The Center for Regional Studies is funding 10 fellows this year to work on organizing and preserving the special collections in the Center for Southwest Research. The fellows provide much-needed assistance in making those collections more accessible to researchers.
Annette Rodriguez, who is the George I. Sanchez Fellow, is at work on finding aids for the Online Archive of New Mexico. She selects and digitizes images for the title pages of the finding aids. Rodriguez is a graduate student in American Studies whose research interest is the racial component of labor migration along the U.S. – Mexico border at the turn of the 20th century.
Aaron Blecha is the first fellow specializing in preservation. He examines, treats and does preventative conservation for manuscripts, books and other cultural property in the Center for Southwest Research. Blecha is working toward a master’s degree in Comparative Language and Literature with an additional focus on Museum studies. His research interest is the history of textual scholarship and the development of print culture.
Kari Schleher, the fellow in pictorial archives, is processing the photographic collections and is assisting in reference requests from scholars. As part of her work, she is digitizing approximately a thousand images for placement on the University Libraries digital collections website. Research for her doctoral dissertation in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology involves prehistoric puebloan ceramics from the San Marcos Pueblo in the Galisteo Basin.
Jacobo D. Baca, the Gov. Bruce King Fellow, is organizing and processing the papers of Governor Bruce King for the UNM Law Library. Baca’s research interests are 20th century New Mexican and American history. His thesis is an examination of the 1951 New Mexico Supreme Court decision in Zellers v. Huff, a case which banned Catholic nuns and brothers from teaching in New Mexico public schools. His work is directly funded by the New Mexico Legislature.
Jane Sinclair, the Clinton P. Anderson Fellow, assists with reference and public service activities in the Center for Southwest Research’s Anderson Reading Room. She is a doctoral candidate doing research into the ways Indian casinos offer a new venue and museum setting for contemporary Native art.
Ramona Caplan is the Beatrice Chauvenet Fellow and is processing the papers of New Mexico architect Louis G. Hesseldon. Hesseldon designed numerous high-profile local buildings including the Albuquerque Country Club, and the original Albuquerque High School. Caplan’s research interests include the 19th century American West; George Armstrong Custer; Indian Wars; Native American history; Sevilleta Land Grant; Cathay Williams, Lady Buffalo Soldier; Ed Morrell, penologist; uncelebrated men and women who are markers in American Western History, Albert Bacon Fall; and oral history as a pivotal component in assessing history.
Jason Strykowski is the Juan and Virginia Chacón Fellow, and is processing the John Ussery papers, which contain materials relating to renewable energy technology, mostly in the 1970s. His master’s thesis is an investigation of the career of territorial governor and author Lew Wallace in New Mexico. His area of study is history of the Western United States.
The John Gaw Meem Fellow is Julie McGilvray. She is processing the papers of two important New Mexico architects, Frank M. Standhart and George Pearl. McGilvray is pursuing a masters in Landscape Architecture, and says her research goals focus on the way time is defined in a cultural landscape by exploring definitions of ‘new’ and ‘old’ and how these notions create perceived juxtapositions that define cultural values in the built environment.
David F. Garcia is the Fray Angélico Chavez Fellow. He is working to describe documents in the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN) pertaining to the Spanish colonial history of New Mexico and Yucatan. Garcia is a graduate student in the Spanish and Portuguese Department and is working on a master’s degree with an emphasis on the Chicano literature and cultural studies and social linguistics of the Southwest. His thesis is on ritual folk drama of the Mexico/U.S. border region.
As the Dennis Chavez Fellow, Lavinia M. Nocolae is processing the records of New Mexico U.S. Marshals 1897-1950. Those records document the duties of the NM marshals, which ranged from apprehending cattle smugglers and deporting Chinese laborers to riding trains during strikes to protect the mail, investigating illegal liquor sales to Indians and registering enemy aliens in wartime. Her doctoral research focuses on how family and kinship narratives are formulated by gay and lesbian couples in New Mexico and how those narratives are debated and interpreted politically and legally.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at November 14, 2006 02:18 PM