Big Read Partner Series - IASL

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• Exhibits tag

• Post Date: 02/08/2019
• Author: Beth Watkins
• Reading Time: 4 minute read

Meet the partners and key collaborators on the NEA Big Read in Champaign-Urbana! This project, centered on Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, is a partnership among the Spurlock Museum, the International & Area Studies Library, the Urbana Free Library, the Champaign Public Library, the Art Theater, and the Indian Cultural Society of Urbana-Champaign.

A national initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. This local partnership linking campus, Champaign, and Urbana is one of 79 to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading program in the winter of 2019. To date, approximately 39,000 community organizations nation-wide have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible. For more information about the NEA Big Read, please visit arts.gov/neabigread. (external link)

The International and Area Studies Library: Grant Partner and Program Host 

The International and Area Studies Library (external link) has Big Read programs for on- and off-campus community members. IASL Book Clubs with community discussants (February 21 and 28 and March 7), Chai Wai (February 6) and Indian Comics program (February 13) are all open to UIUC students, staff, and faculty, as well as to folks from throughout our community. IASL is also hosting a book discussion at Riggs Brewery on March 9. IASL is on the third floor of the University Library at the corner of Wright Street and Armory Avenue on campus. There is a CUMTD bus stop at this corner, and parking suggestions are listed online (external link).

Prof. Mara Thacker: Grant Co-PI and Program Collaborator 

Mara Thacker is the South Asian Studies Librarian and Global Popular Culture Librarian and an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the University of Illinois in 2012, Mara was Public Services Librarian at Paul Smith’s College in upstate New York. It was at Paul Smith’s College that Mara got her start at planning library programming and events. Programs ranged from movie screenings, to a library lock-in sleepover, to a workshop on how to homebrew beer. Now, at the University of Illinois Mara uses those experiences to plan fun and educational events around South Asian Studies and popular culture. Highlights include starting the popular Chai Wai (Hindi for “tea or something like that”) panel discussion series, co-organizing a semester long Indian film festival, hosting musical performances in the library, and more. 

As an assistant professor, Mara has cultivated a research agenda on trends in area studies librarianship with a focus on niche collections, and public engagement. Most recently, Mara has published work relating to the intersection of comics culture and library culture in India and has argued for diversifying and internationalizing popular culture collections in academic libraries. This research is informed by Mara’s background studying Indian popular culture under the auspices of Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship awards in graduate school as well as her work to build and market the South Asian comics collection at the University of Illinois.

Mara’s success in building the South Asian comic collection contributed to her receiving the 2017 Library Journal Movers & Shakers award. Mara is also currently serving as the chair on the executive board of the Committee on South Asian Libraries and Documentation (CONSALD).