Join the John Hay Library on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 for a book talk by Maia Weinstock ’99, author of Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus (MIT Press, 2022). The talk will take place from 1 – 1:45 p.m. in the Lownes Room* of the John Hay Library, followed by Q&A with a book signing and reception at 2:30 p.m.
Mildred Dressehaus
Maia Weinstock ’99, author of Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus (MIT Press, 2022), will present on the life and work of the extraordinary physicist, electrical engineer, and materials scientist Millie Dresselhaus (1930-2017). As a girl in New York City in the 1940s, Dresselhaus was taught that there were only three career options open to women: secretary, nurse, or teacher. But sneaking into museums, purchasing three-cent copies of National Geographic, and devouring books on the history of science ignited in Dresselhaus a passion for inquiry. Dresselhaus defied expectations and forged a career in solid-state physics, making highly influential discoveries about the properties of carbon and other materials. In so doing, she helped reshape our world in countless ways — from electronics to aviation to medicine to energy. She was also a path-breaking role model for underrepresented individuals in science and engineering and a beloved educator, mentor, and colleague.
Maia Weinstock ’99
Maia Weinstock ’99
Maia Weinstock is an editor, writer, and producer of science, academic, and children’s media. Deputy editorial director at MIT News, Maia previously served as the editorial director at BrainPOP, and as a staff member at Discover, SPACE.com, Aviation Week & Space Technology, and Scholastic’s Science World. Maia writes often on the history of women in STEM and on diversity in STEM media. She is also internationally known for her custom LEGO projects including Women of NASA, a LEGO Ideas-winning and Amazon best-selling toy, and Women of Computing, a LEGO Ideas finalist. Maia has also been an MIT lecturer on the history of women in STEM and led efforts to increase the participation and representation of women on Wikipedia.
Accessibility
*The Lownes Room is located on the second floor, up two flights of stairs. Please contact [email protected] if you will need elevator access, which requires staff accompaniment.
Please reach out to Lizette as far in advance of the event as possible for this or any other accommodations that will enable you to attend and enjoy the event. Thank you.
Open access publication expands series delving into comparative perspectives on the roots and effects of racism in the U.S.
For the second year running, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown partnered with the Office of the Provost on the pioneering Race & … in America webinar series, a systematic investigation of the foundational and enduring effects of anti-Black racism in America. Over the course of the 2021-22 academic year, the series again served as a virtual platform for the Brown community to think through the myriad, complex ways that race defines American society and to share these insights with each other and the public at large. Exploring the arts more fully, five new panels featuring Brown faculty continued to generate critical engagements with society’s most fundamental and urgent questions. The informed and illuminating discussions deepened knowledge and awareness in the service of promoting a more just and inclusive community and world. The Race & … in America digital publication series, now complete with 13 volumes, amplifies the impact and extends the reach of this important and timely panel series.
Developed by Brown University Digital Publications in close coordination with Tricia Rose, Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies, Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives, and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the Race & … in America digital publication series re-presents the compelling original panel discussions with expanded content and resources in an innovative, interactive format, designed to heighten understanding and broaden critical conversations.
“As the Brown community continues to tackle the contentious and important subject of anti-Black racism, the Race & in America series allows us to increase awareness of the factors fueling racial injustice through the expertise of Brown’s faculty,” said Provost Richard M. Locke. “We recognize that all members of our community need the courage, dedication and willingness to work on transformational change. We fully support the digital delivery of this critical content for greater access and broader community reach.”
As an open access publication, the digital series provides enduring, barrier-free access to knowledge, and has been developed with universal design principles for equitable use by all persons, including those with disabilities. In addition, the series features responsive design — readable on all digital devices, from smartphones to desktops — and robust highlighting, annotation, and sharing tools that encourage deep reader engagement and allow users to interact with one another.
“Brown’s long-standing leadership in the study of race in American society is matched by its pathbreaking history in the use of technology to convey innovative scholarship in new and newly powerful ways,” said University Librarian Joseph Meisel. “Like the initial volumes in the digital series, this new set of topics adds more penetrating insights by leading scholars that can continue to be studied and discussed, shaping how we think about some of the most challenging questions in our society and culture.”
Each of the thirteen volumes in the series includes:
A recording of one of the 90-minute panel discussions that took place throughout the 2021-2022 academic year
Student Voices podcast episodes in which Brown University students engage the panelists in follow-up discussion
Recommendations for entry-point materials on the subject
Multimedia resource collections of readings, online exhibitions, podcasts, and other materials referenced during the panel discussions
Suggestions for further exploration
Brown University Digital Publications — a collaboration between the University Library and the Dean of the Faculty, generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities — creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown’s novel, university-based approach to digital content development is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age.
Questions about the Race & … in America digital publication series can be addressed to Allison Levy, Director of Brown University Digital Publications ([email protected]).
Rockefeller Library group study rooms will be available for reservation by Brown students starting Monday, September 19.
Current Brown student ID holders can reserve the space online at https://libcal.brown.edu/reserve/groupstudy. Signs with QR codes leading to the online reservation system are posted on each of the bookable rooms as well.
Rooms can be reserved for two hour blocks, up to two days in advance. Limit one reservation per person per day. Rooms must be used by groups and not for individual study.
We ask that you respect the reservation end time to allow for use by the next group. Please leave the room in good order.
Reservable rooms:
131
133
134C
134D
134E
224
225
227
230
231
Photos of the rooms are also included in the reservation system
More information including a list of the reservable study rooms Questions? Email [email protected].
On Saturday, October 15, 2022 in the Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab at the Rockefeller Library, the Depicting Glory Symposium will bring together the contributors to the digital project Depicting Glory: Rare Objects from the Late Qing to the Republic of China to present and discuss topics related to modern China. Led by Zhuqing Li, Visiting Associate Professor of East Asian Studies and Faculty Curator of East Asian Collections, and incorporating the work of a team of students and scholars at Brown and beyond, Depicting Glory showcases some of the Library’s outstanding collection of rare and historically significant materials from China. Individually and collectively, these materials, created in different times and places, tell an important story about the intersections of power, status, and collective identity — issues central to China’s modernization. The project’s digital structure was mainly designed and built by Brown students, and it incorporates a set of contextual essays inspired by these objects from expert scholars at a number of institutions as well as a Brown student.
The symposium is free and open to the public.
Symposium Program (October 15, 2022)
OPENING PLENARY SESSION
9:15 – 9:30 a.m. – Viewing articles in Hecker Center (room next to the Digital Scholarship Lab)
9:30 – 9:45 a.m. – Introduction by Joukowsky Family University Librarian Joseph S. Meisel and Zhuqing Li, Visiting Associate Professor of East Asian Studies and Faculty Curator of East Asian Collections
9:45 – 10:15 a.m. – “Manufacturing Knowledge in Qing China” – KEYNOTE by Peter Perdue, Professor of History, Yale University
Two grants totaling $1.75M will facilitate access to astonishing materials in the Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda
Through its Divided America project, the John Hay Library will digitize and make available material representing extremes of political thought from 1946 through the 1990s in the United States. With a $250,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission’sAccess to Historical Records: Major Initiatives program and a $1.5 million grant from the Arcadia Fund, the project will take on the digitization of about three-fourths of the holdings in the Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda. Consisting of nearly 200,000 individual items from over 5,000 organizations, the Hall-Hoag Collection is the country’s largest research collection documenting the ideas and activities of dissenting right- and left-wing U.S. groups, offering a trove of material that will help scholars and journalists further understand our current political moment.
The grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) will support the digitization efforts of material in Hall-Hoag that focuses on conservative groups based in rural, urban, and suburban areas, with an emphasis on highly localized ephemeral material. As part of the grant, the Library will fund personnel, outreach, and dissemination activities associated with scholarly study of the materials, which will be fully accessible by historians, researchers, and the general public. The Library will also partner with an interdisciplinary group of faculty to host a publicly-accessible virtual symposium that will draw connections between the newly digitized content and the divisive political landscape in the United States. This rich set of documents includes militant movements, anti-communism, Evangelical or other right-aligned religious bodies, and issue-focused mobilization around matters of public health, gun rights, immigration, and “right-to-work” claims.
Archival material from the radical right is particularly rare and vulnerable owing in part to the fact that groups and individuals from these movements often distrust universities and are reluctant to donate material. Although the political right has had a transformative effect on American social and political life since World War II, only four other universities have prominent (albeit considerably smaller) holdings in this area. These materials capture a trajectory within American politics that has largely been ignored within academia even as it has risen to the fore within popular politics and American governance over the past several decades. This lapse has contributed to the current bifurcation within American politics, insofar as it has deprived scholars of a means for studying the roots of post-WWII Conservatism in all of its dimensions in the same way that scholars have long been able to study the political Left.
With the monies provided through the Arcadia Fund grant, the Divided America project will digitize a further significant portion of the Hall-Hoag Collection. Measuring 1,655 linear feet, the Hall-Hoag collection is the one of the largest of Brown University’s manuscript collections. It was amassed by Gordon Hall, a young veteran of the World War II Pacific Theater, who first encountered the printed propaganda issued by domestic hate-your-neighbor organizations in the late 1940’s. Grace Hoag, an alumna of Smith College, began to collaborate with Hall in the 1960’s, and assisted with the research and expanding the collection beyond its initial emphasis.
Naoko Shibusawa, Associate Professor of History, Associate Professor of American Studies, has worked extensively with the Hall-Hoag Collection and states:
I frequently refer both graduate and undergraduate students to the Hall-Hoag Collection. Students have been drawn to studying conservative and radical right sources as much as liberal and radical left sources. The materials in the Hall-Hoag Collection have allowed them to better understand the ideologies and worldviews that continue to animate political divisions today.
She goes on to say that “the full potential of this vast and compelling collection has barely been tapped. I think others interested in more contemporary U.S. history would be thrilled to have this collection easily accessible for their students, as well as for their own scholarship.” Currently, Professor Shibusawa is working with a student whose thesis draws largely from Hall-Hoag’s materials of incarcerated, radical left Indigenous women from the 1970s.
The collection provides a deep and nuanced look at American politics and political culture from the end of World War II to the eve of the September 11 attacks. Unparalleled in breadth and depth, Hall-Hoag is unique for aggregating material from organizations with faint, if any, traces in the archival record. According to Joseph S. Meisel, Joukowsky Family University Librarian, “Making Brown’s outstanding collection of these important documentary materials more widely available through digitization will be an incredible boon for researchers and students of American politics, and shed new light on the development of important trends that have shaped our national discourse and public life.”
The Divided America project represents one facet of the John Hay Library’s deep commitment to promoting socially engaged scholarship by documenting a wide array of political, social, and religious ideologies so as to shed light on the complex ways in which ideology influences social and political power structures. Amanda E. Strauss, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Director of the John Hay Library notes:
The Library is deeply grateful to NHPRC and the Arcadia Fund for this funding, which will allow us to provide free digital access to critically important historical materials for scholars, students, and the public who are interested in studying the evolution of of political ideologies in the United States. This material allows a rare glimpse into the transmission of ideas among issues-focused conservative and liberal groups and will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of these important histories.
As one of the Library’s premier collections, the Hall-Hoag Collection forms the anchor for the strategic collecting initiative Ideology & Power, which seeks to provide coherence and promote public access to more than 200 years of original material that documents the evolution of political, social, and religious ideologies in the United States. The Hall-Hoag Collection is the country’s largest research compilation of materials produced by both right- and left-wing American extremist groups.
At the conclusion of the three and a half year Divided America project, nearly 240,000 pages of material will be digitized and made available through the Brown Digital Repository.
The Library is excited to welcome Elizabeth Yalkut as the new Digital Scholarship Front End Developer in the Center for Digital Scholarship. First day: August 15
Elizabeth has been a web developer at Columbia University, the socially progressive digital agency Threespot, and (most recently) Harvard Medical School. She brings a passion for accessibility and universal design, component-based design approaches, and collaborative coding to CDS.
And, like many of the staff in CDS, Elizabeth came to technology via the Humanities—she has a BA in History from Barnard College of Columbia University.
Hilary Wang joins the Library in the role of Digital Archivist within Digital Services at the John Hay Library. First day: August 1.
Hilary will be preserving and providing access to born digital and reformatted digital collection materials including websites, social media, email and other digital record types from archival and manuscript collections at the John Hay Library to advance the integrative scholarship and educational mission of the University. She will provide access and support widespread dissemination of digital collection materials through the Brown Digital Repository and other portals, with a particular focus on materials from the priority collection areas identified in the John Hay Library’s collecting directions.
Hilary comes to Brown from Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library and the Yale Center for British Art Archives where she was the Kress Fellow in Art Librarianship. As part of her fellowship, Hilary described and arranged hybrid archival materials, including describing born-digital materials and preparing those for ingest into a long-term preservation system. In addition Hilary served on the Reparative Archival Description Working Group at Yale.
Previously Hilary was an Archives Intern at the IsamuNoguchi Museum, the Born Digital Archives Pratt Fellow at the Guggenheim Museum, and a User Experience Researcher and Data Analyst at the Pratt Center for Digital Experiences.
Hilary holds a Master of Science in Library and Information Science from Pratt Institute School of Information. She is very familiar with Providence as she holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design.
The Global Curatorial Project Archivist is a project-based position housed at the John Hay Library in partnership with the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (CSSJ). The Global Curatorial Project (GCP) was founded in 2014 to be a network of scholars, curators, and educators who are committed to creating innovative forms of public history about the historical social system of racial slavery and the ways in which it continues to shape our world. To learn more about this innovative project see the description on the CSSJ website.
Bianca Pallo
Bianca Pallo is originally from South Florida and earned her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and her Master’s in Library Science from Simmons University. Bianca has a broad range of experience in the archival field, having worked previously in digitization, metadata, and collections management. Prior positions include Digitization Intern for Liberty Mutual, Graduate Student Assistant for Simmons University, Post Production Archives Intern for Lucasfilm Ltd., Museum Educator and Collections Assistant for The Grove Museum, and Archival Assistant for The Institute on World War II and the Human Experience.
The Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Christopher West as the inaugural Curator for the Black Diaspora at the John Hay Library. He will curate special collections, provide instruction and outreach, contribute to programming, and strengthen relationships with key partners like the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. He will also work closely with the Library’s Academic Engagement unit as the subject liaison for Africana Studies. First day: August 8.
Christopher brings deep subject and collections expertise to this role. He most recently served as the Black Culture Literacy Librarian Assistant at the Central Branch of the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon, where he assessed the current holdings of the Library’s Black Resources Center, conducted outreach, and developed programs with Black & African arts organizations in the Portland Metropolitan Region. One example of the collaborative work in which he has participated is the exhibit Reckoning: Racism & Resistance in Glendale, which examines systemic racism in this city. Christopher also developed Historic Central Avenue: A Public History Resource Website which focuses on mid-20th century Central Avenue, a commercial and business district in South Central Los Angeles, based on a 1930s Black business directory with supporting materials including oral histories and thematic essays.
Previous roles include Pasadena City College, in California, where for eight years he served as the College Diversity Initiative Coordinator and for 9 overlapping years as an Assistant Professor of History. He also worked for six years at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, as Curator and Program Manager. In 2007, Christopher was awarded a PhD in American History from the University of Southern California.
Operations are founded on the most up-to-date, reliable safety protocols to ensure a healthy environment for our patrons and staff. Please follow all Healthy Brown steps to keep yourself and our community well. If you aren’t feeling well, please make use of the Library’s robust slate of digital resources.
Masking is optional in all University spaces, including the Library. For information on when masking may be required, see “Approach to Academic Instruction for Fall 2022,” a message to the Brown community from Provost Richard M. Locke.
Locations, Hours, and Access
Visit Library Hours for the full, updated list of locations and hours.
Please note that reservations are required for the Gildor Family Special Collections Reading Room at the John Hay Library. Email [email protected] to make a reservation. You must also request materials through Aeon one week (5 full business days) in advance of your reservation. The Hay’s visiting webpage has more information. A Carnegie Library, the Hay is open to the public Monday through Friday.
Visitors who anticipate using the Rockefeller, Sciences, or Orwig Libraries on an ongoing basis must obtain a Brown University Library card. Cards will be issued upon receipt and approval of a completed Brown University Library Visitors request form. The Library must approve requests for visitors, excluding those with IDs sponsored by a department or program at Brown, Brown alumni, and visitors attending a Library public event. More information.
Library Support
In-person
Patrons can schedule in-person (and online) consultation appointments with a Library expert by contacting the relevant library expert directly. Not sure who to contact? Email [email protected] for general inquiries and [email protected] for Special Collections inquiries.
Online
Please continue to request materials online through BruKnow. Requested materials will be held at the service desks. Patrons will be notified when the item is available and where it should be picked up. The Library is providing document delivery through the ILLiad system.
Graduate and Medical Student Carrels
Study carrels are available to graduate and medical students. Interested persons should inquire at the Rockefeller Library service desk.
Guides and videos with information about how to use the Library, conduct various aspects of research, and more are available online.
Feedback
Your Brown University Library is committed to providing all patrons with the best possible academic library experience. Throughout your engagement with Library collections, physical spaces, patron services, instruction, and web-based tools and content, you should be welcomed, valued, and respected, and be provided with equal opportunities to pursue scholarship in a spirit of free and open inquiry.
We encourage your feedback about any aspect of Library services, resources, and facilities. Feedback can be made through this anonymous form, which has an option for inputting your contact information, or you can email [email protected]
