SU Library’s Special Collections Research Center announces Charters grant winners

SU Library’s Special Collections Research Center announces Charters grant winnersJanuary 14, 2008Pamela McLaughlinpwmclaug@syr.edu

The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at Syracuse University Library has awarded the first annual Alexander N. Charters Adult Education Research Grants-in-Aid to two scholars: Lisa R. Merriweather Hunn and Matthew S. Hedstrom. Each plans to spend 10 days in 2008 conducting research in the Charters Library of Resources for the Educators of Adults.

Hunn is an assistant professor of adult education at Ball State University. She will use papers relating to the American Association for Adult Education (1926-49) to study the concept of liberal education in the field of adult education and how policies based on that concept influenced local adult education organizations, especially those that served African Americans.

Hedstrom is a postdoctoral research associate in the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. As part of a larger study of the religious education of middle class adults between 1921 and 1960, he will consult the papers of Norman Vincent Peale and Frank Laubach to determine how the spiritual writings of these men contributed to “the open, democratic, and even chaotic spiritual marketplace” of today.

The Charters grants are intended for researchers interested in the history and practice of adult education. The application deadline is Nov. 1 of each year. For additional information about the grants, contact the SCRC at (315) 443-9763 or visit the Charters Library website at http://scrc.syr.edu/charterslibrary.

The Charters Library of Resources for Educators of Adults is the world’s most comprehensive collection of English-language materials in the field of adult and continuing education. Among the resources available to researchers are: more than 55 discrete manuscript collections, 2,100 books, 50 professional journals, 220 newsletters, 400 sound recordings, 100 video-recordings, 10,000 photographs and some 2,800 master’s theses and dissertations in the field. The collections include national and international holdings. Online finding aids to the manuscript collections are available at the Web address given above.