After a very productive summer (among other things, Naomi visited archives in the UK, and Shane and I proofread scores of transcriptions), we received the exciting news that CUNY has awarded us a Collaborative Incentive Research Grant (CIRG) totaling nearly $30,000. This support will enable us to make substantial progress on the project over the next year.

CUNY's CIRG program facilitates interdisciplinary and cross-campus collaborations between faculty at different CUNY campuses by offering seed grants for projects with the potential to attract external funding. The CIRG will allow us to employ students at three colleges (LaGuardia Community College, Brooklyn College, and CUNY Graduate Center) as editorial assistants on the project. It will also provide funding for Naomi and I to travel to Boston and the UK to conduct research at archives and to meet with librarians, curators, and advisory board members. The grant even includes a modest amount for supplies (including licenses for oXygen, the software we need to check the accuracy of our XML-encoded transcriptions).

This is the largest grant the project has received to date. We have also been fortunate to receive funding from the PSC-CUNY Research Award program, the Society for Theatre Research, the Association for Documentary Editing (ADE), the Tow Faculty Travel Fund (Brooklyn College), and the Department of English at LaGuardia Community College. We are profoundly grateful for this support.

After a very productive summer, we are looking forward to a very productive year!