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."
