Anna Berlin

October 17, 2014

Freedom Summer: An Independent Research & Writing Project

On a beautiful fall afternoon in a history class at Mount Holyoke in Fall of 2011, my Professor was teaching my class about the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. The Professor mentioned a less talked about part of the summer, which was discrimination faced by female volunteers. Overtime this part of history sat with me and I began to come up with a story for a historical fiction novel. The story would be told through the perspective of a white volunteer who throughout the summer confronts expectations she’s always had for happiness and her own definitions of freedom. In my panel I will discuss both the struggles and success of creating and working on an independent research project.