Special Collections Research Center Awards Two Faculty Fellows Grants for 2025-2026

Jan. 21, 2025, 5 p.m.

two headshots in circles on blue background
Photo of Arun Brahmbhatt, Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion, and Zeke Leonard, Associate Professor and Associate Director in the School of Design

Syracuse University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) recently awarded its two Faculty Fellows grants for the 2025-2026 academic year. Arun Brahmbhatt, Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion, and Zeke Leonard, Associate Professor and Associate Director in the School of Design, have each committed to a four-week summer residency in 2025 at SCRC that includes workshops and training sessions on handling special collections materials, teaching students how to research within and across collections, and designing hands-on, individualized, creative and critically-minded assignments with rare materials. The fellows, who applied and were selected by a committee of librarians and curators, will use what they learned and the materials from SCRC to teach newly developed courses the following year.

SCRC Instruction and Education Librarian, Jana Rosinski, is looking forward to having the fellows bring attention to areas of unique strength in the SCRC collections as follows:

Syracuse University Libraries’ SCRC Faculty Fellows Program aims to support innovative curriculum development and foster new ideas about how to transform the role of special collections in University instruction. Each fellow receives a $5,000 payment along with guidance on how to provide students with a unique opportunity to research, analyze and interpret SCRC’s primary source materials in their class, and ongoing course support.

George Bain G'06, a member of the Library Associates, and William F. Gaske ’72, a member of the Libraries Advisory Board, provided generous gift funding towards the SCRC Faculty Fellows Program. Original funding for the program was made possible through the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, which promotes the advancement and perpetuation of humanistic inquiry and artistic creativity by encouraging excellence in scholarship and in the performing arts, and by supporting research libraries and other institutions that transmit our cultural heritage.

To learn more about the Faculty Fellows Program or teaching with SCRC, contact Jana Rosinski, SCRC’s Instruction and Education Librarian at jrosinsk@syr.edu.

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