{"id":6093,"date":"2026-09-29T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/?p=6093"},"modified":"2026-09-29T14:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:58:50","slug":"velde-graduate-fellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/2026\/09\/29\/velde-graduate-fellows\/","title":{"rendered":"Velde Graduate Fellows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations to the 2026-2027 recipients of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/research-instruction\/velde-graduate-fellowship-fund\/\">John \u2018Bud\u2019 Velde Graduate Fellowship<\/a>: Megi Mecolli, Camellia Paul, and Sophie Weinberg! Read on to learn more about what RBML&#8217;s Velde Graduate Fellows are up to this academic year.<\/p>\n<h4>Megi Mecolli<\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6094 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Mecolli_Headshot-1-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Mecolli_Headshot-1-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Mecolli_Headshot-1-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Mecolli_Headshot-1-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Mecolli_Headshot-1.jpg 1004w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My project is centered on transcribing <a href=\"https:\/\/i-share-uiu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/permalink\/01CARLI_UIU\/1geg102\/alma99520231712205899\">Pre-1650 MS 0102<\/a>, the &#8220;Crafte of Conjureynge&#8221; manuscript, an Elizabethan spellbook which is estimated to date to the 1590s. Through this transcription work, I will be researching the three different scripts within the manuscript which date to the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries respectively, to further scrutinize how the spellbook configures the displays of conjuration, magical power, and subjugation with sociopolitical power and subjugation over the course of three centuries of guardianship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>Camellia Paul<\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6098 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Camellia-Paul_CWL-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Camellia-Paul_CWL-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Camellia-Paul_CWL-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Camellia-Paul_CWL-768x961.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/Camellia-Paul_CWL.jpg 1128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My proposed project, \u201cOwlscapes in Archives: Owls, Myth, Natural History, and Ecological Imagination in South Asian and Transnational Print Cultures,\u201d explores how owls have been represented, mythologized, and ecoculturally understood across literary, visual, and natural-history archives. Drawing on the RBML\u2019s collections in early natural history, emblem books, ornithological illustration, travel writing, and colonial print culture, I plan to examine how scientific knowledge, folklore, and cultural symbolism have shaped more-than-human relationships with owls across times and spaces. Through this archival work, I hope to develop the concept of what I call the \u201cowlscape\u201d as a space where ecological realities intersect with cultural imagination, environmental history, and multispecies relations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>Sophie Weinberg<\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6096 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/IMG_0462-2-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/IMG_0462-2-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/IMG_0462-2-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/IMG_0462-2-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/IMG_0462-2-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/IMG_0462-2-1639x2048.jpg 1639w, https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/09\/IMG_0462-2.jpg 1645w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My project examines the print output of the stationer Elizabeth Nutt (fl. 1680s\u20131746). I suggest that careful bibliographic analysis of the press figures present in Nutt\u2019s books between 1716 and 1746 will surface patterns in the rate and scale of Elizabeth\u2019s print production. Over the course of this fellowship, I hope to use these typographic indicators to test a new means of tracking women\u2019s labor, agency, and business methods in the early modern book trade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations to the 2026-2027 recipients of the John \u2018Bud\u2019 Velde Graduate Fellowship: Megi Mecolli, Camellia Paul, and Sophie Weinberg! Read on to learn more about what RBML&#8217;s Velde Graduate Fellows are up to this academic year. Megi Mecolli My project is centered on transcribing Pre-1650 MS 0102, the &#8220;Crafte of Conjureynge&#8221; manuscript, an Elizabethan spellbook [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,24,33,466,296],"tags":[388,301,215,220],"class_list":["post-6093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-of-science","category-manuscripts","category-provenance","category-rare-books","category-typography","tag-history-of-printing","tag-manuscripts","tag-provenance","tag-rare-books"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6093"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6109,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093\/revisions\/6109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}