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Research Prize Winners 2008 Winners
Paper Description Sarah Kuiken’s paper was an examination of Dror Wahrman’s concept of “gender panic” that he proposed in his text The Making of the Modern Self. According to Wahrman, gender flexibility in late eighteenth century English society was abruptly and significantly constricted. Ms. Kuiken’s intent, as stated in her paper, was “to assess the validity of Wahrman’s claims as they relate to seafaring women who dressed as men, particularly as they were represented in fictional works and ballads of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.” Her analysis found evidence that the restriction on gender flexibility may have “occurred much more slowly than Wahrman hypothesized, probably over a span of fifty years or more, and that it was never quite as complete as he implies.” Essay on the Research Process and Use of the Library Ms. Kuiken reported “use of a wide range of library resources” in her winning essay. She used both primary and secondary sources available at the Leatherby Libraries. She also made “extensive” use of interlibrary loan services, which provided her access to “rather obscure” materials. In addition to books, Ms. Kuiken used various electronic resources, including: JSTOR, Academic OneFile, History Online, and Project MUSE. She also scheduled an individual research consultation with librarian Claudia Horn to refine her search strategies and discover eighteenth-century literary resources. The consultation helped Ms. Kuiken “immeasurably.” She concluded, “The most lasting benefit…is that I have acquired research techniques that will continue to serve me well when I continue on to graduate school.”
Paper Description Michelle Kanda investigated the period in British history, around 1780, when “public opinion turned against slavery.” She asserted, “Those involved in the trade now needed to present arguments for its continuation.” In her paper, Ms. Kanda set out to examine how “popular Enlightenment ideas” were used to argue in favor of maintaining slavery. She focused on a group called the Officers of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, which were “government contractors responsible for maintaining the slave trading forts on the Gold Coast.” She concluded that the arguments used by the officers “were not a reflection of their actual beliefs.” Essay on the Research Process and Use of the Library Ms. Kanda began her investigation with a gathering of information and completion of a literature review through the use of JSTOR and books at the Leatherby Libraries. She discovered the book reviews in JSTOR were helpful for evaluating her sources. Beyond JSTOR, Ms. Kanda used different EBSCO databases and Lexis-Nexis Academic. She also used the citations in articles she found particularly strong to point her to additional resources. She realized primary sources would be essential for her research. She used the WorldCat database to locate memoirs, letters, pamphlets, and books held at other libraries. She then obtained these essential materials through interlibrary loan, which included personal letters on microfilm from the University of Edinburgh. Ms. Kanda also reported attending “several library orientations.” These orientations introduced her to additional electronic resources, such as dissertations, that supplemented her research.
Paper Description Lauren Mandel explored the history of transsexualism and the work of Harry Benjamin, “as well as the evolution of methodology and opinion within the fields of counseling, psychology, and medicine regarding gender variant behavior and cross gender identification.” According to Ms. Mandel, Benjamin coined the term “transsexual” and “is largely responsible for the legitimacy of studying and treating gender variance in psychology and medicine.” Not only did Benjamin co-found the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex in 1954, but he also published The Transsexual Phenomenon, which Ms. Mandel described as “the first scholarly book for the medical community on the subject of transsexualism.” Ms. Mandel believes “the increasing visibility of gender variance” will lead to further exploration of transsexualism in various disciplines. Essay on the Research Process and Use of the Library Ms. Mandel made “extensive use of books, journal articles, and websites” during the research process. Her materials ranged in date from 1966 to 2006. She located her resources through searches on numerous databases, including PsycINFO, ProQuest Psychology Journals, PsycARTICLES, and Academic OneFile. When searching on the Internet, she utilized Google Scholar. Ms. Mandel scheduled an individual research consultation with librarian Julie Artman to ensure her references were in proper APA format. She also reported receiving research help from librarians Lorraine Attarian, Claudia Horn, and Stacy Russo. Ms. Mandel concluded that she “learned a tremendous amount from conducting research for this paper.” Examples included not limiting to only full-text articles in databases, since interlibrary loan is an option and “to keep playing with and changing” her search terms.
Paper Description Brittany Columbus examined how the media reported the Battle of Dunkirk during World War II. She discovered “British and American media portrayed the evacuation at Dunkirk as a miraculous act of heroism rather than a battle, and in focusing on the bravery and valor of the event, gave the Allies the essential boost of morale that strengthened the war effort.” Although the battle “was a German victory from a logistical point of view,” Ms. Columbus concluded the media turned the loss into “spirited reports of possibility” and created “the idea that the good guys win in the end.” Essay on the Research Process and Use of the Library Ms. Columbus began her investigation with books. She then relied heavily on the Leatherby Libraries collection of online historical newspapers to research her topic. She utilized The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. While searching in the newspaper databases, Ms. Columbus used the advanced search page “to link specific changes in coverage with dates and events of the battle.” She read nearly two hundred articles. Using guides on database searching she received during a library instruction session, Ms. Columbus was able to simultaneously search multiple databases. As she prepares to enter her senior year, she reports feeling more comfortable with databases, locating library books, using interlibrary loan, and meeting with librarians for research assistance. Congratulations to the 2008 winners!
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