The Mississippi Digital Humanities Hub at The University of Southern Mississippi is providing community-based support for projects that help preserve Mississippi’s historical, cultural, and literary heritage. With the support of a two-million-dollar grant championed by Senators Roger Wicker and Cyndi Hyde-Smith and administered by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (a division of the National Archives), the “Hub” will help institutions throughout the state by providing workshops, grants, and support to those seeking to digitize and publicize Mississippi’s rich history and culture.
New technologies make it possible for a museum in northern Mississippi, a scholar in southern Mississippi, and people throughout the state to collaborate with each other to preserve and explore Mississippi’s legacy. Historical accounts of a Civil War battle or, perhaps, a play written for a town’s centennial, once languished in local libraries or historical archives, but that’s no longer necessary when it is possible to share these resources over the internet. Yet digitizing those records, publicizing them, and providing tools to make them searchable and understandable requires expertise. That is where the Mississippi Digital Humanities Hub can provide help, officials stated.
The Hub program, and the summer residencies in particular, are more than another training opportunity for scholars and professionals, said Maeve Losen, the Hub’s coordinator. “There are items of literary, cultural, and historical significance everywhere in Mississippi and digitally preserving and interpreting the state’s history and culture is not up to a few people, but the collaborative efforts of the many,” explained Losen. “Through the summer residencies, workshops, and mini grants offered, this program is about putting people and resources together to preserve and highlight the state’s rich and vast culture and history.”
The Hub provides training and financial support. Beginning this June, the Hub will host summer residential workshops at The University of Southern Mississippi’s Hattiesburg campus, one of three such programs running through 2027. The summer 2025 workshop is for faculty and staff at higher education institutions, libraries, and museums in Mississippi and will be held from June 16 to June 27.
The Hub also offers year-round technical and planning support to institutions, big and small, throughout the state. The Hub’s trained staff includes experts on digitizing documents and making these materials easier to visualize and search.