Now in its sixth year, the fellowship program enables undergraduates to engage directly in research with rare books, manuscripts and other primary sources to develop original and compelling student-driven projects with one-on-one support from a librarian mentor, according to Heather Cole, who until recently served as head of special collections instruction at the Hay Library, where she co-led the fellowship program.

“This is the type of intensive research opportunity you’d typically get as a faculty member or graduate student, so it’s a unique opportunity for undergraduates that gives them a chance to really hone their research skills and practice,” Cole said. “It’s like a primary-source research boot camp.”

The eight fellows in this year’s cohort, including LoGreco, will each present their project during a showcase at the Hay Library on Oct. 3, marking the culmination of a robust summer fellowship during which they learned sourcing, citation and strategies to aggregate exhaustive research into concise, focused projects.

“The biggest learning curve has been figuring out how to organize my research — I’ve been able to follow so many paths, and then the challenge is figuring out how to put them all together,” said LoGreco, who is concentrating in history and ethnic studies. “This has really helped me develop the theory and framework for the research I’m interested in, and I hope to use this as part of my history thesis.”

The fellowship enabled Brown-RISD dual-degree student Daniella Pozo to explore the history of quilts for her project, “Blanket Statements: Artchives at Work,” a demanding research process that included papermaking with fabric scraps and recycled paper.  

“We appreciate quilting’s place in human history and quilts as archival objects, but the way we think about quilts can obscure the conditions women have worked in,” said Pozo, a member of the Class of 2027 from the Bronx concentrating in urban studies at Brown and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design. “In reading firsthand accounts and thinking about the process of quilting, I learned how it dictated so much of people’s lives and how they were measured by the number of quilts they made in a year. Reading accounts of women’s daily schedules is different from the way quilts can be romanticized.”

Diving deep into a summer of discovery

The fellowship program’s strengths are grounded in its student-led approach, supported by expert guidance from library subject specialists, a peer cohort model, and opportunities to engage with research professionals and archivists, according to Jasmine Sykes, head of research services at the Hay Library and program co-leader.

“This aligns with Brown’s Open Curriculum by giving students the freedom to research a topic that they’re curious about at the intersection of their academic interests,” Sykes said. “The fellowship gives students opportunities to have full autonomy and agency while gaining access to special collections and services.”

Dozens of students apply for the annual fellowship, which is supported by a $5,000 stipend, according to Sykes. The immersive experience includes field trips to museums, archives and more, and the fellows meet weekly to share successes and challenges.

“We meet regularly together and immerse the students in a hands-on approach that helps them see archives as dynamic spaces, not just static repositories,” Sykes said.

To research the history of laundry and washing from 1850 to 1950, LoGreco pored over ephemera, old newspaper advertisements, laundry how-to booklets designed for domestic servants and housewives, archival photos, personal letters and more. 

“There is not a ton of concrete, primary source information from the women who did this labor, but I had the opportunity to explore ephemera and materials in the Hay collection, including post-Civil War photos of women working as laundresses during Reconstruction, particularly poor Black women,” said LoGreco, who is from Los Angeles and a junior at Brown.

The fellows in this year’s cohort are pursuing academic concentrations — including environmental chemistry, international and public affairs, and anthropology — as wide-ranging as their projects, which include the study of medieval manuscripts, community medicine, and immigration and the Filipino diaspora.

“This year’s cohort tackled a truly diverse range of topics,” Cole said. “These projects, born from the Hay’s collections, demonstrate the program’s commitment to fostering both traditional and innovative scholarship.”

When the student researchers weren’t in the Special Collections Reading Room on College Hill, they were engaging in hands-on activities, like making old-fashioned iron gall ink, establishing connections with local historical societies, and meeting with Senior Library Expert Erica Saladino, a conservation technician at Brown who specializes in book repair and preservation.

“It’s really great to nurture the students’ journeys and watch the process as they advance their ideas from research proposals to final projects,” Sykes said. “Because students are driving the research and given that freedom, they are attached to the work in very different and special ways.” 

The October showcase and a final reflection paper enable the fellows to articulate their findings and share their scholarly contributions, according to Cole and Sykes, who said that alumni of the program have gone on to pursue careers and graduate studies that integrate these skills and experiences.

“It will be interesting to see everyone’s final project and the key elements they surfaced through their research,” Pozo said.

“This experience has pushed me — and I think it’s pushed all of us,” LoGreco said.