Current Third-Party Funded Research Projects

Freedom’s Journal and the Intermedial Power of Periodicals

This project studies the first Black-owned and Black-published US-American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal (1827–29), exploring how the newspaper offered a unique tool of communication and intellectual stimulation that produced radical cultural meanings—especially for early Black Americans whose opportunities for widespread intellectual cultivation, community growth, and cultural expression were limited. The research focuses particularly on the relationship between Freedom’s Journal’s physical and technological characteristics like its page layout, masthead, and printed visuals, on the one hand, and the newspaper’s textual content on the other hand, including advertisements, short stories, poems, letters, news reports, travel accounts, articles, opinions, extracts, and reviews of literature and theater.

Duration: 2024 – 2027

Project Leader/Principal Investigator: Scott Zukowski

Funding program: FWF: Esprit

Website: scottzukowski.com

Employees: Jolie Bua; TBD