Aarushi Vijay ’22 and Jerri Bell ’21 were awarded $1,000 each. Honorable mentions and $500 each also went to Molly Lamendola ’22 and Eden Marchese ’23.
On May 5, the DiMenna-Nyselius Library celebrated student scholarship and research with an online celebration to recognize the 2021 Library Research Prize winners. Aarushi Vijay ’22 and Jerri Bell ’21 were awarded $1,000 each. The committee also presented honorable mentions and $500 to Molly Lamendola ’22 and Eden Marchese ’23 for their research projects. Fairfield University community members came together to listen to the students share about their work and their use of library resources.
Vijay won the Undergraduate Library Research Prize. She researched “Analyzing Contemporary Indian Adaptations of Shakespeare: Shakespeare as a Medium for Social and Political Commentary in a Post-Colonial India,” while taking a humanities seminar taught by professor of English Robert Epstein, PhD. In her submission, Vijay described how she used a wide range of library resources including plays, journal articles, newspaper articles, and critical analyses that she found through various library databases.
Bell, winner of the Graduate Library Research Prize, is completing a master of fine arts (MFA) degree in creative writing with a dual concentration in fiction and non-fiction. She conducted extensive research for her project under the guidance of Adjunct Professor Eugenia Kim. Bell’s thesis will soon become a book, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books, entitled The Golden Fourteen: How the Navy’s First African American Yeomen (Female) Fought Back Against White Supremacy. The book will tell the story of the first African American women to serve officially in the U.S. armed forces.
Due to the strong pool of undergraduate applicants, honorable mentions were awarded to two students. Lamendola’s research project, titled “How a Supposed Retold Algonquin Tale Fails an Accurate Retelling of a Native American Truth,” was completed for "The Literary Fairytale Tradition" course taught by Dr. Epstein. Marchese’s research project, titled “The Cult of White Domesticity,” explores the similarities of pressure the cult of womanhood had on enslaved African American women and immigrant women, using firsthand accounts of African American women during the antebellum period and current resources about the immigrant process.
To learn more about each research project visit the Library’s blog, The DNL Report.
