Alison Scott Ricker Research Award
About the Awards
Named in honor of the longtime head of the Science Library, this award recognizes outstanding papers or projects by Oberlin College students in any subject that demonstrate excellent research using library resources. Up to two awards, in the amount of $500 each, may be given annually.
The four criteria considered are: creativity in the use of research tools, thoroughness in the research process, accuracy and attention to detail, and the use of a broad range of research tools.
Committee Members
- Elizabeth Sullivan, Head of Research and Instruction, Chair
- Kathy Abromeit, Head, Conservatory Library
- Alonso Avila, Outreach and Student Success Librarian
- Gina Pérez, Professor of Comparative American Studies
- Ann Sherif, Professor of Japanese, East Asian Studies
Nomination Process
Nominations for the awards will be made by Oberlin College faculty. Any student project completed for academic credit, with the exception of honors projects, is eligible to be nominated.
We cannot recognize projects for which students received remuneration.
Nominees will be asked to submit to the Friends of the Libraries Research Awards Committee a copy of the final project (e.g. paper, digital project, website, etc.), a bibliography, and a short essay discussing the research processes and strategies used in completing the project. The Committee will select the winners, and may choose to split one of the prizes among multiple nominees, or consider work for a First-Year Seminar in its own category.
2024 Award Winners:
- Abe Gold, nominated by Cynthia Chapman and Shari Rabin for a Jewish Studies research paper titled “The Demise of the Ashkenazic Pronunciation of Hebrew and Aramaic, among Non-Orthodox Non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Jews in the United States: Causes and Context” which investigates the cultural, religious, and political factors that led to nearly all Ashkenazi-descended Jews abandoning their native pronunciation system for Hebrew and Aramaic in favor of the pronunciation system widely used in Israel.
- Caleigh Lyons, nominated by Erik Inglis for her Book Studies analysis of “Oberlin’s Beaded Dakota Hymnal,” (Okodakiciye-Wakan Odowan Qa Okna Ahiyayapi Kta Ho Kin or Hymnal with Tunes and Chants according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Missions Among the Dakotas of the Missionary District of South Dakota). This paper analyzes the hymnal as an object created by a specific Christian Dakota culture that developed after contacts with colonial missionary Euro-Americans, and as a testament to how the Dakota people absorbed what appealed to them about this new culture, and continued to survive.
- Audrey Weber, nominated by Ana María Diaz Burgos, for a Hispanic Studies paper titled “Al contar sus propias historias: el rol de compartir en espacios femeninos para escapar de los panópticos” (“Telling your own stories: the role of sharing in feminine spaces to escape panopticons.”) This paper draws on theories from anthropology and literary analysis to analyze the novel’s depiction of panopticons in an all-female prison.
Past Projects
Winning projects are archived in Oberlin's Digital Commons.