Student Engagement Fellows and Mini Grants Presentations

There are five presentation in this session. You will receive the Zoom link via email when you register.

Ananda Lewis and Nia Allen (Mini Grant)
Cycles of Care: Addressing Menstrual Equity and Menstrual Health Access in Women’s Shelters

The Black Maternal Equity Collective, a student organization dedicated to addressing maternal health disparities among Black birthing individuals through policy analysis, public health, advocacy work, doula and midwife care, and dialogue about what it means to be a Black birthgiver and what socio-political factors influence one.

Zainab Hakim and Serena Safawi (Engagement Fellows)
Iraqi Art and Resilience Exhibitions

This project continues the amazing work begun during the Summer 2023 Michigan Library Scholars project “Shadow and Light” by interns Zainab Hakim and Serena Safawi.

One exhibit (opening early in the fall semester) will be structured around a selection of photographs and artist statements from the Shadow and Light project. This project memorializes the lives of Iraqi educators and academics who were killed in targeted assassinations between 2003 and 2013, a timeframe that roughly parallels the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Collection material and other traces connecting with the legacies of these slain academics will be displayed along with the artists’ memorials.

A second exhibit (opening late in the fall semester) will be structured around artists’ books and other materials featuring the work of Iraqi artists. It will also include work from the project al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here — a collective artists’ response commemorating the 2007 bombing of a historic bookmarket in Baghdad.

An online exhibit exploring modern Iraqi struggle and resistance through contemporary visual art will provide essential context and connection to Iraqi artists and educators as a complement to the physical exhibitions.

Gurpreet Bedi and Serena Diao (Engagement Fellows)
Hatcher Haunts Wayfinding Game

Hatcher Haunts is a gamified educational experience centered on wayfinding in the Hatcher Graduate Library. The genesis of this experience took place Summer 2023 as a Michigan Library Scholars project. Now, the opportunity to expand its capacity and reach across campus is on the horizon. From fall 2023 – Fall 2024, this project will involve discovering and facilitating connections for the continuation of Hatcher Haunts, expo-ing the game at various library events, and developing a conference presentation about this project to share out with the larger academic community. Participants in this phase of the project will have the opportunity to hone important skills like project management, integrated networking, workflow research, and research/development across various organizational domains.

Krystel Anderson (Engagement Fellows)
University of Michigan Seed Library

Initiating a seed library at an institution is no small feat. Bringing a project such as this to programmatic fruition takes care, cultivation, and a wide open curiosity about many moving parts and changing conditions. By drawing from the seasons and cycles of learning that give body to the University of Michigan, students working on this project will play a major role in configuring a path forward for an eventual seed library. Inclusive of participating U of M campuses and community partners, students will learn how to navigate many twists and turns while honing vision into action through connecting across multiple stakeholder environments. Participants in this program development opportunity will gain experience navigating event planning, transforming documentation into a transparent narrative, presenting information to a wider audience via conferences and/or workshop partnerships, and learning about various forms of circulation practices that can strengthen and institutionalize open seed sharing within a library environment.

Prakruthi Manjunatha
The Mixed Race Project