Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

School of Information Studies Recognizes Library Scholars

February 3rd, 2020

Five Purdue professors have been named recipients of awards from the 2019-20 Library Scholars Grants program.

The grants are awarded by the Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies to early-career Purdue professors to help them gain access to primary source materials and unique collections that are necessary for their research. Grants of up to $5,000 each are made possible through an endowment established by the generosity of the 50th Anniversary Gift of the Class of 1935.

Dr. Megha Anwer will travel to archives in Delhi, India, where she will be mapping women’s habitation and their encounters with crime and urban violence. This research will contribute to her current book project, “Forgettable Infractions: Everyday Violence and Female Mobility in Victorian London (1850-1900) and Delhi (1911-1947).” Anwer is a Clinical Assistant Professor and the Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity in the Honors College.

Dr. J. Peter Moore will conduct research onsite at the University of California-Santa Barbara and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, utilizing the papers of the architect, Cliff May, and the poet, Gwendolyn Brooks. His current book project, “Other than a Citizen: Vernacular Poetics in Postwar America”, will explore daily used language with a multifaceted approach that encompasses a variety of expressive forms that include poetry and architecture. Moore is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Honors College.

Dr. Erik Otárola-Castillo will conduct archival research at the Ministry of Culture in Lima, Peru, with his project, “Climate Change Effects on the Migration and Subsistence Patterns of the First South Americans.” His current study focuses on climate change and its impact on migration in South America. Otárola-Castillo is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts.

Dr. Zoe Taylor, will visit the Refugee Studies Center at Oxford University to utilize their archives to advance her project, “Children on the Move in the Twenty-First Century: An Assessment of Resilience, Mental Health and Well-being of Migrant Children in Europe.” Her research broadly examines factors which contribute to health and positive development outcomes in underserved children, with a focus on migratory Latinx populations. Taylor is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

Dr. Margaret Tillman will conduct research at the Shanghai Municipal Archives in the People’s Republic of China for her second book project, tentatively titled, “Tested: Cultivating Talent and China’s Standardized Exams, 1905-1950,” that examines Chinese educational testing in the aftermath of the abolition of the Civil Service Examination. The results of her expedition will inform a chapter about postwar policies to extend literacy campaigns and to implement a new postwar vision of international peace promoted by the United Nations. Tillman is an Assistant Professor of Chinese History in the College of Liberal Arts.

This year’s scholars will be recognized at a luncheon on March 4 in the Purdue Memorial Union. Presentations will be given by previous awardees, Dr. Silva Mitchell, Dr. Heather Fielding, and Dr. Kim Gallon, who conducted their research at the Archivo del Palacio Uceda in Spain, at the New York Public Library and Columbia University, and at the People’s Educational Association at the University of Ghana in Africa, respectively.

For more information about the program, and to see the past recipients of Library Scholars Grants, visit www.lib.purdue.edu/scholars/past_recipients.