After a successful year of researching ghosts and haunting, it’s time to introduce our theme for the new edition of the Digital Literature Review. Our research topic has transitioned into studying the cultural significance and complications of contemporary discourses about slave systems, both past and present.

Some of the research we have conducted has included studying historical slave narratives such as Solomon Northup’s 12 Years a Slave. We also delved into contemporary slave narratives, such as those featured in Jesse Sage and Liora Kasten’s Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery. In addition to our readings, we are studying the following films about slavery: 12 Years a Slave, Sankofa, and Django Unchained.

Some of the books we’ve read in class.

In accordance with our new theme, we have redesigned our Twitter, Facebook, and this blog. We encourage you to explore our social media pages as we have already begun to post related news articles and other resources that are connected to contemporary slavery. Stay engaged with us as we explore modern slavery more in depth over the upcoming months. You can expect weekly blog posts from students in our class, daily shares on Facebook and Twitter, and updates on how our publication is going.

If you are an undergraduate who is personally interested in our research, feel free to read over our call for papers and submit to our journal. You can also write for our blog if you’d rather not submit an essay. Please email dlr@bsu.edu with any submissions or questions.

We hope that you will enjoy the future content we share on our various media outlets and become part of the conversation surrounding contemporary slavery.