August 2018 is here, and with summer in full swing in D.C., the Kluge Center welcomed six new fellows into residence, including five from our Kluge Fellowship Program. Here are the projects that they will be working on:
Alda Benjamen, an incoming Kluge Fellow, arrived from the University of Pennsylvania Museum. During her residency, Alda will conduct research on her project, “Negotiating the Place of Assyrians in Modern Iraq.” While at the Library, Alda will utilize the African and Middle Eastern collection at the Library of Congress, including Aramaic and Arabic language materials, periodicals, as well as music, photographic, and recorded sound collections related to Assyrian communities in Iraq and surrounding nations.
Armando Chavez Rivera, another incoming Kluge Fellow, arrived from the University of Houston System (UH Victoria). During his residency, Armando will research, “The Foundational Library of the Cuban Literature: The Domingo del Monte Collection.” While at the Library, Armando will study the Del Monte Collection of Spanish Colonial History in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
Krista Goff, also a Kluge Fellow, arrived from the University of Miami. During her residency, Krista will focus on her project, “Nested Nationalism: Soviet Nationality Politics and Minority Experience.” While at the Library, Krista will use a variety of collections from the Microform, European, Geography and Map, and African and Middle Eastern Collections to analyze the minority experience in the Soviet Union.
Duncan Yoon (Kluge Fellow) arrived from New York University. During his residency, Duncan will concentrate on his project, “Africa Writes China: Literature and Globalization.” While at the Library, Duncan will examine periodicals from a wide range of African nations which are only available at the Library of Congress, including Black Orpheus, Transition, Darlite, Kwani, Chimurenga, Jewel of Africa, Presence Africaine, and Zuka, as well as the archives of the Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization (AAPSO), along with many other periodicals and archival holdings.
Lev Weitz, the fifth incoming Kluge Fellow this month, is from Catholic University of America. During his residency, Lev will conduct research on his project, “Christians and Muslims in Medieval Egypt: ‘Minorities,’ Rights, and the State in the Premodern World.” While at the Library, Lev will scrutinize microfilm copies of the archives and library of St. Catherine’s Monastery of Mount Sinai, microfilms of the library of the Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Near East Section’s Mansuri Collection, and several Arabic legal and theological manuscripts held in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division.
Lukas Etter, an incoming scholar in the German partnership fellowship program, arrived from the University of Siegen. During his residency, Lukas will focus on his project, “‘Word Problems’: Popular and Educational Discourses on Mathematics in the Pre-Civil War United States.” While at the Library, Lukas will inspect the Library’s holdings in historical mathematical textbooks, many of which are only held at the Library of Congress.
Check back next month for more arriving scholars. Click here for the full list of scholars currently in residence.