KU Libraries select travel award recipients, prepare to host visiting scholars
LAWRENCE — Six scholars representing institutions in four states, the District of Columbia and Italy were recently selected as KU Libraries' travel award winners, enabling visiting faculty, students and independent researchers to connect to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library’s rare materials and expert curators. Recipients gain access to invaluable, in-person research opportunities, with funding to support travel, lodging and related expenses made possible by dedicated libraries donors.
Beth Whittaker, associate dean of distinctive collections, said the travel award selection process prioritizes applications where physical consultation of the materials is essential to the research project.
“Research on site in archives is still the best way to explore our collections,” Whittaker said. “Only a fraction of our collections have been digitized, and even those may not easily convey physical aspects like size or texture of materials.”
A general collections travel award is available each year as well as awards focused on both the libraries’ African American Experience and Polish collections.
“Scholars are often very vocal in their appreciation for not only access to the collections but our staff as a whole,” Whittaker said. “Especially folks who have encountered obstacles in the past in accessing archives appreciate that we try to be as accommodating as possible, from things like extending reading room hours to providing parking when possible.”
Alyce Hunley Whayne Visiting Researchers Travel Awards
Cynthia Patterson from the University of South Florida and Doretha Williams from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture have been selected as the 2026 Whayne visiting researchers. Patterson is studying the Black Chautauqua Movement in Kansas from 1897 to 1935, and Williams will research her project, “Kansas Grows the Best Wheat and Best Race Women: Black Women in the Central Plains, 1880-1930.”
Both scholars will give public presentations during their visit, a joint session slated to take place in the Spencer Research Library’s Johnson Room at 3 p.m. July 9. The Whayne visiting researchers awards are made possible by a gift from Sandra Gautt, KU professor emerita, in honor of her mother.
Spencer Research Library Travel Award
The Spencer Library Travel Award is made available to researchers working on a project that could benefit from using any of the collections at Spencer Research Library. This year’s awards were granted to a trio of researchers representing the diversity of the collections:
Boone Jackson Ayala, University of Chicago, was selected for an award to research his project, "Worms in the Entrails: The Politics of Corporations in Restoration England and its Empire.”
Joseph Stabile, American University, will receive an award to support research on his project, “Local Responses, Global Consequences: Tracing Organizational Shifts and Transnational Diffusion Among White Supremacist Extremists Since 1983.”
Yidong Wang, Lawrence Technological University, was selected for work on the project “Documenting Queer Life in the American Heartland: Liberty Press, a Kansas Magazine.”
Alexander and Valentine Janta Endowment Travel Award
Alessandro Boccolini, University of Tuscia (Università degli Studi della Tuscia), selected for the award in 2025, will travel to Spencer Library in 2026 for his project, “The Holy See and Multiconfessionalism in Poland: The Graziani-Commendone Archive as a Source for the Study of Papal Politics in the Early Modern Age (XVI century).” The award is funded through an endowment from Alexander and Valentine Janta and is available for researchers focusing on the Polish 16th and 17th centuries.