Two students selected for the Archival Fellowship

The Humanities Undergraduate Archival Fellowship (HUAF), established with a generous gift from OHC donors Herb Merker and Marcy Hammock, is a collaborative program between the OHC, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Engagement (CURE), and UO Libraries Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA). The fellowship helps students to build primary archival research and career readiness skills. Two students, senior Payton Rosello and junior Emma Kersgaard, have been awarded the 2025 fellowship. 

In their application, Payton shared, “As I move through my final undergraduate year, I hope to use the experience I have and the opportunities presented by the HUAF to establish myself in graduate school and pursue a degree focused in digital curation and library sciences. I want to create a space to use both my English degree and experience in the Psychology field to perverse and curate exhibitions related to the social sciences. I feel that Psychology and English are two fields which reflect the broader human experience, and it is necessary to preserve overlapping work in both subjects to benefit connectivity in future generations.”

In her application, Emma stated, “After graduating with my degree in English with minors in sociology and disability studies next year, I want to get my master’s degree in Library and Information Science. This fellowship would grant me crucial experience relevant to my future degree and career, and I would love the opportunity to learn about archival studies…My goal is to become a youth services librarian, but I want to learn more about the many different paths within library science and archival studies. [With this fellowship I] will get the opportunity to see and contribute to the behind-the-scenes work that exists in archives and special collections.”

During winter and spring terms the students will gain hands-on library science skills while developing project management, data collection and analysis, and digital humanities experience. They will receive $3,000 for the twenty-week fellowship, in addition to a high level of support from SCUA and OHC. The students’ work as fellows will focus on actual archival work (preservation, arrangement, and description), in addition to a public presentation and poster session on their project, along with the opportunity to write blog and social media posts.