Project Name: Lilith Through the Times: Demoness to Feminist Icon
Project Owner: Shukirti Khadka
Summary: The project will trace Lilith’s journey in scriptures, literature, and art from ancient Babylonia to the 19th century. Presenting Lilith as the perennial symbol of patriarchal narratives written by men, this project will trace her journey throughout history to see her transformation from a demoness who killed infants and the women who bore them to a feminist icon who has become a symbol for autonomy, sexual choice, and control of one’s own destiny.
The project will be presented in a website created through WordPress, and will include a timeline tracing Lilith throughout the years. The website will include an About menu, with an ‘About the Project’ and ‘About Lilith’ page. Under a Lilith menu, pages such as ‘Lilith in Ancient Texts’, ‘Lilith in Art and Culture’, ‘Lilith Transformed’, etc. will be available. These will elaborate on the different time points on the timeline. The website will also include a Sources menu, wherein the Bibliography and Documentation page can be seen.
My potential audience would be faculty, students and scholars interested in college research, digital humanists, people who are interested in Jewish culture, and women.
Deliverables:
What I have:
- Primary sources and secondary sources
- Research Topic
- Research question
- Basic wireframe of the website
- Points in the Timeline
What I need:
- More secondary sources
- Website using WordPress
- Timeline using Timeline JS
- Organized structure of the website (number of pages, menu names, fonts, etc.)
- Images (20)
Timelines:
| Week 1 (6/7 – 6/11) Organize previous research Search for images | Week 2 (6/14 – 6/18) Project charter Search for more images Look for more secondary sources Basic outline of the Timeline Finalize website structure |
| Week 3 (6/21 – 6/25) Wireframes Try to confirm dates of all events Make Timeline JS More images Finish text for Lilith info | Week 4 (6/28 – 7/1) Create a website using WordPress Color, text, Font More images |
| Week 5 (7/6 – 7/9) Visualization due About text, sources bibliography, and Documentation page finalization Make sure everything works smoothly | Week 6 (7/12 – 7/16) First project draft |
| Week 7 (7/19 – 7/23) Finishing touches: editing, color, Font, background, placement. Final project draft | Week 8 (7/26-7/30) Practice presentation Presentation |
End of Life/Future Plans: This work is a ‘project’ that can extend for a long period of time and be taken in different directions. Lilith’s story spans across time, and she is reimagined continuously. Further work can go into detail about Lilith’s story in relation to Eve and women in the Bible or Jewish Mythology who have similarly been demonized. Lilith’s story can be explored further in terms of her influence on Jewish Feminism (especially during the Second Wave of Feminism), her characterizations in pop culture, etc. There is much scope for evolving this project.
Written by Shukirti Khadka, Gettysburg College Class of 2024, and part of the DSSF 2021 Cohort.
