Category Archives: Acquisitions/Foreign Travel

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Area Studies, Collections, Digital Humanities, Digital Scholarship, Global Studies, Humanities & Liberal Arts, Uncategorized

Down and Out in Lisbon and London: Antiquarian Books and Digital Humanities in Europe

September 18, 2025 Ian Goodale Leave a comment

Thanks to the generous support of the Center for European Studies and the UT Libraries, I was recently able to travel to London, England and Lisbon, Portugal. On my trip, I had the chance to attend a scholarly conference, acquire unique materials to add to UTL’s collections, network with academics, vendors, and librarians, and purchase books for the UT Libraries’ collections.

A street in London lined with bookstores containing antiquarian and rare books.

My time in London was an invaluable opportunity to build stronger connections with an international cohort of colleagues. For example, I met with one of the UT Libraries’ vendors who I work with to procure rare materials on early twentieth century European politics. The vendor I met with, Carl Slienger, frequently supplies us with items not held by any other North American libraries, making the materials he sources very important for our distinctive holdings of pamphlets and other propagandistic literature, as well as antiquarian books that enhance our holdings of rare and unique European occult and spiritualist materials. I also met with a colleague at the British Library to discuss coding workflows and best practices for working with digital materials. Meeting with my colleague at the British Library was likewise very beneficial, as much of my work involving digital methodologies is focused on programming in Python and other languages, and I am currently supervising a project focused on using Python to automate digital archival workflows.

Ian standing outside of the British Library. — Ian outside of the British Library.

In Lisbon, I attended and presented at the The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) Digital Humanities 2025 conference. My poster presentation focused on software packages I have written in the Rust programming language to support multilingual computational approaches to linguistics and digital humanities. My poster highlighted three software packages: a package for performing lemmatization, a key natural language processing task, on text; a package for assessing the readability of a text containing a variety of algorithms to choose from; and a package to perform stylometric analysis on text. They were all built with multilingual support in mind, and as such are specifically designed to move outside of an Anglocentric paradigm often found in technologies for natural language processing and textual analysis, creating new opportunities for multilingual and non-English textual analysis and digital humanities. Beyond my own presentation, I was able to attend talks on other digital research methodologies throughout the conference. Being able to attend talks by colleagues from all around the globe was both invigorating and rewarding, and an invaluable way to stay on top of the current research being done in the digital humanities. I also took the opportunity to acquire a small amount of zines while in Lisbon, adding to our collection of unique materials that we would not be able to purchase without undergoing a foreign acquisitions trip.

The poster session area at the DH 2025 conference in Lisbon.

This trip allowed me the opportunity to represent UT Austin internationally to a diverse group of colleagues, and I’m grateful that I was able to serve the Libraries in such a capacity. I look forward to building on our distinctive holdings and further expanding UT’s collections while continuing to work on using digital methodologies to enhance accessibility for research and open source software.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Area Studies, Benson Latin American Collection, Global Studies, LLILAS Benson

“Visiting Days”: An Archive of Family Care at São Paulo’s Largest Women’s Prison

July 8, 2025 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

An archive acquired through the LLILAS Benson Archiving Black América–Black Diaspora Archive initiative documents scenes from prison visiting days

Brazil is among the top incarcerators of women worldwide, with Black women accounting for 65 percent of this population. The largest women’s prison in the country is the Penitenciaria Feminina Santana (Santana Women’s Penitentiary) in São Paulo. Every weekend, families of incarcerated women arrive to visit their loved ones on the inside. On Avenida Ataliba Leonel, the busy thoroughfare just outside the prison, two tents, or barracas, serve as informal storage sites where visitors pay to store their belongings prior to lining up to enter the prison. The tents also offer food for purchase.

A group of several dozen people cluster around the entrance gates of the large women's penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil. One woman sits at the curb, a small child by her side. Many of the people have white plastic bags on the ground near them. The prison entrance is a pale yellow archway, trimmed in medium grayish blue, with a gate if the same blue, the name of the prison written above. In the foreground there is the surface of the street with many lines painted for crosswalks. — Facade of the largest women’s prison complex in Latin America, the Santana Women’s Penitentiary. Photo: Flávia Biazeto. Black Diaspora Archive.

In the archive Dias de Visita/Visiting Days: Strategies for Connections, Affections and Black Encounters in Latin America’s Largest Women’s Penitentiary, LLILAS PhD student Ana Luiza Biazeto has assembled images and oral histories from her visits to the barracas, where she interviewed family members of incarcerated women, as well as some of the people who set up and run the tents. Biazeto became familiar with the prison and the visiting area during research for her master’s thesis, which was about Black incarcerated women in the prison.

A large blue tarp creates a tent with an open front. People can be seen standing or sitting under the tarp—one with an umbrella, one bent over holding a white plastic bag. Various bags and at least one suitcase are visible. On the rainy street in the foreground, a man rides by on a bicycle. — Loira’s tent welcomes visitors on a rainy day. Photo: Flávia Biazeto. Black Diaspora Archive.

While many incarcerated women are completely separated from the lives of their families and loved ones during their imprisonment, others are visited by family on a regular basis. During her first year as a PhD student, in a 2022 seminar on urban Brazil, Professor Lorraine Leu asked Biazeto some pointed questions about the women she had interviewed in the prison: How were their children doing? Who were their families? Leu’s questions inspired Biazeto to think more deeply about the dias de visita and what she could learn in this setting. She applied for, and received, an Archiving Black América–Black Diaspora Archive (ABA–BDA) archival acquisition award, which afforded her an opportunity to better understand the dynamic of the families.

Two small boys, both with shorn heads, face away from the camera. They are standing on a paved median facing a two-lane road. In the background, pale yellow three-story building can be seen. The sky above it is gray. The boys stand with their shoulders touching. They wear flipflop sandals, matching voluminous sweatpants that are light blue with a wide navy blue band across the knee, and long-sleeved sweatshirts. — Brothers, taken by their grandmother, wait to visit their mother in the Santana Women’s Penitentiary. Photo: Ana Luiza Biazeto. Black Diaspora Archive.

“I learned of things that I never would have imagined,” said Biazeto in an interview during spring 2025. “I was in connection with many mothers, many grandmothers, who visit women. There were many children, running around there on the avenue. And as I interviewed, I cried along with the women. The children came and showed me the drawings they were making, many the age of [my youngest child]. And just as my master’s thesis involved a painful process, it is also a painful thing to confront these realities.”

Barraca da Loira and Barraca da Adriana, named for the women who run them, are part of the informal economy and are protected by the Primeira Comanda da Capital, or PCC, an organized crime unit in São Paulo that is sometimes called upon by the state to act. Biazeto says the PCC might be on hand to make sure people line up in an orderly manner to visit the prison.

A group of white plastic bags sit on a dirty orange tarp. Each one is tied with a knot at the top. On some, a small yellow square of paper with a handwritten number is visible attached with a metallic hook. Some belongings, such as a dark plaid umbrella, can be seen peeking out of the bags. — Visitors’ items are put in plastic bags and locked with a password in Adriana’s tent. Photo: Flávia Biazeto. Black Diaspora Archive.

During her fieldwork, Biazeto conducted interviews with Adriana, who runs one tent, and with Karina, the daughter of “a Loira” (“Blondie”), who runs the other. Additionally, Adriana and her son, Paulo, recommended visiting family members for Biazeto to interview.

“They knew the people, they heard their stories, they sold them coffee, they welcomed the people,” Biazeto said.

Closed containers of cake and several individually wrapped sandwiches made with white bread sit on a wooden table. Two cake containers are stacked one atop the other, while a knife sits atop a single container. — The cake and snacks sold at Barraca da Loira. Photo: Flávia Biazeto. Black Diaspora Archive.

In the excerpt below, Biazeto discussed her fieldwork in more depth. The following conversation is translated from the Portuguese and condensed.

Q: What were some of the things that surprised you?

Biazeto: I saw a mother putting on makeup to show her daughter that she was ok. Because she said that her role was to maintain her daughter’s well-being inside the prison. She said, “I cry here with you, but I go in there with a smile for her to have hope, that I’m waiting for her out here, and that everything is all right.” So she puts on makeup, she applies eye shadow, puts on lipstick, fixes her hair.

In a grainy photo, a woman applies red lipstick to her mouth. She holds a mirror and the silver top of the lipstick tube in one hand, while applying the color to her open mouth in the other. She is wearing a leopard-print jacket. — A mother applies lipstick before visiting her daughter in the women’s penitentiary. Photo: Flávia Biazeto. Black Diaspora Archive.

I also saw—although the statistics say the opposite—I saw many men going to visit their women. Taking their kids. So this happens in a way that research doesn’t show. These men are also invisibilized. Principally Black men, because when we talk about the Brazilian prison system, we’re principally talking about race. I saw a grandfather bringing a grandson to see his daughter. I saw a father bringing a little girl in a stroller, giving her a bottle. Cooking for the women. Breaking those gender barriers somewhat.

Professor Christen Smith commented [on my research], “You are bringing in new viewpoints [novos olhares].” Because it’s the man who works the dawn hours as garbage collector, street sweeper; comes back home, cooks, takes his daughter, and goes to the gate of the penitentiary. So those were the things that surprised me.

A slender man in loose gray sweatshirt and sweatpants stands with his back to the camera. He is facing a crowded line across the street from the entrance gate to the women's prison. He holds a small child against the left side of his chest. The child is wearing gray sweats, a blue-and-white hat with ear covers and a pompom on top, and bright red sneakers. The man has short black hair and a cigarette tucked behind his right ear. — Father takes his child to see mother, sentenced and imprisoned in PFS. Photo: Flávia Biazeto. Black Diaspora Archive.

Also, mothers who brought food not just for their own daughters, but for the cellmates, and the block-mates, because they didn’t have visitors. A mother said, “My daughter shares the food I bring, even if it’s a spoonful for each person.”

Q: What are these women serving time for?

Biazeto: In general, it is drug trafficking. Sometimes it’s a family business; sometimes inherited from the mother, or along with a male partner. Generally it is the user who is criminalized, not the dealer.

Q: What more would you like to share about your work?

Biazeto: [I’ve been encouraged by Lorraine Leu to think about the (im)possibilities of Black futures in the context of the prison.] To see the children running around there, in the middle of a busy avenue, is to think about Black resistance. Right there, you witness the formation of a community that supports and sustains its members somehow, whether it’s sharing information on legal issues, or the workings of the prison system. Many times, this information comes from outside, from family members exchanging information between themselves. I could see a solidarity among those family members. I think that this archive keeps alive the memory of people who are resisting the Brazilian police state. It is a new way of resisting.

A small dark blue tent, open on two sides and held up by metal poles, reads "Barraca da Loira" in bright yellow letters (Loira's Tent). Inside the tent, there is a small metal table with a few full plastic bags, one or two large Thermos bottles, and two round plastic containers containing cake. Suspended from a makeshift clothing line outside strung from a larger pole is a rope with a few articles of clothing hung from it, among them a hot-pint long-sleeved sweatshirt. Several people stand facing the tent with their backs to the camera. In the foreground, a small amount of the street is visible, including an orange traffic cone. — Barraca da Loira sells flip-flops, soft drinks, coffee, cake, and underwear. They also rent out clothes and serve as a locker. Photo: Flávia Biazeto. Black Diaspora Archive.

Ana Luiza Biazeto will spend the 2025–2026 academic year in Brazil to continue her dissertation research on resistance and resilience among Black women and their families in the Brazilian carceral system.

The contents of the Visiting Days archive can be reviewed via Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO). The Black Diaspora Archive is an initiative of Black Studies, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, and the Office of the President. The archive is housed at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Distinctive Collections, Global Studies, Illuminating Explorations, South Asia Collection

CONTINUED DIVES INTO PULP FICTION

June 27, 2025 mrader Leave a comment

“Illuminating Explorations” – This series of digital exhibits is designed to promote and celebrate UT Libraries collections in small-scale form. The exhibits will highlight unique materials to elevate awareness of a broad range of content. “Illuminating Explorations” will be created and released over time, with the intent of encouraging use of featured and related items, both digital and analog, in support of new inquiries, discoveries, enjoyment and further exploration.

As a part of my Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, I was back in Delhi in early 2025, continuing research on “hidden archives,” namely the unpublished materials found in institutional settings (places like the Prime Minister’s Museum and Archive at Teen Murti or the National Archives of India) as well as private papers still kept in family homes. My fellowship allowed me to expand and nuance the work I regularly support here at UT such as the digital archiving projects related to 20^th century politico-literary figures but also to delve a little deeper into UT Libraries’ growing distinctive collection related to South Asian popular and pulp fiction.

In research, like in crime thrillers, you never know where seemingly random clues might lead.

Early into my stay in Delhi, a colleague from the Fulbright office called me up to invite me to join him in attending a literary “salon” where I could meet some new people. The event was to welcome a visiting Greek poet, translator, and editor wherein she would read and discuss her poetry at the home of a prominent Indian literary editor. Poetry? Editors? “Salon”? I was in.

In addition to the lovely verse and food which both flowed freely throughout the evening, I was delighted to make multiple new acquaintances at the gathering. As we went around the room introducing ourselves—one person an activist, one a publisher, another a poet, and so on–one person identified himself as a translator at which point his jovial colleague interrupted him to reveal that he was also an author of pulp fiction. As I’ve been building UT’s pulp fiction collection for over 10 years now, my ears perked up and I set my sites on meeting this translator/author as soon as the group dispersed for more casual one-on-one conversation.

The author was lovely and humble about his own work and kindly asked me about which authors were included in UT’s pulp fiction collection. I started listing off the names—Ibne Safi, Ved Prakash Kamboj, Om Prakash Sarma, Anil Mohan—but when I got to Surender Mohan Pathak he casually asked, “oh, SMP? You want to meet him? My partner has helped edit and publish his work.” I tried not to reveal my excitement. Surender Mohan Pathak, with over 300 published novels to his credit, is one of the biggest, if not actually the biggest, authors of Hindi pulp crime thrillers. Yes! Yes, yes! I would in fact like to meet him.

With arrangements made through the generosity of new colleagues, a couple of weeks, multiple WhatsApp chats, and SMS texts later, I was greeted at the elevator gates to his Noida apartment by none other than Surender Mohan Pathak himself.

Over the course of the next hour or two, as I sat starstruck and in rapt attention in SMP’s home office, surrounded by a lifetime of memorabilia and shelves and shelves of his publications. SMP graciously answered all my questions, generously telling me about his pathway to becoming a writer, the challenges he has faced in getting published, and his expectations about his legacy. The highlights from this chance meeting, “Surender Mohan Pathak in His Own Words” are now available in the UT Libraries Digital Exhibits. It was nothing short of an honor to have been able to meet such a legend and I remain tremendously grateful to the kindhearted help of my new network of fellow fans.

Fans and rasikars of pulp fiction don’t just reside in India, however. A new faculty member to UT recently shared his admiration for the genre and our collection thusly,

[The collections] allowed me to reconnect with my own culture, which I could not even do in India. Given that English was the primary medium of instruction in the schools I attended, I ended up reading Rushdie before Premchand… [in the South Asia collections such as and including UT’s]… some of my most memorable moments have involved getting lost among the library stacks, and then suddenly stumbling upon a rare classic in [non-English Indian languages]… My intellectual life is much richer than it would have been otherwise. As I often mention to my friends, it is a different experience because “a different part of my brain lights up”, when I’m reading a [vernacular] novel, despite the fact that English was the first language that I learnt to read.

I invite everyone to explore the South Asia Popular and Pulp Fiction Collection, in a language of your choosing—Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Telugu, English–and consider what these mysteries, romances, and thrillers can teach us about research as well as about ourselves.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Benson Latin American Collection, Events, Uncategorized

Memory, Archives, and the Power of Storytelling with Cristina Rivera Garza

April 22, 2025 tex libris Leave a comment

On April 14, the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection welcomed acclaimed author Cristina Rivera Garza for an evening of reflection, conversation, and celebration marking the acquisition of her literary archive. Rivera Garza – Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Liliana’s Invincible Summer” and a MacArthur Genius Fellow.

The event drew a full house to honor the arrival of Rivera Garza’s papers and the stories they preserve. Attendees had an opportunity to view a curated selection from Rivera Garza’s archive, which includes manuscripts, letters and documents related to her writing and the life of her sister, Liliana, whose murder and legacy are the focus of “Liliana’s Invincible Summer,” Rivera Garza’s prize-winning memoir.

Rivera Garza opened the evening with a brief talk about the process that led to the placement of her papers at the Benson. She recalled the moment, following the completion of her memoir Liliana’s Invincible Summer, when she realized she lacked the tools to properly preserve Liliana’s letters, notes, books and other ephemera. Conversations with Benson staff helped her transition from caring for the materials privately to entrusting them to an institutional home.

She dedicated her remarks to her late father, Antonio Rivera, who recently passed away. Tracing his extraordinary life – from his Indigenous roots and refugee migration during a historic drought to earning a PhD in agricultural sciences in Sweden – she honored his devotion to memory and preservation. Antonio, like Liliana, saved everything: letters, photographs, telegrams and even short stories. Rivera Garza credited him with instilling the values of legacy and documentation that ultimately inspired her literary work.

Rivera Garza described archives as sacred, transformative spaces where “the living and the dead interact,” likening them to cemeteries that enable spiritual communion and emotional resurrection. She recounted the profound experience of opening the boxes of Liliana’s belongings, which included handwritten notes, origami-folded letters and scribbles in book margins – tangible remnants that allowed her to reconstruct her sister’s story and, in doing so, become a writer.

She closed her remarks with a call to action, framing archives as instruments of “restorative justice.” Though they may not always bring perpetrators to court, archives preserve truth, resist forgetting and bear witness to gender violence and femicide. In an era of disinformation, she argued, archives remain steadfast between oblivion and collective memory. Her parting wish: “Let archives do their breathing, and allow them to revive ourselves.”

The evening continued with a dialogue between the author and Dr. Celeste González de Bustamante, director of the Center for Global Media at the Moody College of Communications. The conversation explored the author’s writing process, the decision to withhold Liliana’s image from the English-language cover and the role of feminist mobilizations in shaping a new vocabulary for justice. Rivera Garza shared that much of “Liliana’s Invincible Summer” was informed by telephone conversations – intimate, unrecorded calls during the pandemic – with Liliana’s friends, whose memories form the emotional scaffolding of the book.

The discussion touched on broader issues of gender violence and femicide in Mexico and beyond. With an impunity rate for femicide exceeding 95% in Mexico, Rivera Garza described her writing as a way to confront silence, institutional erasure and the bureaucratic labyrinth faced by those seeking justice. She discussed the language born of feminist movements that made her book possible and necessary – a language that gives voice to victims rather than perpetrators.

With themes spanning grief, justice, family history and the evolving role of archives in a digital age, the evening served as a powerful reminder of the significance of preserving stories – especially those often left untold. Rivera Garza’s archive joins the Benson’s vast literary collections, ensuring that her words, and Liliana’s, will continue to inspire, provoke and bear witness for generations to come.

Watch video from the event.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Global Studies

Back to Egypt via Türkiye

March 4, 2025 DJCorrea Leave a comment

In December 2024, after classes came to a close, I took a brief trip to Istanbul, Türkiye, with the hope of acquiring pivotal Arabic-language journals that had been published in Egypt. I’ve written for the TexLibris blog before on the importance of looking for essential research materials in unexpected places, such as Arabic in Türkiye. This trip was yet another example.

So, what were these texts that I traveled across the Atlantic in order to secure for the UT Libraries researcher community? One of them is مجلس النواب مجموعة المضابط (Majlis al-Nuwwab: Majmu’at al-Madabit/Meeting Minutes of the House of Representatives). I acquired 18 volumes of this title, representing the record of the discussions and decisions taken by a House of the Egyptian Parliament in the late 1920s and 1930s. This title had been on my radar ever since I acquired مجلس الشيوخ مجموعة المضابط (Majlis al-Shuyukh: Majmu’at al-Madabit/Meeting Minutes of the House of Lords) a few years ago. That title consists of the records of the House of Lords of the Egyptian Parliament from the 1930s to the 1950s. My goal was to complement the House of Lords collection with the House of Representatives’ records from nearly the same time period so that UT Libraries is able to offer researchers a comprehensive record of Egyptian Parliamentary activity from the early 20th century. These types of government records may seem fairly mundane, but they are, in fact, remarkably difficult to locate outside of official copies kept at the Egyptian National Archives. In North America, UT Austin is one of four holding institutions for Majlis al-Shuyukh: Majmu’at al-Madabit, and one of five holding institutions for Majlis al-Nuwwab: Majmu’at al-Mudabit. I am eager to see the scholarship that arises from the presence of these crucial and rare titles at the UT Libraries, and I encourage scholars from other research institutions to consider visiting UT Libraries to consult these materials.

The second title that I acquired is الموسوعة الجنائية (al-Mawsu’ah al-Jina’iyyah/Encyclopedia on Criminal Law) by legal scholar Jindi Abd al-Malik Bayk. This work, published in the 1930s, is an encyclopedia of Egyptian criminal law structures and standards. It chronicles the historical development of criminal law, doctrinal formation, and the rules that came to be adopted in modern Egyptian criminal law. This title also includes the substantive case law that underpins some of the key assumptions and orientations for criminal procedure and criminality in Egypt.

The third title, الدنيا المصورة (al-Dunya al-Musawwarah/The Illustrated World), was published between 1929-1932. It was a weekly journal from the famous Dar al-Hilal publishing house, responsible for numerous impactful intellectual and popular periodicals in early 20th century Egypt. Edited by Emil and Shukri Zaydan, al-Dunya al-Musawwarah was renowned for its caricatures and the artists behind them, as well as for its plethora of photographs. It also featured influential articles by foundational litterateurs and political commentators, such as Fikri Abaza (فكري أباظة). UT Austin is now one of a only a handful of North American institutions with any holdings of this important title. al-Dunya al-Musawwarah complements our existing collection of early 20th century Arabic periodicals that I have been building since joining UT Austin 10 years ago. Other notable titles include البلاغ الأسبوعي (al-Balagh al-Usbu’i/The Weekly Calling), الهلال (al-Hilal/The Crescent), المصور (al-Musawwar/The Illustrated), and الكواكب (al-Kawakib/The Planets).

As I continue my work to maintain our existing collections and expand upon them, it is my hope that complementary titles such as these—titles that work together and extend the knowledge already present in the UT Libraries’ collections—will make crucial connections for UT Austin researchers and beyond. I invite anyone interested to learn more about these materials and/or our Middle Eastern Studies collections to reach out for a consultation.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Benson Latin American Collection, Collections

Benson Acquisition: Augusto Roa Bastos Papers

November 25, 2024 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the literary archives of César Vallejo and Augusto Roa Bastos, two giants of Latin American letters. These archives augment the Benson’s already significant collection of materials that represent the region’s writers, thinkers, and intellectual leaders, making the library, and the UT campus, an invaluable resource for students, faculty, and researchers from all corners of the globe.

By MELISSA GUY and DANIEL ARBINO

Paraguay’s most significant writer, Augusto Roa Bastos (1917–2005) is known for his contributions to the Latin American Boom and the post-dictatorship novel, particularly through his works Hijo de hombre (1960) and Yo el Supremo (1974). The latter is a historical fiction of the José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia dictatorship in the nineteenth century.

The book cover of a commemorative edition of "Yo, el Supremo" is a dark mustard-yellow and features a woodblock-print image of a black fist jutting across the page horizontally from the left. Falling from the hand is a large, bright-red drop of blood. — Cover of a commemorative edition of “Yo el Supremo,” published on the centennial of the author by the Real Academia Española.

Roa Bastos grew up in Iturbe, a provincial town where his father worked as an administrator on a sugar plantation. It was there that he was exposed to Guaraní, and developed a tremendous love for Paraguay’s most spoken Indigenous language. He later went to Asunción for his formative school years and, as a young man, served in the Chaco War as a medical auxiliary. Significant portions of his life were spent outside of Asunción, allowing the writer to have a deeper knowledge of the country at large.

Like the characters in Yo el Supremo, Roa Bastos was no stranger to the effects of dictatorship during his lifetime. In fact, he fled to Argentina in 1947 along with 500,000 other Paraguayans to escape the iron fist of President Higinio Morínigo. Roa Bastos would live over four decades in exile between Buenos Aires and Paris before returning to his homeland in 1989 after the fall of the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship. However, his commitment to Paraguayan culture never wavered as his literary career, which produced short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays, and children’s literature, demonstrated a commitment to the South American nation through his themes: collective memory, bilingualism (Guaraní/Spanish), and Indigeneity. His style, which pulled from magical realist and neobaroque tendencies, blended different time periods (pre-colonial and contemporary) to interrogate Paraguayan society.

Two yellowing sheets of paper side by side have a handwritten list with items numbered 1 through 42. The left-hand sheet is titled Índice (Index). Each line has a short title written in cursive by the author. — Handwritten index related to “Yo el Supremo.” Augusto Roa Bastos Papers, Benson Latin American Collection.

“In acquiring the literary archives of the great Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos, the Benson Latin American Collection is today blessed with the author’s handwritten notes relating to Yo el Supremo, one of the region’s most exorbitantly ambitious, baroquely virtuosic, groundbreaking novels of the late twentieth century,” writes Professor César A. Salgado of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. “The novel was published in 1974 as part of an agreement among top Latin American Boom writers to produce ‘dictator novels’ that dissected authoritarian regimes in their respective countries. In a group that included Alejo Carpentier’s El recurso del método (1974), Gabriel García Márquez’s El otoño del patriarca (1975), and Carlos Fuentes’ Terra Nostra (1975), Yo el Supremo outdid these other immensely accomplished works by structuring its penetrating, thoroughly researched psychological portrait of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (Paraguay’s undisputed ‘enlightened despot’ from 1811 to 1840) as it were a lively philosophical debate about how dictation, writing, literacy, orality (including Guaraní traditions), absolute power, and impermanence could be both complicit and antithetical to each other. If the ludological radicality of Rayuela galvanized the Boom in 1962, Yo el Supremo brought it to a close in 1974 by showing how deep-seated mechanisms of supremacist rule, set up at the start of nation formation in Latin America, could easily resurface across its history. With Yo el Supremo, Roa Bastos thus launched a fully postmodern critical and creative agenda for the region.”

A yellowing sheet of paper, heavily creased in the middle, bears both typed notes and handwritten notes. Some of the typed lines are scribbled over with wavy lines written in pen. The elegant handwritten part looks to be written with an ink pen. — Handwritten and typed notes titled “Themes for Paraguayan Stories,” Roa Bastos Papers. Courtesy Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

The Augusto Roa Bastos Papers is a versatile collection that spans the author’s career. It contains poetry, speeches, essays, correspondence, and manuscript drafts. Among the jewels of the collection are letters between the author and his daughter, Mirta Roa Mascheroni, and handwritten comments regarding Yo el Supremo and his novel Madama Sui. This collection provides researchers with profound insight into the writer’s life, particularly his time during exile, and his creative process from beginning to end. It pairs well with the Miguel Ángel Asturias Papers for similar topics regarding exile and the Boom.

The Roa Bastos acquisition was made possible in part by the Drs. Fernando Macías and Adriana Pacheco Benson Centennial Endowment.

Melissa Guy is director of the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

Daniel Arbino is former Head of Collection Development for the Benson.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Archives, Benson Latin American Collection, Collections Highlight, Poetry

Benson Acquisition: César Vallejo Papers

November 25, 2024 Susanna Sharpe Leave a comment

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the archives of César Vallejo and Augusto Roa Bastos, two giants of Latin American letters. These archives augment the Benson’s already significant collection of materials that represent the region’s writers, thinkers, and intellectual leaders, making the library, and the UT campus, an invaluable resource for students, faculty, researchers from all corners of the globe.

By ADELA PINEDA FRANCO

Peruvian poet César Vallejo (1892–1938) is considered one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century Latin American literature. Born in the Andean city of Santiago de Chuco, he moved to Lima as a young university student, producing there his first collection of poems, Los heraldos negros (1919). Seeking wider cultural and intellectual opportunities, Vallejo left Peru for Europe in 1923, spending most of his remaining fifteen years in self-imposed, impoverished exile in France, with periods in Spain and two trips to Russia. He died in Paris in 1938 at the age of 46.

Close-up black-and-white photograph of a man with dark hair, wearing a dark suit. He is resting his chin on one hand and looking into the distance. — César Vallejo, undated. Benson Latin American Collection.

Vallejo’s poetry has no precedent in the history of modern poetry. Written during a period that witnessed the crude consequences of war, imprisonment, and displacement (1919–1922), his avant-garde masterwork, Trilce (1922), challenges the reader with compelling paradoxes, abrupt syntactical turns, irregular spellings, rarefied lexicon, and verses arranged in unfamiliar visual displays.

However, this experimental register goes beyond the drive toward the new that was characteristic of the avant-garde movements. Vallejo’s poetic language is also a consequence of his search for the stark concrete expression of human affect. This is why in Trilce abstract notions of time, space, and being are conflated with raw emotions. No other poet has given shape to the silence that sustains the remembrance of things past with such precision:

Aguedita, Nativa, Miguel,
cuidado con ir por ahí, por donde
acaban de pasar
gangueando sus memorias
dobladoras penas,
hacia el silencioso corral, y por donde
las gallinas que se están acostando todavía,
se han espantado tanto.
Mejor estemos aquí no más.
Madre dijo que no demoraría.

“Poema III,” Trilce, 1922

[Find English translations of the poems cited here at https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520261730/the-complete-poetry]

César Vallejo in Fountainebleu, France, 1926. Courtesy Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

On the other hand, Vallejo’s poems embody the collective rather than the egotistical self. Familiar references are always a window into the vulnerability of human nature and the resilience of collective struggle, both in his homeland of Peru and in the entire world. A poem on the death of a soldier in the Spanish Civil War reads:

Pedro también solía comer
entre las criaturas de su carne, asear, pintar
la mesa y vivir dulcemente
en representación de todo el mundo.
Y esta cuchara anduvo en su chaqueta,
despierto o bien cuando dormía, siempre,
cuchara muerta viva, ella y sus símbolos.
¡Abisa a todos compañeros pronto!
¡Viban los compañeros al pie de esta cuchara para siempre!

“Solía escribir con su dedo grande en el aire,” España, aparta de mí este cáliz,1939

Vallejo’s oeuvre is thus an affective journey through the troublesome history of the twentieth century. Evidence of this is his posthumous poetry, which pertains to his last years in Europe: Poemas humanos (Human Poems), grouped under this title by his widow Georgette María Philippart Travers in 1937; and España, aparta de mí este cáliz (Spain, Take This Cup from Me,1939), his testament of the Spanish Civil War. Both collections are a centerpiece of the Benson’s recent acquisition.

A yellowed sheet of lined notebook paper, bearing three holes along the right side. The paper is filled top to bottom with Spanish words written in pencil, most of them with commas after them. — “Poemas humanos” manuscript, César Vallejo Papers. Courtesy Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection.

Beyond the recurring debate as to whether Human Poems is an appropriate title for this posthumous corpus, it is certain that these poems are an honest and critical reflection on the role of the lettered poet in a world charged with misery and human suffering:

Un albañil cae de un techo, muere y ya no almuerza
¿Innovar, luego, el tropo, la metáfora?

“Un hombre pasa con un pan al hombro,” Poemas humanos, 1937

Vallejo’s poems will always be contemporary, as they shed light on the devastating consequences of societal fragmentation, displacement, and exile. At the same time, his poems remind us of the need to keep longing for human empathy and love, even in times of war. We celebrate the arrival of Vallejo’s papers.

Al fin de la batalla,
y muerto el combatiente, vino hacia él un hombre
y le dijo: “No mueras, te amo tanto!”
Pero el cadáver ¡ay! siguió muriendo.

Se le acercaron dos y repitiéronle:
“No nos dejes! ¡Valor! ¡Vuelve a la vida!”
Pero el cadáver ¡ay! siguió muriendo.

Acudieron a él veinte, cien, mil, quinientos mil,
clamando: “Tanto amor, y no poder nada contra la muerte!”
Pero el cadáver ¡ay! siguió muriendo.

Le rodearon millones de individuos,
con un ruego común: “¡Quédate, hermano!”
Pero el cadáver ¡ay! siguió muriendo.

Entonces, todos los hombres de
la tierra le rodearon; les vio el cadáver triste, emocionado;
incorporóse lentamente,
abrazó al primer hombre; echóse a andar . . .

“Masa,” Poemas humanos, 1939

The César Vallejo Papers consist of materials dated from 1918 to 1992, and include manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and some published copies of his written work.

This acquisition was funded in part by the Janet and Jack Roberts Peruvian Endowment.

Adela Pineda Franco is Lozano Long Endowed Professor in Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies, and director of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at The University of Texas at Austin. Biographical research on César Vallejo was contributed by Benson Exhibitions Curator Veronica Valarino.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Global Studies

Books, Bookstores, and Bonds

October 10, 2024 urikolodney Leave a comment

Last July I went to Israel for yet another successful acquisition trip, made possible by the generous support of UT’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The Schusterman Center, and donations to a recent UT Libraries’ HornRaiser campaign. In previous trips, my efforts were centered around the acquisition of unique items for our collection; this is, after all, one of the main objectives of such trips. But this time around, I decided to emphasize networking — meeting old vendors (who are now good friends) and making acquaintances with new ones — while still leaving time for hunting for and purchasing materials. Since it was a relatively short week-long trip, and due to the tension in the region, I mainly visited the Tel Aviv area, with some short-day trips to Jerusalem and Haifa.

As always, I bumped into acquisition opportunities that I could not resist. The most exciting one being a set of 118 back issues of Israeli cinema periodicals that fill in gaps in UT’s holdings. When I went to visit Na’im, who works at the Little Prince Bookstore and Café and is a long time vendor acquaintance of mine, he asked me to follow him to his ‘kingdom’ at the second floor… and when he does that, you know that some treasures are to be found! We were sitting there for a couple hours, sorting those issues. A few days later, I returned to the shop and he handed me a box – “look what I found upstairs!” Sure enough, again I could not resist an offer of dozens more items related to Israeli film & cinema.

The Little Prince – Books and Coffee, Tel Aviv, Israel. — *The Little Prince – Books and Coffee*, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Nurturing friendships with vendors proves to be fruitful not only when it comes to acquiring materials; we also work together in order to make the entire process of acquisition easier and more efficient. For example, back at my office in Austin before this trip, I worked with one of my other vendors in Tel Aviv and together we prepared a ‘real-time’ inventory of the library’s main cinema periodicals. I took that inventory with me on my trip and found that it made checking holdings ‘on the ground’ so much easier and it helped me to not acquire duplicates. I used this inventory list extensively when Na’im and I sorted out those issues at his storage.

Also in Tel Aviv, I paid a visit to another dear vendor who has become a friend – Fanny from Fanny’s Bookshelf. Her store is one of those second-hand book stores that one can hardly move in – full with books to the brim. Like Na’im’s ‘secret’ storage area in the café’s second floor, Fanny keeps her special items away from regular customers’ reach—but be sure this is the first area I look at when I drop by! While there have been some visits when I found rare materials there, this time around I didn’t have much luck. Yet, I am undeterred as one could never know when and where the next ‘stellar’ find would appear; when it comes to collecting, patience is a virtue!

Person at far end of tall metal shelves with books in a bookstore. Fanny’s Bookshelf, Tel Aviv, Israel. — *Fanny’s Bookshelf*, Tel Aviv, Israel.

In Jerusalem, I was able to visit and build networks with both people and institutions. For example, I went to see the new building of the Israeli National Library, with a friend who has some ‘connections,’ so we got a tour in their preservation labs and the enormous underground robotic storage area. I also paid a visit to the Hansen House Center for Design, Media and Technology that is housed in an impressive historic building, a former leprosy hospital built in 1887. Meeting with colleagues there, I managed to put my hand on some rare issues of a Jerusalemite independent journal of arts, culture and society titled Erev Rav (“mixed multitude”).

Also while in Jerusalem, I was able to attend the opening event of the Jerusalem Film Festival where I had the opportunity to grab this year’s festival’s catalog. Film festival catalogs are always hard to acquire, because they do not sell in stores and usually, would not be considered as literature to be included in library collections. Yet, they contain valuable information about films, filmmakers, and the local film industry. Acquiring such catalogs is a constant work of hunting and relying not only on vendors, but also on scholars in the field. In fact, the lion’s share of our current holdings of both the Jerusalem and Haifa Film Festivals’ catalogs was donated to UTL by a film studies professor at the Tel Aviv University, who I met during one of my past acquisition trips.

During my career I’ve learned that networking in conferences, combined with work on the ground, could lead to small but significant ‘success stories.’ See for example, this previous post about my 2015 trip. This past summer I had a similar experience in the Association for Israel Studies conference in Prague. I attended a talk by a literature professor who teaches at Oranim college in the north of Israel. When we spoke afterwards over coffee, I mentioned that I’ve been searching for a Hebrew literature periodical published by her college. She immediately introduced me via email to a colleague of hers at their publishing house. When I arrived in Israel a few days later on my acquisition trip, I was gifted a full run of their literature journal, around 25 issues. The impact of cultivating personal connections across continents adds significant value to our collections.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Global Studies

Back in China, after five years

August 13, 2024 ShanYi Leave a comment

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.

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.

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.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Area Studies, Global Studies

Returning to Umm al-Dunya

April 4, 2024 DJCorrea Leave a comment

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.

A selfie of Dale Correa at the Cairo International Book Fair.

A ticket to the Cairo International Book Fair.

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.

The entrance to Hall 5 at the Cairo International Book Fair.

Inside Hall 5 at the Cairo International Book Fair.

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.

A popular shaykh gives a talk in Hall 3.

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.

From left, Ashraf 'Uways, Walid Ghali, and Dale Correa at the Dar al-Nasim booth.

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs booth at the Cairo International Book Fair.

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.

The Azbakiyyah section at the Cairo International Book Fair.

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.

Dale Correa in front of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

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.