Brown University Library News

By Kurt Walters 04/10/08 Caitlin McKenna ’09 and Sara Damiano ’08 were announced as the winners of the University Library’s second annual Undergraduate Research Awards for “extensive, creative use” of library resources, according to an April 4 press release. Ron Fark, leader of Gateway Services and facilitator of the selection committee, said this year’s contest was very competitive, with the committee receiving 12 “very good” applications. “We would have given out a few more,” Fark said, if it had been possible. What set the two winners’ research projects apart was the way each “seamlessly integrated primary source material into lively and engaging narratives,” University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi said in the press release. McKenna’s research, titled “Golden Orbit: The Black Sun Press in the Shadow of Modernism” was about a small printing press run by the American Crosby brothers in 1920s Paris, and how it impacted literary modernism, she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. McKenna, who is currently studying abroad in Paris, wrote her paper as a final project for HIST 2970: “The Authority of the Word,” a graduate seminar she said was “the most influential class I’ve ever had at Brown.” Damiano’s paper, “‘Such virulent temper added to the Rigour of the Laws’: Enforcement of the Conventicle Acts in Charles II’s England” was written as a project for a history seminar with Professor of History Timothy Harris that she worked on throughout the semester, she said. She looked at the effects of a series of laws mandating religious conformity to the Church of England and the persecution that resulted from them, she said. The anonymous committee that selected the winners consisted of two Brown faculty, a dean from the Office of the Dean of the College, two librarians and a member of the Friends of the Library, Fark said. One of those members, when reviewing McKenna’s project, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that “after reading her piece, I wanted to run straight to the library and see what treasure I might find that could possibly start me on a similar journey!” Committee members looked at usage of library resources, lucidity of writing and ability to synthesize these into a project that showed potential to lead to more research, according to the Library’s Web site. The Library will award the winners $750 each. The competition will be offered again in 2009, Hemmasi said, and the committee will expand the contest to accept multimedia projects, Hemmasi said. Fark said he hopes that more students will apply, though he added that “the review committee might not think that.” Both Damiano and McKenna said they were unsure how they would use the prize money. Damiano said she would probably use it to support her plans after graduation, and McKenna wrote that since Paris is “incredibly expensive,” the money may end up going towards “chicken, toothpaste, metro tickets.”

In partnership with the Office of the Dean of the College, the Brown University Library is pleased to announce that Caitlin McKenna and Sara Damiano are the recipients of the second annual Undergraduate Research Awards. This $750 prize recognizes excellence in undergraduate research projects that make creative and extensive use of the Brown University Library’s collections including print, databases, primary resources, and materials in all media. A six member review committee of Brown faculty members, librarians, Friends of the Library Board, and the Office of the Dean of the College selected this year’s winners.
“The works submitted this year were unusually strong,” said Harriette Hemmasi, Joukowsky Family University Librarian. “It was a very difficult decision to select only two of our many outstanding applicants. Caitlin and Sara had two remarkable works of scholarship that seamlessly integrated primary source material into lively and engaging narratives. Their writings highlight both their keen minds and analytical abilities and the Brown University Library’s extraordinary resources.”
McKenna’s award recognized her essay entitled Golden Orbit: The Black Sun Press in the Shadow of Modernism. Written as a final project for Robert Gross’ history of the book seminar, McKenna’s paper examines the legacy of Harry Crosby, an American expatriate living in Paris in the 1920s, who ran a publishing company that produced special editions of works by literary luminaries such as James Joyce and T.S. Eliot. Crosby was fascinated by the cult of the sun and railed against an American culture that he deemed puritanical. McKenna drew extensively on a host of library resources to conduct her independent research. She relied on the Rockefeller Library and interlibrary loan services to furnish her with background information and the special collections housed at the John Hay Library to provide her with fresh insight Crosby’s character and interpersonal relationships. To this end, Crosby’s correspondence with friends and lovers, manuscript notebooks, and hand edited proofs proved invaluable.
Robert Gross, James L. and Shirley A. Draper Professor of Early American History at the University of Connecticut, commented on McKenna’s deft handling of a difficult topic by noting, “It was on a par with the best papers by advanced graduate students I have received in this course over two decades, and it assimilated its sources with greater ease. Since she was a second-semester sophomore at the time, her essay may well be the best undergraduate research paper I have read in three decades of teaching.”
Damiano received the award for her paper entitled “Such virulent temper added to the Rigour of the Laws”: Enforcement of the Conventicle Acts in Charles II’s England. Damiano’s work examines the ways in which laws against nonconformist religious conventicles were enforced during the reign of Charles II. This was a period of time (1660-1685) in English history marked by widespread religious persecution. Damiano made extensive use of the Library’s holdings in preparing her paper. She consulted over 25 pamphlets about the Conventicle Acts, assize sermons, and an edition of John Besse’s Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers (1753), held in the John Hay Library.
In supporting Damiano’s nomination, Timothy Harris, Munro-Goodwin-Wilkinson Professor of European History, raved, “I found her paper to be extremely well-researched, making excellent use of the Library’s holdings. It is well-written, tightly structured, intelligent and thoughtful, and develops a number of highly perceptive insights. It is a truly impressive piece of scholarship.”
A private reception will be held at the Library to honor the recipients in late spring.