About the prize

The UBC Undergraduate Prize in Library Research is a way to showcase students’ effective and innovative use of library services, information experts and resources provided by the UBC Library. Applications for these prizes also provide students with an opportunity to reflect on their information-seeking experience, showcase their research beyond the classroom, and promote scholarship excellence at the undergraduate level at the University of British Columbia.

The Prize was established by UBC Library to encourage more and deeper use of its resources and collections, to advance information literacy at UBC, and to promote academic excellence at UBC.

Q: Could you tell us a little bit about your project?

This project consists of a primary source portfolio, my annotations, and a ‘wandering’ essay that traces my research path. The idea was to engage with historical materials, as a practice in working with primary sources in order to produce original analysis and interpretations, much of which would be expanded on in the essay component. I’d done a lot of work with material sources in my archaeology courses, and I really wanted to take the skills and approaches I picked up there and apply them to this project, since it presented a really great opportunity to interact more with visuality and materiality. In the process of looking for sources on Irish Lace to include in this project, I found that there was this interesting discrepancy, where there were a lot of historical accounts from the perspectives of consumers, but the identities of the lace-makers and knowledge of their conditions was strikingly absent, even in museum records. I was so fascinated by the absence of the lace-makers and of Ireland itself within these accounts, and I wanted my project to build upon this absence, trying to fill it through my analysis of artifacts, photographs, and other materials.

Q: What does winning this prize mean to you?

Winning this prize affirmed a lot of things for me, particularly that my approach of using materiality is something that works really well and that it can offer insight into events and historical actors that doesn’t always exist in written records. I love working with textiles especially, and I think this process of working on this project and through my reflection for the prize application has made me far more comfortable working within this area of textile and fashion history, which I hope to keep pursuing. On another note, this project has been so special to me because so much of this project intersects with my family’s history and my own experiences working in similar fibre-arts like crochet and embroidery. In fact, through researching this project and discussing it with my family, I found out that my great-grandmother was a lacemaker in the late 19th century, and a lot of my sources mentioned the area she was working in. Through this project, I was able to learn more about the experiences of my great-grandmother and her fellow lace-makers, and getting a chance to share those experiences with others has truly been one of the best parts of this prize.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

For the immediate future, I’m going to Dublin in June to participate in an archaeological fieldwork course and to hopefully get some research done for my honours thesis. While the site I’ll be working at is a medieval one, a lot of the coursework deals with this history and how it’s represented, including visits to museums and other archaeological sites in the area. I’m hoping this experience helps me build on the skills I’ve been developing through this project and others. For my thesis, I really want to continue looking at Irish textiles and how they intersect with some really pivotal moments in the 19th and 20th centuries, whether that’s the Great Famine, the Celtic Revival, or Irish Independence. And while I’m not sure if I’ll be focusing on Irish Lace specifically, a lot of the resources and ideas I encountered during this project will certainly be shaping my approach to future research. Beyond my thesis, I want to continue doing this sort of analysis and work with textile materials, because there is something so magical about encountering historical or archaeological handicraft and working with it. And while I’m a bit torn between pursuing archival studies and conservation work after my undergraduate degree, I’ve been able to find myself a niche that I enjoy working with, and that I see myself continuing in.

Q: Do you have a favourite research spot at UBC Library?

Most of this project was researched and written in the Ridington Room at the MAA Library, which I think is one of the coziest places on campus, especially on a rainy day. But as far as research spots go, I’d have to say the Koerner Library is probably my favourite, since there’s just so many interesting books and resources there. I’ve been able to find just about anything, whether it be commentaries on Shakespeare, 19th century journals, or microfilms of medieval manuscripts. I would definitely recommend poking around to see what you can find, even if it’s just for fun. There is almost always a nice, quiet corner to get some work done, and having all those books and resources nearby definitely helps me stay grounded during my research.