Music Professor Jeff Titon is among five who received funds earmarked for such work. He'll use the grant to develop a multimedia hypertext presentation about the Rev. C.L. Franklin, an influential African-American preacher
Rev. C. L. Franklin has been dead for nearly 20 years, but a Brown professor is about to bring the sermons of this influential African-American preacher back to life through technology.
Jeff Titon, professor of music (at left in 1994 photo), has long studied and documented the work of Reverend Franklin, the father of singer Aretha Franklin and one of the most popular black religious leaders of his generation. Armed with a grant that will provide him with technical assistance from the Scholarly Technology Group (STG), Titon is developing a multi-media hypertext presentation of Franklin’s life, based on his research and that of Nick Salvatore, a professor of history at Cornell.
Titon has some experience from more modest projects, but sought out STG for help with "the nuts and bolts of digitizing the various parts of the project." STG also will help design a format for some 75 Franklin sermons Titon videotaped — as well as songs, interviews, conversations and photos.
"I have a fair idea of how I want to link the various aspects of this, so that the computer user comes away with a broad understanding of Franklin’s life and preaching in its various contexts. But except for a reasonably good ability to work with sound on computers, my multimedia skill is all at an amateur level," said Titon.
For the past several years, the STG has reserved a portion of its budget to provide consulting services to faculty working on computer-enhanced projects. Last spring, however, the group formalized that assistance by establishing a grant program, according to David Reville, STG's interim director. The fund, provided by Computing and Information Services, is intended to encourage innovative research using information technology within academic disciplines — particularly the humanities.
The idea was well received; more than 30 faculty members proposed projects last spring. Julia Flanders, STG’s associate director for text-based development, said the response to the grant program was gratifying.
"We were delighted to see the level and breadth of interest from the sciences and humanities," she said. "Our primary focus is to fill a formerly unmet need in applying technology to the humanities. There’s been a long history of [using technology] in the hard sciences, but this is only recent."
Five grants in all, ranging from $20,000 to $35,000, were awarded and will provide for technology consulting support, covering the costs of production, equipment and data. The other recipients:
• Sheila Bonde, professor of history of art and architecture, will launch an interactive multimedia web site reflecting her research in the ongoing excavation of a medieval French abbey.
• Massimo Riva , associate professor of Italian Studies; will bring annotated Latin and English versions of the theses of Pico de la Mirandola to the web, linking them with other key sites on 14th- and 15th-century Florentine culture.
• Associate Professor Steven Sloman of cognitive and linguistic science sought his funding to create a tool for designing online surveys.
• Lecturers Shoggy Waryn and Annie Wiart of French studies will design an online system to facilitate access to instructional materials for their department faculty.
With his STG grant, Titon will finally be able to complete a project he’s had "on the back burner" for the past eight years and see it distributed on CD-ROM or DVD. He hopes his project will provide a historical record and bring Franklin’s message to younger generations.
An ally of Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin was actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement. When he spoke, Franklin blended "spiritual insight and inspiration to help his people in their struggles," Titon said. During the height of Franklin's career (1951-1970), he toured nationally, preaching in black communities and drawing crowds numbering in the tens of thousands; among his protegés was Jesse Jackson.
"His amazingly powerful sermons — powerful both as spontaneous oratory and as chanted poetry — are within the bardic African-American sermonizing tradition, celebrated by black writers as the most profound source of black literature," noted Titon, who met and videotaped Franklin on several occasions in the 1970s. "At the same time, they represent a unique fusion of raw musical power and urban theological sophistication never before or since achieved."
Franklin was attacked and robbed in 1979, and he remained in a coma until his death in 1982.
"I was just lucky to find out about him and videotape him while he was still alive," said Titon. "I’m sitting here with this responsibility. This is part of the history and heritage of the black community."