2022 – 2023
James Gerien-Chen (Professor, History)
Strengthening Library Holdings in Asian Studies
Over the past several years, Asian Studies has been growing at the University of Florida. New junior faculty in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (LLC) and History bring teaching and research strengths that expand learning opportunities for students. This grant would provide funding for library acquisition of secondary scholarship in Asian studies in English published in the past decade. These titles represent the newest and most innovative research across conventional regional, temporal, and disciplinary divides. Their acquisition will invigorate our existing holdings of rare materials, graphic novels, and the visual arts, and introduce students from diverse backgrounds to the discipline.
Terry Harpold (Professor, English)
Environmental Humanities and Climate Catastrophe: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Crisis in the 21st Century
The contemporary Environmental Humanities (EH) take as a founding premise that we live in a time of accelerating planetary transformation: ecological instability, multispecies extinction, forced migration, and social and political unrest fostered by climate change. EH marshals the disciplines of literature, philosophy, history, communications, anthropology, and sociology to understand and propose constructive responses to these dangers. EH embraces diverse ways of knowing from humanities traditions of the Global North and South, values Indigenous voices, and addresses multispecies welfare. It brings to the foreground the imperative need for environmental consciousness, equity, and justice. This proposal seeks to extend and enhance collections of the Smathers Libraries in this field.
Jinxiu “Serena” Liu (Ph.D. Student, Education)
Bilingual Children’s Books: Bridging Cultural Gaps with Literature
With a growing number of immigrants in the United States, bilingual children’s literature has become a key intercultural mediator. These books provide audiences with a knowledge of languages as well as cultural practices and traditions associated with languages. Additionally, these books can contribute to understanding how humans impact the natural and cultural world, and shape each other. Unfortunately, in the UF Education Library, only about 1% of the children’s books are bilingual books. Hence, this Library Enhancement Grant will facilitate the study and use of bilingual children’s books by expanding the holdings of the Education Library
Hina Shaikh (Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies)
Developing a Diverse, Inclusive, and Ethical Artificial Intelligence Library Collection in the Humanities
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Academic Initiative Center was recently established at UF. Its goals are to position the university as a leader in AI research and development, and ensure every student develops a basic competency in AI regardless of their field of study. Recent AI faculty hires and the creation of new curricula outside of the traditional STEM fields of study translate to a critical need for AI-related library materials in the areas of humanities to support this initiative. Additionally, in the process of developing a diverse and inclusive collection, it is vital to recognize the existing gender gap and implicit biases in the field of AI and counter this by including sources specifically addressing ethics and fairness, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and other underrepresented groups, as well as privacy concerns.
2021 – 2022
Álvaro Luís Lima (Professor, Art History)
Collection Enhancement in Animal Studies
Robin Wright (Professor, Religion), Richard Conley (Professor, Political Science), Dr. Ginessa Mahar (Anthropology Librarian, Smathers Libraries), Rachel Hartnett (Ph.D. Student, English)
Collection Enhancement in Indigenous Studies
Brianna Anderson (Ph.D. Student, English), Brandon Murakami (Ph.D. Student, English), and Brittany Kester (Education Librarian, Smathers Libraries)
Decolonizing the Children’s Literature Archives: Multicultural Picture Books
Hélène Blondeau (Professor, Languages, Literatures and Cultures), Rori Bloom (Professor, Languages, Literatures and Cultures), and Dr. Hélène Huet (European Studies Librarian, Smathers Libraries)
Francophone Comics: Reimagining Contemporary Culture
2020 – 2021
Ali Mian (Professor, Department of Religion), Megan Daly (Classics, Philosophy, and Religion Librarian, Smathers Libraries)
Collection Enhancement in Islamic Studies
Rachel Carrico (Professor, School of Theatre + Dance), Sarah Politz (Professor, School of Music), and Alan Asher (Music Librarian, Smathers Libraries)
Multimedia Resources for Dance and Ethnomusicology
2019 – 2020
Leah Rosenberg (Professor, English), Pamela Gilbert (Professor, English), Rae X. Yan (Professor, English), and Jessica Harland Jacobs (Professor, Department of History)
Bridging Caribbean and Victorian Studies: The Morant Bay Rebellion as Boundary Object
Vasudha Narayanan (Professor, Religion), Jonathan Edelmann (Professor, Religion), and Megan Daly, (Classics, Philosophy, and Religion Librarian, Smathers Libraries)
Hindu Traditions
2018-2019
Christopher Smith (Professor, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures)
Japanese Comics, Animation, and Manga 1950-1980s
2017-2018
Najwa Al-Tabaa (Ph.D. Student, English)
Comics and Visual Rhetoric
2016 – 2017
Terje Ostebo (Professor, Religion)
Global Islam
Francesc Morales (Ph.D. Student, Spanish & Portuguese Studies)
Modern Spanish Terrorism
Lisa Iglesias (Professor, Art + Art History)
Artists of Color and from Under-Represented Communities
Vandana Baweja (Professor, Architecture)
cities in Cinema
2015 – 2016
Najwa Al-Tabaa (Ph.D. Student, English)
Comics: Theoretical Texts
Eleni Bozia (Professor, Classics)
Digital Humanities
Barbara Mennel (Professor, English and Languages, Literatures and Cultures)
Turkish German Female Filmmakers
2014 – 2015
Dr. Jack Kugelmass (Professor, Center for Jewish Studies) and Dr. Rebecca Jefferson (Curator, Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica; Professor, Center for Jewish Studies)
Forverts (The Forward): Yiddish-language Daily Newspaper in New York City
Alessia Colarossi (Professor, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) and Debora Amberson (Professor, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures)
Italian Resources: Literary Modernism, Contemporary Cinema, Immigrant Literature and Contemporary Cultural Studies
2013 – 2014
Dr. Eric Segal (Education Curator of Academic Programs, Harn Museum of Art) and Ivy Chen (Bishop Studies Center Manager, Harn Museum of Art)
Art and Culture
Malini Johar Schueller (Professor, English)
Asian American Studies
Elisabet Liminyana Vico (Professor, Spanish & Portuguese Studies) and Ana de Prada Pérez (Professor, Journalism)
Catalan Linguistics and Cultural Studies
Dr. Jack Kugelmass (Professor, Center for Jewish Studies) and Dr. Rebecca Jefferson (Curator, Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica; Professor, Center for Jewish Studies)
Buenos Aires Yiddish daily Di prese
2012 – 2013
Jill Sonke (Professor, School of Theatre and Dance; Director, Center for the Arts in Medicine)
Interdisciplinary Medical Humanities Collection
Jason Steuber (Cofrin Curator of Asian Art, Harn Museum of Art), Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler (Museum & Special Projects Coordinator, Digital Library Center), and Allysa Browne Peyton (Curatorial Associate of Asian Art, Harn Museum of Art)
Digital Preservation of a 17th-century Korean Gilt-wood Bodhisattva in the Harn Collection
2011 – 2012
Leah Rosenberg (Professor, English)
Early Caribbean Literature and Periodicals in the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) and UF Digital Collections (UFDC)
Barbara Mennel (Professor, English and Languages Literatures, and Culture)
Film and Media Resources (FMR)
2010 – 2011
Gonda Van Steen (Professor, Center for Greek Studies)
Modern Greek
Rebecca Nagy (Director, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art)
What is the Good Life?
Sean MacDonald (Professor, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) and Richard Wang (Professor, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures)
Language and Culture of China
Howard Louthan (Professor, History)
Central and Eastern Europe
2009 – 2010
Andrea Sterk (Professor, History)
Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Benjamin Hebblethwaite (Professor, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures)
Haitian Creole Culture
Michelle Campos (Professor, History)
History, Languages, and Cultures of the Middle East
Brenda Chalfin (Professor, Anthropology and Center for African Studies)
African Studies: Architectural, Planning, and Housing Records from Ghana’s Midcentury Planned City of Tema