Sounding Spirit

People

Jesse P. Karlsberg

Jesse P. Karlsberg (project director, editor-in-chief, and technical lead) began developing Sounding Spirit in 2011 as a first-year PhD student in Emory University’s interdisciplinary Institute for the Liberal Arts. While working collaboratively with the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship and Pitts Theology Library to commemorate the centenary of the 1911 publication of Original Sacred Harp, Karlsberg first identified the under-appreciation and inaccessibility of sacred vernacular music books from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Karlsberg proposed the development of the Readux platform to facilitate access to and research and publishing with digitized books from diverse archival locations. Over the course of his career, Karlsberg’s research has promoted engagement with influential, yet overlooked, collections of American hymnody, with a particular interest in the broad cultural impact of southern vernacular sacred music and its diaspora.

Today, Karlsberg oversees the Sounding Spirit scholarly edition and digital library projects and serves as product owner of Readux. In addition to his robust research portfolio on race and place in vernacular American sacred music, Karlsberg brings more than twenty years of experience as a practitioner of shape-note singing to these roles. Karlsberg entered the shape-note singing world as an undergraduate music major and is today an internationally recognized singer, teacher, composer, and songbook editor in the Sacred Harp tradition.

Meredith Doster

Meredith Doster in JamestownMeredith Doster (education director, managing editor, and editorial lead) has been supporting the Sounding Spirit initiative since 2018. With a masters degree in Appalachian Studies, the PhD in Religious Studies (American Religious Cultures), and over 15 years professional experience as educator, editor, and curriculum designer, Meredith brings place-based, practitioner-focused, research-driven sensibilities to the Sounding Spirit team and all collaborators. As scholar of American religions, Meredith traces pathways along which personal truths claim gospel-like authority. As practitioner and designer, Meredith wields a multi-modal, interdisciplinary toolkit that shapes Sounding Spirit’s curricular and convening models.

Meredith’s birthright inheritances include the seven-shape white gospel tradition of one Landmark Missionary Baptist Church in Jamestown, Arkansas. In her late childhood, Meredith moved with her family to the former states of East Germany. Meredith roots her work in homeplace geographies that engage people and places displaced and disappeared. As Sounding Spirit’s people and project wrangler, Meredith models commitments to a quality of work that centers relationship. Her work as education lead invites faculty and students across disciplines to engage and share in learning and building together. Meredith’s research trajectory encompasses discreet sacred singing traditions and human universals. She lives and works from her home in Mars Hill, North Carolina, where she curates a professional portfolio of open access projects spanning genres, disciplines, modalities, and sectors. Meredith writes at wordmadelife.com.

Erin Fulton

headshot of Erin Fulton, Music Bibliography Associate for the project, holding a modern copy of Original Sacred HarpErin Fulton (music bibliographer and research associate) is a PhD candidate in musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Kentucky where she directs the Benton Big Singing project for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. Fulton received her BM in musicology from the University of Kansas with highest distinction. In addition to university teaching, Fulton has served as a library paraprofessional for the University of Kentucky library system, Fort Hays State University, and the Sacred Harp Publishing Company. Her research focuses on Anglo- and German-American sacred music of the early nineteenth century with particular attention to book history, regional identity, and lived religion. She recently completed a term as Society for American Music Student Forum co-chair and presently sits on the archive committee of the International Buster Keaton Society. She was the 2018 American Congregationalist Association–Boston Athenæum fellow and received the best-of-chapter award for her presentation at the 2020 Music Library Association Conference, Southeast.

Sara Palmer

Sara Palmer (digital text specialist at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship) has been supporting the Sounding Spirit project since 2019. She received a MA from Emory University in Film and Media studies and has been working actively in the field of digital humanities technology since 2011. Palmer began her career as an encoder for The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot, a multiyear publication project in which she assumed a managing role. She currently engages with researchers on creating online exhibits, designing databases, generating network visualizations, and performing textual markup and analysis. For the Sounding Spirit project, she is responsible for implementing file management workflows, optical character recognition processes and migrating content to a customized interface.

Digital Library

Chase Castle
Chase Castle
Music Metadata Associate
Carol Ditner-Wilson
Carol Ditner-Wilson
Digitization Quality Volunteer
Sarah Dorpinghaus
Sarah Dorpinghaus
Digitization Supervisor
Anne Evers
Anne Evers
Metadata Creation Volunteer
Ann McShane
Ann McShane
Digitization Workflow Specialist
Em Nordling
Em Nordling
Research Data Associate
Patrick Pender
Patrick Pender
Metadata Creation Associate
Rachel Shapiro
Rachel Shapiro
Music Metadata Associate
Brenda Umutoniwase
Brenda Umutoniwase
Metadata Creation Associate
Lucy Wallitsch
Lucy Wallitsch
Digital Production Associate

Volume Editors

Sara Snyder Hopkins
Sara Snyder Hopkins
Cherokee Singing Book
Jesse P. Karlsberg
Jesse P. Karlsberg
Sacred Tunes and Hymns
Kevin Kehrberg
Kevin Kehrberg
Class, Choir, and Congregation
Horace Maxile, Jr.
Horace Maxile, Jr.
Soul Echoes No. 2
Emmett Price III
Emmett Price III
Soul Echoes No. 2

Editorial Board

James Abbington
James Abbington
Emory University
Mark Clague
Mark Clague
University of Michigan
Suzanne Flandreau
Suzanne Flandreau
Center for Black Music Research (Retired)
Sandy Graham
Sandy Graham
Babson College
Andrew Hankinson
Andrew Hankinson
Répertoire International des Sources Musicales
Douglas Harrison
Douglas Harrison
University of Maryland University College
Tammy Kernodle
Tammy Kernodle
Miami University of Ohio
Kay Norton
Kay Norton
Arizona State University
Allen Tullos
Allen Tullos
Emory Center for Digital Scholarship
Craig Womack
Craig Womack
Emory University (retired)

Advisory Board

James Abbington
James Abbington
Emory University
Sara Brumfield
Sara Brumfield
Brumfield Labs
Derrick Fox
Derrick Fox
Michigan State University
Sandy Graham
Sandy Graham
Babson College
Andrew Hankinson
Andrew Hankinson
Répertoire International des Sources Musicales
Kevin Kehrberg
Kevin Kehrberg
Warren Wilson College
Tammy Kernodle
Tammy Kernodle
Miami University of Ohio
Cory Lampert
Cory Lampert
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Gregory Reish
Gregory Reish
Middle Tennessee State University
Alexis S. Wells-Oghoghomeh
Alexis S. Wells-Oghoghomeh
Stanford University
Kay-Michael Würzner
Kay-Michael Würzner
Saxon State and University Library

Former Associates

Robert Dunn
Robert Dunn
Research and Editorial Associate (2015–2020)
M. Patrick Graham
M. Patrick Graham
Editorial Board Member (2018–2020)
Solomon Kim
Solomon Kim
Undergraduate Research Associate (2023)
Jack Martin
Jack Martin
Advisory Board Member (2019–2021)
Chisomo Mwale
Chisomo Mwale
Metadata Creation Associate (2022–2023)
Stephen Shearon
Stephen Shearon
Editorial Board Member (2018–2023)
Kayla Shipp
Kayla Shipp
Web Developer (2019–2022)
Rachel Erin Stuart
Rachel Erin Stuart
Digital Production Associate (2018–2020)