are the currently planned projects. If you are interested, please send an email to projectnotaforwomen@gmail.com with a signed Volunteer Agreement and your specific interest in any of 1) digitizing 2) translating 3) making lesson plans.
Digitization: Anna Maria van Schurman's Text "Eukleia"
Translation: Maria Hutchenson's Works
General Lesson Plan Creation
This project requires as much or as little collaboration as you want. Teachers and students either work individually or collectively on creating lesson plans in varying degrees of difficulty. After finishing your lesson plan(s), Kelsie Fralick and Laura Petersen will review and edit your lesson plan. If you lead a busy life and are unable to attend meetings and want as much flexibility as possible, this is the project for you! Sign up for the authors you're interested in at thislink and please send an email to projectnotaforwomen@gmail.com with a signedVolunteer Agreement.
2. Join Long-Term
If you are interested in joining long-term, please apply here.
Call to Action
Increase Diversity and Inclusion of Female Latin Authors
in Your Classrooms
If you use any of our materials in your classrooms, please use the hashtag #ProjectNotainClass to share with us how it goes. We will give shoutouts to you on our social media!
Thank you again for all the love and support! The Project Nota team sincerely invites you to join us on this exciting journey! We are all in this together!
Please visit our web page for resources and more information and reach out to projectnotaforwomen@gmail.com for any questions or for collaboration. We want to interact with you on social media! Follow our social media accounts @projectnota (also linked below) for weekly female Latin authors' spotlights and more!
If you would like to subscribe to Project Nota's Newsletter, sign up at here.