The Frances M. Schwartz Fellow for 1996/7 is Diana Whitecage, a senior at Bennington College, Bennington, VT. Diana is an Art Education major who expects to graduate in June and then take up graduate work in England. She spent the fall term of 1996 in Canterbury, where she taught art to elementary students and studied art education at Canterbury Christ Church College. She also pursued her musical interests, singing in an English choir.
Ms. Whitecage, a native of Hoboken, became acquainted with the Society in January, 1996 as a member of Bennington's fieldwork term program, in which the Society has participated for many years. In that capacity she helped update the computerized database of both accession and coin records. This year, as the Schwartz Fellow, she is attached to the Roman department, and has been rearranging third-century imperial coins.
The Schwartz Fellowship is named in memory of Frances M. Schwartz, a longtime volunteer at the museum who died in 1984. It provides for assistance and training in numismatics and museum methods. Applications are accepted through March 1 for tenure during the following academic year.
The American Numismatic Society will offer the Shaykh Hamad Fellowship in Islamic Numismatics again in 1997-98, with the support of Shaykh Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar. The fellowship of $3,000 is for practical training in museum work and research on Islamic coinage. The Fellow will serve as assistant to Dr. Michael Bates, Curator of Islamic Coins at the Society (bates@amnumsoc.org), in routine and advanced projects involving the identification, cataloging, labelling and arrangement of Islamic coins, and in other departmental tasks. The work can be partly in the student's special area of interest.
The work is best suited for students with some graduate-level training in medieval Near Eastern history or a related field, and with some knowledge of Arabic. Normally the Fellow will be expected to work at the Society one day a week, from 9:00 to 5:00, for 30 weeks; or the equivalent amount of time on a different schedule. The Society's working week is from Tuesday through Saturday. The Fellow will presumably begin work in September. The schedule of work will be worked out by agreement and can be changed as necessary, but it is important to maintain a regular schedule.
The deadline for applications is March 15, 1997. For application forms, phone or write Dale Martin at the Society. Preliminary inquiries to the Curator are welcome by phone or e-mail (info@amnumsoc.org).
Students from Fordham University in New York and Bennington College in Vermont are providing much needed assistance in the ANS library. Their presence and willingness to learn the skills necessary to file and retrieve works within the Society's large and specialized collections is especially appreciated this winter. The Society's Assistant Librarian, Ge Lin, an experienced on-line cataloguer, resigned in early January for personal reasons; meanwhile the work of the library continues unabated.
Lydia Hued, a junior at Fordham majoring in international accounting, plans to attend law school on completion of her undergraduate degree and aspires to work in the international arena.
Mayra Castillo, from the Dominican Republic, is a first-year student at Fordham's Rose Hill campus. A business major, Mayra plans a concentration in international marketing and information science and hopes to have the opportunity to study abroad as part of her curriculum.
Hilary Gordon is a second-year legal studies student at Bennington where her secondary interests center around politics and history. She is spending her Field Work Term this year dividing her time between her internship in the ANS library and in NYC Councilwoman Ronnie Eldridge's office where Hilary is involved in assisting in landlord/tenant conflict cases. After Bennington, she plans to attend law school and eventually to practice law in New York City.
The Society and its visitors are fortunate to have three young ladies, cheerful of person and serious of purpose, helping to keep the ANS library running smoothly this year. Thanks as well to Normand Pepin who continues as a much appreciated volunteer in the library.
The last remaining uncatalogued section of the ANS Asian collection should soon be in the computer, thanks to the arrival of Fowzy Butt, a student from Bennington College, who has been hired for six weeks in January and February.
Fowzy is cataloging the remaining coins of the various Indian subcontinent states contemporary with the end of the Mughal empire and British rule. Since he is a Pakistani, he is familiar with Urdu and the Arabic/Persian script of many of the coins, as well as the recent history of the subcontinent. In addition, Fowzy has a high degree of computer proficiency. At Bennington, he is in charge of the New Media Center and counsels users on software and hardware problems associated with computer publishing.
He is in his second year at Bennington, working on a B.A. in Media Studies and Sound Recording. Before he entered Bennington College (in Vermont), Fowzy prepared for his British A-level exams at The Lyceum, Karachi. He grew up in Saudi Arabia, where his father was an executive for Aramco Oil. His interest in recording is not merely technical: he plays guitar, bass, and drums, and writes songs. While at the ANS, Fowzy lives with his older brother in Manhattan.
Work/study is fundamental at Bennington, where students are expected to take time off to find a job every year in January and February. The ANS has had a succession of capable assistants from Bennington over the years, some of whom have returned to work for more extended periods.
