Category Archives: Global Studies

Read, Hot and Digitized: Following the Archives to Know Shanghai (Gen zhe dang an guan Shanghai 跟著檔案觀上海)”

Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.


Among the candidates for the Best Data Visualization category in the 2023 Digital Humanities Award, I found this recent project from the Shanghai Archives (Shanghai dang an guan 上海檔案館, Following the Archives to Know Shanghai). The project beautifully takes viewers on a tour through Shanghai’s most significant historical sites. It is built on archival materials about over 100 city landmarks in Shanghai. All the sites are plotted onto georeferenced historical maps. Viewers can choose from 13 base historical maps ranging from 1855 to 2024 (The following screenshot features a base map from 1923). Currently, the site only supports Chinese as the interface language, but Google Translate does a sufficient job of making it navigable in English.

Figure 1. Screenshot of all landmarks referenced on a 1923 map.

Shanghai, one of the first treaty ports that China opened to the West in the 1840s, grew into one of Asia’s biggest international metropolises and financial centers by the late nineteenth century. The city was home to many of modern China’s political, economic, and cultural elites, and its foreign concessions hosted thousands of foreign merchants, colonial officials, missionaries, and adventurers. Since the nineteenth century, the city also saw many major historical events that shaped modern China. For example, as the hub of China’s emerging modern/Westernized educational institutions, Shanghai was one of the centers of the May Fourth movement in 1919 that popularized Western political and scientific values to new generations of Chinese youth. Soon after, the Chinese Communist Party convened its national congress in the city in 1921. The city was also home to many international banks and manufacturing enterprises, which incubated the labor movements of the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond all these, the battles between the Chinese soldiers and invading Japanese forces in 1931 and 1937 were fought on the city’s streets while spies serving various regimes hustled throughout the city ruled by both Chinese and foreign authorities.

This project by the Shanghai Archives aims to present this complex and exciting history to the users. Sites are categorized into five categories: famous people’s residences (mingren guju 名人故居), revolutionary landmarks (hongse dibiao 红色地标), youth movements sites (qingnian yundong 青年运动), transportation infrastructures (jiaotong 交通), and ships and shipyards (lun chuan 轮船).

To explore a location, you click on it on the map, and a new window opens up on the right side, showing a timeline with documents related to the landmark. The following example shows eleven items related to the HSBC Bank building on the bund (waitan 外灘). Most items are historical photographs of the building, but the collection also contains a digitized copy of the bank’s stock certificate from 1894. The site also provides 3D models of the buildings for users to explore.

Figure 2. A Stock Certificate of the HSBC Bank from 1894.

Figure 3. 3D model of the HSBC Bank Building.

The project also provides audiovisual materials for some storied sites. For example, among the items related to the racecourse (Pao Ma Chang 跑馬場), there is a short documentary showing historical clips of events held there.

Figure 4. A documentary clip featuring the Shanghai horse racecourse.

The project is commendable in making archival materials available to the public in an interactive and engaging way, although it does have a pronounced emphasis on the communists’ activities in presenting the story map. As metadata is the foundation of all digital humanities projects, I am compelled to comment that the metadata of presented archival items leaves much to be desired. In the map view, items are only provided with title, source, and year, without any identifying numbers linking back to the  Archives or its partner institutions. The browse view features a waterfall layout like Pinterest, which may be compelling to some but unfortunately does not provide more metadata than the story map view.

Figure 5. A waterfall view of archival materials available through the project.

Overall, the site offers an engaging journey through Shanghai’s recent past. It is exciting to see more locations and archival materials being added. I hope the quality of metadata can be enhanced one day. It would also be great if the textual documents could be OCRed and searched in full text.

Learn more about Shanghai and its history:

Dian Shi Zhai hua bao: A Major Shanghai-based pictorial magazine (1884–1898).

Liang You: Shanghai-based popular magazine published from 1926 to 1945.

Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern: the Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930–1945 (Harvard University Press, 1999).

Jin Jiang, Women Playing Men: Yue Opera and Social Change in Twentieth-Century Shanghai (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009)

Frederick Wakeman, Policing Shanghai 1927-1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

Back in China, after five years

After almost five years, I was able to travel back to China in May and June. This time, my first in the country in my current role as East Asian Studies Librarian, I was eager to bring back more unique library materials, meet and connect with library colleagues and vendors in China, and get up to date with the Chinese book scene after so long.

I started my trip in Beijing, the country’s capital city and cultural center. There, I visited a popular weekend book market at Baoguo si 報國寺, an old temple complex first built in the Ming dynasty. In the 1940s, the complex was occupied by both local and central authorities in charge of granary administration. In the late 1990s, the temple complex became a famous antiquarian market. Not until this spring did it welcome second-hand book vendors and rebrand itself into a used book bazaar.

Second-hand and antiquarian book market in Baoguo si.

From the Baoguo si market, I selected several sets of xiao ren shu 小人书, a palm-sized comic book that took shape in post-1949 China. The sets I bought are primarily adaptations of popular foreign films and fiction from the 1980s, an era when Western culture was (re)introduced into China. Through this inexpensive and readily available format, Xiao ren shu became a genre through which Chinese readers gained a peep into popular foreign literature and film.

Xiao ren shu comic books on sale at Baoguo si

Similar collectibles can also be found in Beijing’s Panjiayuan second-hand market (Panjiayuan jiuhuo shichang 潘家園舊貨市場). Having taken shape in the early 1990s, the giant market has gradually replaced the centuries-old Liulichang 琉璃廠 to become the biggest antiquarian market in Beijing. Panjiayuan has both “permanent” shops and make-shift booths that have vendors selling jewelry, ceramics, paintings, calligraphy, religious and ritual supplies, furniture, and, of course, books, and occasionally archival and manuscript materials.

Flipping through an old archive folder at Panjiayuan.

Beijing is also home to many of the vendors we work with here at UT Libraries. CIBTC (China International Book Trading Company) and Zhenben are the two book trading companies that UTL has partnered with for decades. In my discussions with representatives from both, I learned so much about the current state of the Chinese publishing market as these vendors are a critical part of the ecosystem of East Asian collections in North America. They help us to work around language barriers and complex legal requirements for exporting and importing library materials and they also help us hunt down rare and unique items our patrons need.  I also was able to visit our electronic resource vendors. For example, I met with representatives from CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), a crucial vendor through which we can get access to the vast amount of academic information from China. There, I toured their automated data processing unit and met with the head of the overseas department. I learned about the company’s recent advances in AI, their large language model (LLM) and new products in both the development and deployment pipelines.

Touring data processing center at CNKI.

Meeting with CNKI colleagues.

Last but not least in Beijing, I was able to visit the First Historical Archives (Di yi lishi dang’an guan 第一歷史檔案館) which  moved to a new location in 2021. In my life as a Qing historian, the “Yi shi guan” (as people in the field like to call it) has been a treasure trove. In its new location, they have also established  new visitation and usage procedures. For example, foreign and domestic researchers are now treated similarly.  Likewise, scheduling is now simplified and online. Under these revised access procedures, I was able to spend some very happy hours reading and transcribing some 18th- and 19th century documents in the brand new building.

The entrance hall of the First Historical Archives.

After Beijing, I traveled to Nanjing and Shanghai. In Nanjing, I revisited the bookshops near  Nanjing University that I frequented as a college student over a decade ago–I was glad to see that all the establishments are still in business. Nestled in the narrow streets behind the university, these bookshops continue to be highly aligned with their main clientele’s (professors and students) intellectual interests– one may very well be able to find very rare out-of-print editions that freshly came out from a scholar’s private library. Indeed, I was able to bring several of those back to UTL.

Bookshop near the Nanjing University.

Last but not least, serendipitously, I met with public engagement colleagues at the Shanghai Library, the largest library system in China and according to its claims, the third largest in the world by collection volume. While there, I was intrigued by the  innovative strides the library is making to attract the public. One such example is their gamification of the famous Dream of the Red Chamber/Story of the Stone. The masterpiece of Chinese literature is transformed into a role-playing game with well-designed props and plots through which participants gain an immersive experience in the intriguing and poetic world of the fiction and as well as compete with each other in a monopoly-like game.

Part of the Dream of Red Chamber game developed by the Shanghai Library.

I have gained so much knowledge of the current state of China’s scholarly publishing landscape and strengthened our collaborations with vendors to get critical research resources available to researchers and students at UT. Trips like this are crucial for us at UT Libraries to keep up with the new developments in the fields and meet the ever-evolving needs of our users. We deeply appreciate the generosity of donors to our Hornraiser fundraising, which has made overseas trips possible and allows the global collections at UTL to grow and evolve. I also thank the Center for East Asian Studies’ generous support to the trip and their continuous support to the UT Libraries.

Read, Hot and Digitized: The SF Nexus Project

Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this series, librarians from the Libraries’ Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.


One of my favorite digitization projects is the SF Nexus from Temple University Libraries’ Duckworth Scholars Studio. It’s a digital corpus of 403 Science Fiction (SF) works, mostly novels, anthologies, and single-author short story collections published between 1945 and 1990 in the United States. It was created from scans of physical books in Temple’s Paskow Science Fiction Collection. It’s a notable project because SF has long been sidelined in literary studies, even though research on the genre can bring to light topics well worthy of study – race, gender, politics, futurism, climate change, and technology. This genre bias has carried over to digital humanities (DH), even though computational DH methods can accelerate this research beyond traditional methods like close reading one text at a time.

The project’s first step was to digitize the print books from the Paskow Collection. The team at Temple made the bold decision to physically disassemble the books. Most were cheaply-made paperbacks already in various states of decay and would sustain irreparable damage from digitization. They intentionally chose books that were not already part of the HathiTrust Digital Library, and after the digitization process, HathiTrust ingested these works, preserving them far longer than the physical items might have survived while also making them available to a much wider audience of researchers.

After scanning, the team created the Omeka exhibit Digitizing the New Wave, which highlights mid-twentieth century SF book covers. (Omeka is a commonly-used platform for scholarly online exhibits.) I thoroughly enjoy browsing Digitizing the New Wave, mostly for the entertaining cover art. But it’s also a great work of scholarship in its own right. It sheds light on lesser-known SF novels and writers from the New Wave Era, roughly from 1960-1990. I appreciate how the team structured the exhibit – it’s organized by sub-genre. Visitors can browse early “cli-fi” books (SF discussing climate catastrophe) and find examples of the subversive sub-genre Cyberpunk beyond well-known authors like Philip K. Dick and Neal Stephenson. 

A screenshot of the Cyberpunk section from the Digitizing the New Wave Omeka exhibit.

Digitizing the New Wave is a great entry point for anyone interested in DH covering SF (and cover art). But in terms of research potential, the current iteration of the project – the aforementioned SF Nexus – offers a great deal more for computational DH, such as text mining and topic modeling visualizations. To facilitate such projects, the SF Nexus offers several datasets, including one organized by book chapters and discrete sections of books (what they call “chunks”) and CSV files with metadata associated with the corpus, including one of “named entities” (proper names associated with real-world objects, such as place names or author names). These datasets are available through a HuggingFace repository linked from the SF Nexus website.

One aspect of the SF Nexus that I find most interesting is the approach to copyright. All of the works in the corpus were published after 1928, the current cutoff date for materials to enter the public domain, and so are still in copyright. The SF Nexus is pretty small as far as digitized corpora go, with only 403 works. This was an intentional choice, partly due to copyright concerns. Many of the books are orphan works (works in which the rightsholder is difficult or impossible to identify or contact), and the subsequent datasets are designed for non-consumptive use. “Non-consumptive” means the digitized versions of the text are not meant to be read as ebooks, but rather studied at an aggregate level in a quantitative way. Additionally, the website includes a copyright Take Down Notice with contact information for a potential rightsholder to request removal.

A screenshot of the SF Nexus’ Take Down Notice, at the bottom of their Data webpage

Currently, the team at Temple is looking to expand the corpus and find partner institutions with substantial SF print collections to contribute. Temple has also been the home institution for most of the current research generated from the project, so the team is also spreading the word to researchers elsewhere with hopes of seeing more research and publications.

And if all this discussion of digitizing old Science Fiction novels has you curious to actually read some, head over to the PCL! UT Libraries has a collection strength in late twentieth century SF that we continue to build on by collecting new SF novels, short story collections, and anthologies! Learn more about our SF collection on our Science Fiction LibGuide!

Poems, Magazines & Manifestos: Exploring Literary Vanguardism in Early 20th-Century Latin America

A new exhibition at the Benson Latin American Collection highlights the cultural production of the region’s avant-garde artists and thinkers


By Veronica Valarino

The early decades of the 20th century in major Latin American cities saw the explosion of publications and writers in a movement fueled by a growing access to publishing and an increasingly educated readership. The movement, known as vanguardismo, produced some of the region’s most celebrated writers, and reflected the dynamism and complexity of contemporary reality. These vanguardists embraced avant-garde techniques, experimental forms, and bold thematic explorations, capturing the turbulence of a rapidly changing society.  

Two magazine covers side by side. On the left, the black-and-white cover of "Revista de Antropofagia" (Cannablism Magazine) displays an archival drawing showing almost naked Indigenous people wearing feathers and carrying spears. They are leading around naked European men and are also shown eating their body parts and preparing a cooking fire. On the right is the graphically bold cover of Klaxon, a monthly modern-art magazine. The layout of the cover features black letters, several bold fonts, and a large red A, which fits into several words on the cover, including the magazine's title.
Magazine covers from Revista de Antropofagia (Cannabalism Magazine) and Klaxon, a monthly modern art magazine. Both were published in São Paulo.
Excerpt of a poem by the Brazilian Mário de Andrade appears typed on a yellowing piece of paper superimposed upon a enlarged grayscale photo of the poet. His name appears signed at the bottom of the poem, as well as in two other places on the exhibition poster.
Brazilian poet Mário de Andrade, exhibition board and poem excerpt

The term vanguardism originates from the military concept of the vanguard, which refers to soldiers at the forefront of a formation. In the context of the arts, avant-garde, or vanguardia, denotes innovative and provocative artistic and literary movements that emerged in Europe and the Americas during the 1920s and 1930s. These movements arose amidst a tumultuous era marked by significant events such as World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Spanish Civil War. The combination of societal dissatisfaction, technological advancements, and political upheaval prompted reflections on the contemporary crisis and an uncertain future. Avant-garde artists, or vanguardistas, distinguished themselves by their pursuit of innovation and experimentation, deliberately breaking away from established artistic traditions. 

Black and white photo of Peruvian poet Magda Portal wearing a broad-brimmed stylish hat across the top. Lower half shows the cover of the Peruvian literary journal Amauta, with a stylized figure of a pre-Colombian man on the cover who is planting seeds, along with a brief description of literary manifestos by Latin American vanguardist poets.
Top: Peruvian poet Magda Portal; below: cover of the Peruvian journal Amauta
A copy of Amauta magazine with old, stained and yellowing pages is open to the title page. Prominent on the righthand page below the magazine's title in large all-caps lettering is a large red-and-black head drawn in the style of the Incas. On the facing page there is a full-page ad for malt liquor, text only.
Amauta January 1928 issue, Lima, Peru. The issue contains an article by the magazine’s founder, José Carlos Mariátegui, a leading voice in the country’s avant-garde movement and an outspoken Marxist.

Latin American vanguardismo, characterized by its unified yet distinct cultural development, arose almost simultaneously in major cities across the region, like Havana, Lima, Mexico City, Montevideo, Santiago, São Paulo, and, especially, Buenos Aires. Vanguardists’ intellectual, artistic, and political debates were documented in numerous periodicals and magazines, which also provided a platform for vanguardist manifestos. These publications articulated expansive poetic visions, engaged in political activism, and advocated for social and political change. 

Poster in background colors of white, pinkish, and blue pastels shows the covers of two publications and the photos of Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier and poet Nicolás Guillén along with biographical information about the two and pieces of text they authored.
Exhibition panel about Cuban vanguardists Alejo Carpentier and Nicolás Guillén

Latin American vanguardismo is a significant cultural movement that gave voice to a relatively unified and distinctly Latin American art. It is also part of a larger, international movement. Hence, Latin American vanguardismo should not be seen as a mere reproduction of the European avant-garde. It was a continent-wide development, simultaneously international and autochthonous in its orientation as it grew out of and responded to the continent’s own cultural and social concerns. 

Magazine cover for "Revista de Avance" has black lettering and designs printed on an olive-green background. The cover is very graphically interesting, with all of the letters and numbers done in creative typefaces, using the black and green to offset each other in the design.
Magazine cover of Revista de Avance, 1930. The magazine was published in Havana, Cuba, between 1927 and 1930.

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection has steadily expanded its archival materials and rare books related to the cultural history of Latin America over the years. Recent additions, such as the collections of César Vallejo, Magda Portal, and Pablo Antonio Cuadra, have significantly enhanced the collection, making it an invaluable resource for research. This exhibition delves into a pivotal historical moment shaped by visionary literary luminaries. By exploring their poetic works, magazines, and manifestos, we celebrate these influential figures. 


Poems, Magazines & Manifestos is on view in the Ann Hartness Reading Room at the Benson Latin American Collection (SRH 1), 2300 Red River Street, during summer and fall 2024.  

Library hours: Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm. Closed July 4 and Sept. 2. 


This exhibition was developed by Veronica Valarino, Benson Exhibition Curator.

Walter Ducloux Collection Now Accessible on Texas ScholarWorks

A collection of conductor, composer and educator Walter Ducloux is now discoverable on Texas ScholarWorks, the digital repository of The University of Texas at Austin.

Born in Germany in 1912, Ducloux immigrated to the United States in 1933. He held various teaching positions, including as a music professor at The University of Texas at Austin for 28 years. Ducloux was the co-founder of Austin Lyric Opera, and served as the director of the Austin Symphony Orchestra from 1972 to 1980. His contributions to the musical world were vast, influencing countless students and musicians through his work.

The Walter Ducloux collection is comprised of reel-to-reel tapes of historical recordings of operatic and orchestral works dated from 1949 to 1983. The recordings primarily feature performance ensembles from the University of Southern California and The University of Texas at Austin.

The initiative to enhance access to the Ducloux materials was spearheaded by Librarian for Performing Arts Molly Roy, who earlier this year proposed a new workflow to expedite the revelation of previously hidden materials in the Historical Music Recording Collection (HMRC). Roy’s innovative approach not only enhances accessibility but also facilitates the transition of these materials to more appropriate storage at the LSF.

The finding aid can be viewed here, and the bibliographic record is now searchable through the university’s catalog here. These resources enable users to find specific recordings by keyword and determine their exact locations within the Library Storage Facility (LSF).

Researchers and music enthusiasts alike will greatly benefit from this improved discovery of the rich recordings within the Walter Ducloux Collection. This milestone underscores the university’s commitment to preserving and promoting its valuable historical resources.

The successful implementation of this project is a testament to the collaborative efforts of several departments, with key contributions from staff across the Libraries, including Whit Williams and Marjie Lawrence from Content Management, Brittany Centeno and Joey Marez from Preservation and Colleen Lyon from Scholarly Communication. The collective efforts have been crucial in bringing this project to fruition.

READ, HOT AND DIGITIZED: Digitizing, Repatriating, and Promoting Sound

Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.


Financially supported by the Indian Ministry of Culture, the Virtual Museum of Images and Sound is an online platform drawing upon and digitally presenting the amazingly rich resources held in the American Institute of Indian Studies’ (AIIS) collections.  While the open access museum highlights a vast range of artistic expression that I encourage everyone to explore, this brief post highlights the audio recordings from the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE). 

Grab your headphones, settle into your comfortable chair, and join in to listen and learn!

For those new to South Asian music traditions, the ARCE’s Music in Context section provides a great introductory overview as it organizes recordings thematically.  While one might expect a section on ragas, the ARCE site encourages one to listen to songs associated with life cycle events, with work, or with ritual traditions.  If curated thematic journeys aren’t your style, rest assured that the site also operationalizes a number of digital humanities methods to delve into the dizzying array of musical types.  For example, one can use the Mapping Music or the Music Timeline interfaces to discover recordings by geographical location or in their chronological context.  There are so many fascinating things to find here—for example, did you know that the American jazz artist Teddy Weatherford lived in Kolkata (the city then known as Calcutta) and was featured on India’s First Jazz Record in 1944?  Or that the 1978 “Jazz Yatra” brought the likes of saxophonist Sonny Rollins and sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan together?  One loses oneself in the midst of such resources.

Beyond the fun to be had on the site from wherever you are, it is important to remember ARCE’s compelling vision to support the study of ethnomusicology in India.  The original goals for the AIIS analog collection were to protect and preserve recordings made by foreign scholars in the course of their research which were subsequently deposited in archives around the world.  Troublingly, it was obvious that such recordings were rarely available in India itself.  Addressing this problem head on, ARCE declares that “repatriation of collections has remained a major aim of the ARCE, which houses collections… which were not [previously] available in India. Scholars and collectors from all over the world, as well as India, continue to deposit collections of their recordings regularly at ARCE.”  In addition, they see the collection and the wide array of associated programs and events anchored in the collection as a way to stimulate new ethnomusicological research worldwide.  Knowing this driving mission, it is no surprise that ARCE has made so many collections freely available online.  I commend them on this important work.

I further applaud ARCE on their partnerships to collaboratively digitize and make recordings openly available.  To cite one recent and impactful success, ARCE worked with grant funding from the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) to preserve, robustly describe, and offer access to the “Recordings of Hereditary Musicians of Western Rajasthan.”  A scholarly collection formerly only on audio cassettes, the new online open access through ARCE and MEAP allows listeners worldwide to celebrate and enjoy Rajasthani music, culture and history.   

Learn more with these databases (restricted to UT affiliates):

Saarey Music provides streaming access to over 60 years of South Asian classical music including genres like Dhurpad, Thumri, Kafi, Tarana, and Ghazal.

Smithsonian Global Sound is a virtual encyclopedia of the world’s musical and aural traditions and includes material from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE).

Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings presents content from across the globe, including thousands of audio field recordings.

Music Online: Listening provides access to over 7 million streaming audio tracks, see in particular the “World Music” section. 

Read, Hot & Digitized: Baalbek Reborn

Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.


“Baalbek Reborn” is a groundbreaking virtual experience offering free access to users worldwide. Utilizing cutting-edge digital technologies and insights gleaned from decades of archaeological research, the project presents 3D reconstructions showcasing the appearance of Baalbek’s ruins during the 3rd century CE. These reconstructions notably feature prominent structures of the Baalbek temple complex.

Nestled in the Biqā’ valley in Lebanon, northeast of Beirut, Baalbak is an ancient city that flourished as an agricultural and religious center for thousands of years. It is best known for its Roman temple complex, which was called Heliopolis after the Greek for “City of the Sun.” The complex has three temples honoring the Triad of Heliopolis: Jupiter, Bacchus, and Venus, and the city flourished repeatedly under different religious groups’ administration because of its temple architecture. Baalbek remained a significant outpost through Antiquity and the Islamic imperial period, sometimes dramatically changing hands over the course of only months. As Europeans became acquainted with the city in the early modern period, their focus was––and has continued to be––on the remarkable ancient architecture of the temple complex. While the ancient Roman architecture is certainly significant, it is worth remembering that modern archaeologists cleared the Islamic town––which would have featured historic architecture as well––that had been built on the site in order to access the temples. The inclusion of Baalbek as a UNESCO World Heritage Site underscores its significance.

 The Baalbek Reborn collaborative project enhances accessibility to the site’s cultural heritage by offering a dynamic virtual exploration of its past and present beauty. Available as a free app for computers, mobile devices, and virtual reality headsets, the “Baalbek Reborn” tour provides interactive, 360-degree views of 38 locations within the city. Users can engage with expert audio commentary in Arabic, English, French, or German, and access additional images and text for detailed information about specific spots. One unique feature is the ability to toggle between the present-day appearance of the buildings and their historical reconstruction from nearly 2,000 years ago. The high resolution of both the photographs and reconstructions allows users to zoom in without losing clarity, while informative text and audio clips provide detailed explanations based on research.

Introduction section with flyover.

Upon starting the app, users are treated to a five-minute introduction to the site, along with basic instructions on how to navigate the virtual experience. For those seeking a more comprehensive understanding, a detailed tutorial is available for the app’s features. The app offers two main modes of exploration: a guided tour lasting 38 minutes, highlighting the key features of the Baalbek temples, or the option to explore points of interest directly from the map of the temple complex. It is the latter option that some users may find rather disjointed: it is not easy to move seamlessly between points of interest. However, those who wish to explore further are encouraged to view the ruins on Google Streetview for a virtual walk, albeit without the detailed commentary provided in the app.

Baalbek ruins in Google street view.

The collaborative effort behind this endeavor involved three key partners: Flyover Zone Productions, a virtual tour company responsible for the platform’s development; members of the German Archaeological Institute, who contributed content and provided archaeological expertise; and Lebanon’s Ministry of Culture – Directorate General of Antiquities, which oversees the protection, promotion, and excavation activities related to the country’s national heritage sites. Together, these partners have combined their expertise to create a comprehensive and immersive experience that brings the ancient beauty of Baalbek to contemporary audiences.


For further reading in the UT Libraries’ collections, consider the following scholarship:

Returning to Umm al-Dunya

One of the best parts of serving as the Middle Eastern Studies Librarian for UT Libraries is making and maintaining relationships with scholars, publishers, and vendors. I take advantage of any opportunity to travel to continue fostering these relationships, and my trip to Egypt in late January was no different. I was lucky enough to be able to travel specifically for the Cairo International Book Fair. Over the course of two weeks, I bought amazing books and journals from vendors local to Egypt and coming from around the Middle East, met new suppliers of key research materials, and I was able to connect with dear colleagues new and old.

The Cairo Book Fair is massive. This is not hyperbole: the event is often said to be the largest book fair in the world after Frankfurt, and perhaps more family-friendly than any other. Vendors from all over the world come to offer their wares, and people from all walks of life attend. There are groups of Egyptian schoolchildren on field trips; international students studying at Egyptian universities; scholars of the Middle East from around the world; whole families; teens out for a fun afternoon; and of course, librarians from all over the world who come to find the best, most interesting, rare, or latest publications. I spent my first few days at the Cairo Book Fair at the Children’s Hall and making a preliminary review of the international Islamic vendors in halls 3 and 4. It was in the Children’s Hall that I found the publisher al-Mu’assasah al-‘Arabiyyah al-Hadithah li’l-Tab’ wa’l-Nashr, and they were promoting riwayat al-jib, or pocket novels. In particular, they had produced a boxed set of the full supernatural collection of author Ahmad Khalid Tawfiq. UT Austin already owns a few of his works, including, among others, Mithl Ikarus (Just Like Icarus). The set that I bought includes 81 science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal titles in a small, portable format, with––frankly––delicious cover art. This set, titled Ma Wara’ al-Tab’iah, was the basis of the Netflix series Paranormal.

In Halls 3 and 4, I found the majority of the international and Egyptian Islamic vendors. Of particular interest were the booths and pavilions for the Dar al-Ifta’ organization and Al-Azhar University. The latter had an entire pavilion with exhibits on the manuscripts held at the Al-Azhar Library and the expertise of the preservationists who care for those rare and special materials, as well as art displays and activities for children and adults. I took a peek in their storage room to find what I had originally expected and hoped to find: the classic paperback Azhari texts and textbooks. Researchers focusing on the history of Al-Azhar as an educational institution, or on the history of Islamic education at all levels (for al-Azhar is not just a university, but also operates a K-12 school system), would find these materials central to their work. They are inherently ephemeral, due to their purpose of use and construction, so it was a rare opportunity to find them for UT Libraries’ collection.   

Over the following few days, I made my way with more intention through halls 3 and 4 and also explored halls 1 and 2. I had the pleasure of visiting with fellow librarian, Dr. Walid Ghali, who is a professor and director of the library at the Aga Khan University (London). Dr. Ghali recently released three novels of his own, and we had a delightful conversation about librarianship and authorship while at the booth for his novels’ publisher, Dar al-Nasim. I also had the opportunity to speak with Ashraf ‘Uways, the founder of Dar al-Nasim. It was wonderful to learn more about his approach to selecting titles for publication, and especially his interest in supporting the publication of Arabic novels by authors in non-Arabic speaking countries in Africa. With such wonderful publishers at my disposal, I was acquiring quite a bit of incredible material. Each day, I arrived at the fair with a suitcase to fill, and I wasn’t the only one. From students to families to scholars, nearly everyone had a bag or cart of some kind to help them transport home their precious finds.

Traveling to Egypt was also an opportunity to meet with UT Austin’s regular book vendors. I had the pleasure to see George Fawzy, the director of our beloved vendor Leila Books. We were able to  check-in in person about the research priorities at UT Austin and how those shape the materials that we acquire through Leila Books, and we were able to catch up on the state of libraries in North America and publishing in the Middle East. Visiting the Leila Books office is a delight for me because I get to see their incredible work in action, meeting the folks behind acquiring and shipping our materials. I always have to get a photo with the latest UT Austin shipment, and sure enough we had several boxes that were about to be sent out.

From left, Dale Correa and George Fawzy.

Additionally, I was able to meet with a new vendor who specializes in rare materials and visit his warehouse on the outskirts of Cairo. It is from this vendor that I have been able to acquire unique periodicals, including al-Majmu’ah al-Da’imah and al-Majallah al-Misriyyah li’l-‘Ulum al-Siyasiyyah (the Egyptian Journal of Social Science), which I brought back from this trip. Al-Majmu’ah al-Da’imah is a huge, multi-volume work that compiles the official record of judicial decisions issued in Egypt since the beginning of the national court system in 1883, and I would not have been able to locate it without this vendor’s help and some luck. I also found out-of-print significant, even rare, materials from the book market of Azbakiyyah in central Cairo. With the Cairo Book Fair on, the entirety of Azbakiyyah market moves to the Fair, where they have their own dedicated section. The Azbakiyyah booths are the most popular and most lively of the Fair, with materials moving in and out constantly. If you ever want to find a particular scholarly edition, or affordable novels, Azbakiyyah, or perhaps its section at the fair!, is the place to go.

My trip to Egypt was not only about acquiring pivotal materials for the UT libraries—I also took the time to visit key Egyptian cultural heritage institutions and to meet with scholars. I had the honor of finally meeting Dr. Nesrine Badawi (the American University in Cairo) in person. We had an engaging conversation about current trends in Egyptian scholarship and discussed her most recent research on Islamic law and the regulation of armed conflict. Additionally, I was able to visit Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt, and spend a day at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Although I have visited this beautiful library and its extraordinary collections before, it is always worth a trip for the new exhibits and rotation of special collections on display. On this visit, I was able to tour the reconstructed private library of renowned journalist and director of al-Ahram newspaper, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal. The extensive exhibit was a stunning look inside Heikal’s education, career, and personal and professional relationships. For my own intellectual amusement, I spent a great deal of time in the rare books room, reviewing the latest rotation of centuries-old manuscripts. Bibliotheca Alexandrina now boasts a significant collection of ancient Egyptian art and contemporary Egyptian art, ranging from paintings to sculpture to ceramics.

It was a delight and an honor to be able to return to Egypt and to visit the Cairo Book Fair this year. I am sincerely grateful to the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the UT Libraries, and our generous HornRaiser donors for making this trip possible. I look forward to my next trip and the caretakers and creators with whom I will forge relationships.


Women’s History Month, Chicana Feminism

Women’s History Month is an opportune time to reflect on the multifaceted contributions of women, especially those from diverse cultural backgrounds. In recognition, we turn our attention to the Chicana community and the rich resources available at the University of Texas Libraries – and especially the Benson Latin American Collection – that celebrate and document their stories.

At the heart of Chicana history lies a narrative of resilience and resistance. From the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 70s to contemporary social justice initiatives, Chicana women have been instrumental in advocating for change. The Libraries’ collections include seminal works and primary sources that shed light on Chicana activism, identity formation, and community organizing. Researchers and enthusiasts alike can access documents, oral histories, and archival materials that capture the spirit of Chicana activism across different eras.

The Libraries boast a rich assortment of Chicana literature, from classic works by luminaries such as Gloria Anzaldúa and Sandra Cisneros to contemporary voices pushing boundaries and redefining genres. The Libraries’ catalog offers an extensive selection of Chicana-authored works – including poetry, fiction, or scholarly analysis – that illuminate the complexities of identity, migration, and belonging.

The visual and performing arts are integral to Chicana cultural expression, offering mediums through which artists challenge stereotypes, reclaim narratives, and celebrate heritage. Libraries’ resources include an impressive collection of visual art, photography, and performance documentation that capture the vibrancy and diversity of Chicana artistic production. From iconic murals to groundbreaking performances, these materials provide insight into the evolution of Chicana artistry and its intersections with politics, feminism, and cultural heritage.

In addition to physical holdings, the Libraries offers an array of digital archives and special collections that provide convenient access to rare and unique materials. Through digitization initiatives, scholars and enthusiasts worldwide can explore manuscripts, photographs, and ephemera related to Chicana history and culture. These digital resources not only preserve valuable artifacts but also facilitate research, teaching, and community engagement initiatives that promote awareness and understanding of Chicana experiences.

Here are some examples from the extensive holdings at the Libraries and the Benson Latin American Collection:

Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era by Maylei Blackwell: This groundbreaking book examines the contributions of Chicana activists during the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing from oral histories and archival research, Blackwell sheds light on the often-overlooked role of Chicana women in shaping social and political change.

Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS): This peer-reviewed journal focuses on the scholarly study of Chicana and Latina experiences. It publishes research articles, creative writing, book reviews, and more, reflecting the diverse voices and perspectives within the Chicana/o community.

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa: An iconic work in Chicana feminist literature, Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera explores the intersection of gender, race, and culture in the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. Through prose and poetry, Anzaldúa challenges conventional notions of identity and belonging, inspiring generations of activists and scholars. The Benson holds Anzaldúa’s archive, so curious scholars can see the author’s process at work from original manuscripts and source materials.

Chicana Archival Collections: The Benson Latin American Collection stands as a repository of invaluable Chicana primary resources, preserving the rich cultural tapestry and narratives of Chicana individuals. Within its holdings, iconic figures contribute distinct threads to the vibrant mosaic of Chicana heritage. Gloria Anzaldúa’s groundbreaking works challenge societal boundaries and explore the complex intersections of identity. Yolanda Alaniz’s activism and writings on feminism and Chicana identity serve as testament to the resilience and agency of Chicana women. Carmen Tafolla’s poetry and prose capture the spirit and struggles of Chicana life, while Carmen Lomas Garza’s art vividly depicts everyday scenes infused with cultural symbolism and familial warmth. These examples provide a mere cross-section of the rich Chicana holdings available to researchers and the curious alike.

Chicano Database: This comprehensive bibliographic index covers Chicano and Latino topics, including art, education, history, literature, and more. It includes citations to articles, books, book chapters, and conference papers, making it an invaluable resource for conducting research on Chicana studies.

Chicana: This documentary by Sylvia Morales traces the history of Chicana and Mexican women from pre-Columbian times to the present. It covers women’s role in Aztec society, their participation in the 1810 struggle for Mexican independence, their involvement in the US labor strikes in 1872, their contributions to the 1910 Mexican revolution and their leadership in contemporary civil rights causes, and shows how women, despite their poverty, have become an active and vocal part of the political and work life in both Mexico and the United States.

Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings edited by Alma M. Garcia: This anthology brings together key writings by Chicana feminists, spanning from the early days of the Chicano movement to the present day. Covering topics such as reproductive rights, immigration, and intersectionality, these essays and manifestos offer essential insights into Chicana feminist thought.


Whether you’re a student, scholar, or simply interested in learning more about Chicana history and culture, these materials offer a rich and diverse perspective on the contributions of Chicana women to our society.

As we commemorate Women’s History Month, let us honor the legacy of Chicana women by delving into their stories, amplifying their voices, and recognizing their enduring contributions to society. Through the resources available at the University of Texas Libraries, we have the opportunity to deepen our understanding of Chicana history, culture, and activism, ensuring that their narratives continue to inspire and empower future generations.

Read, Hot & Digitized: Black Classicists in Texas

Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this new series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.


For the past two years, I have been delighted to work on the Black Classicists in Texas exhibition project, a collaborative endeavor to tell the story of Central Texas’ early Black educators and their passion for the study of antiquity. This joint initiative, led by Dr. Pramit Chaudhuri, Dr. Ayelet Haimson Lushkov and myself, involves collaboration between the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Classics, University of Texas Libraries, the Benson Latin American Collection, Huston-Tillotson University and the Carver Museum & Cultural Center. At its core, the project’s exhibitions underscore advocacy for classics, 20th century African American advancement and highlight a vibrant community of scholars, students and public intellectuals.

Although the physical exhibitions concluded in December 2023, their legacy endures through an online exhibition that emphasizes the relationship between education about the classics, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and the historical trajectory of education in Austin. Leveraging digital platforms, the online exhibition employs multimodal approaches including story maps, virtual tours and digitized archival materials to provide users with a dynamic exploration of the individuals and institutions intertwined in this narrative.

The website, a cornerstone of the project, exemplifies the initiative’s collaborative efforts. Choosing the education-friendly Reclaim Hosting allowed for easy hosting, a custom domain and installation of web applications with the built-in installer, Installatron. Through Installatron, we were able to build a custom website with WordPress, assisted by the exceptional team at UT Austin’s Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services and beautifully designed by the creative studio, In-House International.

Screenshot of the Explore the Materials page, showing the three exhibition institutions
The landing page of the Explore the Materials section.

The “Explore the Materials” section of the website provides users with access to digitized versions of the physical exhibition materials, alleviating the need for researchers to physically visit archives to view the items. As someone intimately involved in the project’s archival research process, I am delighted to offer researchers an easy access point to these materials, each complete with detailed metadata and sourcing information, ensuring folks can find the original materials even now after the physical exhibition is over.

A screenshot of metadata and thumbnail for R.S. Lovinggood's 1900 pamphlet, "Why Hic, Haec Hoc for the Negro?"
A digitized item on the Huston-Tillotson University section of the Explore the Materials page.

Archival research often presents challenges, whether the archival finding aid is detailed, vague or non-existent. That’s why it’s particularly exciting to preserve items that might not be found through traditional methods. These include a photograph of Samuel Huston College President Matthew Simpson Davage, discovered in a box of unprocessed photographs brought to the research team by the former Huston-Tillotson University Archivist. Similarly, hard to track down documents like the 1976 report of UT’s affirmative action compliance from the Black Diaspora Archive and custom exhibition panels and maps are now digitally accessible.  

Beyond digitized materials, the website features technologically innovative elements, including 3D models of the physical exhibition spaces courtesy of our collaborators at In-House. Hosted on the freemium 3D platform, SketchFab, these interactive models preserve the essence of the physical exhibitions, offering users an immersive experience. They even allow users to see some of the materials in greater detail than possible in-person.

Screenshot of the SketchFab 3D model showing the physical exhibition
Screenshot of SketchFab 3D model of the physical exhibition in the Benson Latin American Collection Rare Books Reading Room, as it appeared in 2023.

Additionally, the ArcGIS StoryMap linked on the site, “This is My Native Land: Tracking the “Classical” Legacy Across Texan Historically Black Colleges and Universities”, adds another interactive element to the story of Black Classicists in Texas and their legacy. While many of the tools we used in the project came at a cost, we were fortunate to create an ArcGIS Story Map for free.

Landing page of the StoryMap, "This is My Native Land". Photographs from the exhibit are scattered in the background.
StoryMap created by project researcher, Elena Navarre.

Moreover, pages dedicated to resources on Black history and culture in Austin, alongside preserved interviews originally showcased at the Carver Museum, provide invaluable context and insight into the broader socio-cultural landscape surrounding the Black Classicists in Texas narrative.

By showcasing the contributions of Black Classicists in Texas, the website and associated tools shed light on underrepresented voices in the study of antiquity and Texas educational history. They serve as a testament to the diversity and resilience of these scholars, enriching our understanding of their invaluable contributions and histories.


Explore more in these UT Libraries resources:

Cook, William W., and James Tatum. African American Writers and Classical Tradition. University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Greenwood, Emily. Afro-Greeks Dialogues Between Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Classics in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press, 2010.

Hairston, Eric Ashley. The Ebony Column Classics, Civilization, and the African American Reclamation of the West. University of Tennessee Press, 2013.

Cásarez, Adriana. “Diverse Adaptations of Classical Literature.” University of Texas Libraries Exhibits, 2020. https://exhibits.lib.utexas.edu/spotlight/diversity-classics.