University of Pittsburgh Library System

‘A Brutalist End to Forbes Field’ examines the acquisition and demolition of Forbes Field ballpark by the University of Pittsburgh for eventual construction of academic buildings. The project utilizes interviews and documents acknowledging pushback from neighborhood/student group Peoples Oakland, as well as internal university meeting minutes and communications, to provide a picture of the discourse surrounding the demolition of the historic structure. The project represents a microcosm of a changing Pittsburgh neighborhood, and considers the potential impacts of urban universities located within neighborhoods.

The researchers' experience involved a lot of contextual research and then narrowing down the topic's scope to a specific building or structure. The researcher did an interview with someone close to Peoples Oakland, and this provided a first-hand account and understanding of the controversy that led the researcher to their subject in the first place. In the future, the researcher hopes to work more with the archives, and pairing this research with talking to older residents in oral histories about Pittsburgh. 

An exploration of archival material that portrays the complexities of 19th-century Christian womanhood through the Biblical canon they were represented in and the literature they left behind.

From the 1880s to 1910s, westernized rhetorics of Indigenous health portrayed women as unfit mothers and framed Indigenous families as threats to societal well-being. Found in popular media and youth literature, these narratives dismissed Indigenous healing and upheld assimilation as "progress." Centered around the Carlisle Indian Industrial School,which engaged forced assimilation of Native children, such language justified stripping autonomy under the guise of care and protection.

My project explores the International Sexual Minorities Information Resource (ISMIR), a largely overlooked queer archival database created in the late 1990s to facilitate global communication among LGBTQ+ people. Through archival research and close reading, I investigate ISMIR’s role in the formation of queer digital publics, asking how early online spaces functioned as technologies of queer communication, identity-making, and mutual aid. I consider how local and digital forms of community building intersected in this era. My research builds on earlier work I conducted for my senior thesis, which centered on the Donny Thinnes Papers and the AIDS crisis in Pittsburgh, and which raised questions about archival silences and queer generational memory.

To better understand how ISMIR functioned as a platform for queer connection, I mapped and graphed all Pittsburgh-based events listed in ISMIR’s community calendars between 1994 and 1997. This analysis revealed what kinds of programming, activism, and social gatherings were taking place locally, and offered insight into the rhythms of queer life during a moment of technological transition. By analyzing the calendars’ structure and contents, I trace how ISMIR attempted to create an inclusive, accessible informational network rooted in everyday needs and local specificity.

One of my key findings is that ISMIR operated as both a practical information hub and an emotional lifeline for isolated users, bridging geographies through user-submitted data and anonymous dialogue. I argue that ISMIR’s ephemeral and decentralized nature challenges dominant archival logics, demanding new ways of thinking about preservation, access, and community memory. In the future, I hope to expand my work by analyzing the national and international events listed in ISMIR’s calendars, to better understand how transnational queer solidarities were imagined and fostered in the early internet era.

This research, conducted jointly for both this ASRA project and Rike’s Chinese capstone thesis, explores the use of Confucianism to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity and to promote a Chinese national identity in the Chinese Nationality Room in the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. Rike’s digital exhibit and thesis analyze various primary sources from the 1930s residing in the Chinese Nationality Room Archival Collection, including Chinese-language fundraising materials and documentary photography. The crown jewel and inciting interest of this research is “The Joyful Cultivation of the Exuberant Artemisia,” a work of Chinese calligraphy donated by Chaing Kai-Shek (1887-1975), head of China’s Nationalist government.

By diving into the historical context surrounding the decade of the room’s creation, the archives reveal the “messiness” and complexity of the questions faced by the China Room Committee, a group made up of members of the local Chinese diaspora in Pittsburgh and international students from China studying at Pitt. The biggest of these questions was: how do we represent China as a nation? The answer the Room Committee came up with was to represent Confucius as both ancient teacher and national hero, drawing inspiration from the contemporary memorial architecture movement in China and traditional Confucian temples.

Rike not only created a digital exhibit displayed on the digital wall on the third floor of Hillman, but also participated in the Archival Scholars in Conversation exhibit launch event and presented her research at the REALL DEALL undergraduate research conference.

My research examines how infectious diseases affected different communities in Pittsburgh during a period of major change from approximately 1880 to 1920. As the city rapidly industrialized and grew into its reputation as “The Steel City,” it experienced a large influx of immigrants and a widening gap between wealthy industrialists and working-class laborers. These changes had a significant impact on public health and the spread of disease across different neighborhoods. Using historical records, maps, and public health reports, I found that infectious diseases such as typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and diarrheal illnesses were most prevalent in crowded, lower-income areas of the city, particularly in neighborhoods with large immigrant communities. Neighborhoods near the steel mills and rivers, such as the Strip District, the Hill District, and the South Side, had higher disease and mortality rates. In contrast, wealthier neighborhoods like Squirrel Hill had lower rates, likely due to better living conditions. Public health officials responded to these issues in several ways as scientific theories on disease transmission developed. A prominent idea that emerged during the era emphasized the benefits of cold, fresh air for individuals with tuberculosis. This led to interventions such as the Open Air School on the roof of Irene Kaufmann Settlement, which sought to help children in the Hill District, a predominantly Jewish immigrant community with high rates of tuberculosis. Overall, my project demonstrates how health outcomes were tied to social and economic conditions. It highlights the importance of public health efforts and how historical patterns of inequality shaped the spread and impact of disease in the city. I hope to continue my research by creating interactive maps in the Digital Atlas Design Internship and expanding the scope of my research to compare Pittsburgh’s history of disease with other cities, such as Philadelphia and New York City.

Lucía Bustos utilized materials from the University of Pittsburgh’s Archives & Special Collections to examine the transformation of psychiatric care in Pittsburgh during the era of deinstitutionalization (1960s–1990s). Drawing on Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MH/MR) program reports, hospital correspondence, and planning documents, she analyzed how policy, funding, and local administration shaped the transition from institutional to community-based care. 

Through close analysis of these materials, she identified early evidence of fragmentation within the developing community mental health system, including uneven service delivery, administrative complexity, and financial constraints. Institutional correspondence, particularly related to insurance reimbursement, further revealed how economic pressures influenced the capacity of psychiatric providers. 

As part of this project, she curated an exhibit featuring photographs, statistical records, and archival documents. These materials were selected to illustrate the shift from large state hospitals to a decentralized system of care and the challenges that accompanied this transition. 

Her findings suggest that deinstitutionalization did not simply eliminate institutions, but instead redistributed responsibility across hospitals, county programs, and community agencies, often without sufficient infrastructure to support continuity of care. She plans to continue this research by exploring the ethical and cultural dimensions of mental health policy, particularly through the lens of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences.

Pop culture reflects the world which it is created in. Media created under patriarchy will reflect and replicate patriarchy, consciously or not. Women’s magazines existed to cater to women as an underserved market as well as to teach them how to behave and present themselves. However, certain magazines that gave women instruction, such as Ms., also reported on women’s issues around the globe and engaged with feminist conversations. Nicher publications, like Bitch, actively criticized not only patriarchal media, but also arguments made in other women’s magazines. These publications were often in conversation with each other, reporting on the same events with varying perspectives.

Today, print culture is something of a novelty. Zines and publications still exist, but they are rendered obsolete by the boundless digital landscape. In a world with individual tailored algorithms, it can be difficult to comprehend the vibrant communities centering a schedule of monthly or quarterly releases. Despite their age, there is great continuity between the arguments and emotions contained within these issues and the conversations being held today. This project examines these issues, from the 1970s to the late 2000s, and observes how feminists across time engaged with pop culture and how their arguments evolved.

My project examines the role of women’s bodies in the Hippocratic corpus, namely the chapters ‘De natura muliebri’ and ‘De morbis mulierum.’ My work has focused on translating a manuscript in Ancient Greek printed in 1538, the main contributor being the Renaissance Hellenist Janus Cornarius (1500-1558). The passages I have directed my attention to discuss female disease and the difference between male and female bodies. My research process began with examining the Greek text and learning the gloss for the specific typeface used as well referencing modern translations and a Latin Greek lexicon, allowing me to properly translate the Greek. Following my translation, I would examine the context of the passages that had handwritten annotations and attempt to transcribe and translate the handwriting on the margins.

My deliverables show the steps of my research process. First, I have an image of the introduction of Hippocrates’ first book ‘On the Diseases of Women’ or ‘De morbis mulierum,’ which has both the original Greek and Latin annotations. Following this, I included my Greek translation into English, which covered the differences between male and female bodies. Here, Hippocrates makes it clear that women who have not been pregnant are more subject to disease during her menses and are able to absorb more moisture than men, causing them to expel such ‘excess’ monthly. My third and fourth items were my Latin transcription and translation, which were concerned with Hippocrates’ claims on the intimate relationship between pregnancy (or lack thereof) and disease as well as the difference between men and women.

For my ASRA project, I examined a copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle, an encyclopedia covering world history, through a lens of European perspectives on race, ethnicity, and nationality. The Chronicle, an incunable—an early printed book—printed in 1493, was written by the doctor and historian Hartmann Schedel and illustrated with woodcuts by Michael Volgemut. I mainly researched depictions of Asia and the Middle East in the Chronicle, seen with historical figures such as Mehmed the Conqueror, Timur, Mohammed, and Saladin. I also explored how some common European medieval themes around race, such as the Monstrous races and the Curse of Cham, appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle. 

In addition, I focused on the provenance of the Nuremberg Chronicle, and transcribed and translated many marginal annotations. I and my faculty mentor studied the provenance inscription and were able to establish a link to a person who also is recorded as owning other books, but not any incunables. I am completing a certificate in Medieval and Renaissance studies, and I greatly enjoyed being able to research using primary sources in person, tangibly.

Doing research in the Archives and Special Collections has allowed me to gain experience with primary sources, especially those which align with my academic interests. I hope to continue this research after the ASRA by investigating the writing and production of the Nuremberg Chronicle. I also wish to eventually produce a paper which further delves into representations of the other in the Chronicle, building off the images I selected for the ASRA exhibit. The ASRA program allowed me to explore a topic I am interested in and spark ideas for continuing research.  

My project explores the global impact and cultural significance of The Skin I’m In series by Sharon G. Flake, a groundbreaking work of young adult literature that confronts difficult, often underrepresented topics, including colorism and identity, within the Black adolescent experience. Since its publication in 1998, the novel has resonated deeply with readers not only in the United States but also internationally, where it has been incorporated into educational curricula. The novel began as a stand-alone work but has since expanded into a trilogy featuring other characters and their stories involving human trafficking and black boyhood. These novels were published in 2021 and 2025, years after the first book, The Skin I’m In, demonstrating the lasting power of authentic storytelling to connect with audiences over time.

While her work is rooted in African American experiences, as evidenced by its publications through the Jump at the Sun imprint (one of the first publishing companies to release books for children that celebrate authors and stories of people of color), Flake’s narratives extend beyond writing for a specific audience. My research focuses on how her work speaks to a universal readership. For my exhibit, I curated a presentation that highlights both the novel’s themes and its global reach. One key item I included was a Japanese translation of a chapter from the book The Skin I’m In, which powerfully illustrates how Maleeka’s story transcends national borders. This artifact showcases the novel’s international relevance and the shared emotional experiences it evokes. Additionally, I examined numerous instances of readers not only writing to Flake but also sharing artwork of different scenes in the books that captured their attention.

Overall, this project allowed me to engage deeply with Flake’s work and understand it in its publishing context through correspondence, marketing materials, fan mail, press releases, and more. This all led to my understanding of how stories centered on marginalized voices can foster global dialogue, connection, and lasting impact, as evidenced by The Skin I’m In series, which has spanned over 25 years.

In this project, Gretchen explored the world of handheld interactive art exhibits, more commonly known as artists’ books. Out of many in the ULS collection, she focused on Marian Crane’s four books in the Frick Fine Arts Library. The research was conducted in three different parts: the books, the artist, and the access. First was studying the materiality and the physical aspect of the books. She learned about why those specific materials were used through researching Crane as a contemporary artist and unveiling the mystery of how and why these books came into the Frick collection. Finally, she focused on the physical experience that the books provide, and how to convey that feeling digitally through the libraries Media Lab. The final product is a progress journal detailing her journey with working with the artists’ books and the different ways if researching physical objects. The journal consists of every note or thought that she experienced throughout this projects, so the content of the journal brings the reader on a journey of her asking questions to her eventually answering those questions. Working within Marian Crane’s self-published personal blog provided some insight to this question, while also providing context to who Crane is and her background. In the future, she hopes to continue with researching and learning about sometimes overlooked aspects of big collections, as her first interaction with the artists’ books here at Pitt was within a Museum Collections Management class where she got to physically handle and explore them to their fullest capacity. This is vastly different than experiencing art objects in a museum setting, which is why artists’ books are at a unique intersection between being seen at museum exhibitions and interacting with them in a library setting.