The DNL Report

Yesterday (May 6th) marked the 71st Met Gala and it did not disappoint. The event, which, don't forget, is actually a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, opened up the Museum's 2019 fashion exhibit entitled Camp: Notes on Fashion and the theme was put to task on the red pink carpet. Superstar pop icons from all mediums turned looks and left many of us gagged and opened up the discussion about what Camp really means.

The Met specifically cites Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp'" as the framework of the exhibition (opening May 9th) so it is worth grabbing a few quotes from that.

"Indeed the essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration...Camp is esoteric -- something of a private code, a badge of identity even, among small urban cliques."

"...the way of Camp, is not in terms of beauty, but in terms of the degree of artifice, of stylization."

"Camp is the triumph of the epicene style. (The convertibility of "man" and "woman," "person" and "thing.") But all style, that is, artifice, is, ultimately, epicene."

(Sontag)

The reintroduction of Sontag's essay over 50 years later has allowed a new set of critical eyes to consider what has changed in the past five decades and, indeed, how her attempt to define it differed from that which proceeded her by over 50 years. According to the BBC's review of the Gala, "The first English definition of the term, which appeared in a 1909 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, conformed to popular, contemporary notions of camp:

On Wednesday May 1st 2019, Sydney Williams and Elisabeth Muller were awarded the 2019 Library Research Prizes of $1,000 and were honored at a reception in the Library. The committee also presented two honorable mentions undergraduate students, Lauren Hart and Dominic Joseph Mazza. Plans are in the works to honor all Undergraduate and Graduate winners of the Library Research Prize, since 2009, on a plaque in the Library.

For more information about the Prize criteria visit fairfield.edu/libprize

Undergraduate Winner

Sydney Williams earned the undergraduate Library Research Prize for her research process for her International Studies Capstone paper entitled " The Second Wave of Neocolonialism: China's Growing Presence in the Sub-Saharan Africa." This paper was written for Dr. Terry-Ann Jone's course, IL 300 Capstone.

The judging committee was very impressed with the wide ranging sources, representing a variety of disciplinary perspectives. In addition to the well-researched theoretical foundation of the paper, drawing from World-Systems analysis and Dependency Theory, she presented an overview of African colonialism to make the case that contemporary foreign investment is reminiscent of colonialism.

Dr. Jones' support statement for Sydney's application stated that she "approached her research with an admirable level of enthusiasm. She was eager to learn more about the subject she was researching and although the minimum number of sources required for the International Studies Capstone is 30, she went well beyond that requirement, building a bibliography of more than double what was required. She not only developed research skills with the help of library tutorials, but also sought out additional guidance from reference librarians as she continued her project."

Sydney Williams is an International Studies and Politics double major with minors in Black Studies, Philosophy, and Peace & Justice Studies. She will be graduating this month.

Graduate Winner

Elisabeth Muller was awarded the Graduate Library Research Prize for her research process working on her rigorous Practicum for Literacy Teacher Consultants, taught by Dr. Bryan Ripley Crandall. Her research study, "
Reflective Practice: Continued Improvement of Writing Instruction in the Social Studies Classroom to Promote Historical Understanding. "

Dr. Crandall spoke highly of Elisabeth's work: "Her study, action research at
its core, with a formative experiment design that allowed her to make changes as data was collected, has grown from an original curiosity for improving student writing in a history class to use of multimedia work to promote an empathetic understanding of history while writing. With implementation of a National Writing Project workshop approach, she promoted more reflective writing, research, and document analysis. Additionally, she experimented with historical fiction to complement the argumentative objectives she wanted to reach. As she analyzed student work that initiated the study, her study proactively created a plan to improve their compositional practices."

Elisabeth Muller is a graduate student in GSEAP's Teaching and Foundations, an advanced professional degree for experienced educational professionals and community educators who wish to deepen and expand their knowledge of teaching and learning in a socio-cultural context.

Honorable Mentions

The undergraduate category included a number of excellent submissions, therefore the committee decided to award two Honorable Mentions.

Lauren Hart, a senior Psychology major with minors in Educational Studies, Teacher Prep and Mathematics, won a $250 prize for her paper, "Attention in College Students." The Independent Research course was taught by Dr. Margaret McClure.

Dominic Joseph Mazza was also awarded $250 for his research process for "Corporations' Role in the Holocaust", a paper written for Dr. Gavriel Rosenfeld's course, HI 304: The Holocaust in History & Memory. Dominic is majoring in History with a Philosophy minor.

Thank you to the Library Research Prize sponsors: Fairfield University's Charles F. Dolan School of Business, College of Arts & Sciences, Graduate School of Education & Allied Professions, Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing & Health Studies, and the School of Engineering for their financial support of the prizes, in addition to the Library's financial commitment.