2015 Patricia Stocking Brown Research Award Recipients Named

ALBANY, N.Y. (May 11, 2015) - The University Libraries at the University at Albany, SUNY today presented the 2015 Patricia Stocking Brown Fund for Feminist Social Justice Research Awards to University at Albany graduate students Brittany Frederick and Justin Holzer.

Ms. Frederick, who expects to receive a Master of Arts degree in Public History in December 2015, was awarded $500 for her research on Helen Quirini. The project, created as part of a graduate research seminar in American History, examines the life and work of labor activist, feminist, and Schenectady, New York resident Quirini, specifically during the era of the Second Red Scare. Professor Barry Trachtenberg of the Department of History serves as faculty advisor to this project.
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Working with Professor Gerald Zahavi of the Department of History, Mr. Holzer received $500 to prepare a digital exhibit and produce a 15-minute audio documentary exploring feminist social justice during the early years of the Department of Women's Studies at the University at Albany. These two projects will serve as the foundation for his planned fall 2015 graduate seminar research paper on feminist social justice on university campuses. Currently a first year Master of Arts candidate in History, Mr. Holzer expects to receive his degree and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Public History in May 2016.

The annual Award honors Professor Patricia Stocking Brown, who taught Biology and Women's and Minorities' Studies for 35 years at nearby Siena College. Trained at the University of Michigan in comparative endocrinology, and a self-described feminist, Patricia Stocking Brown was the first female faculty member in the sciences at Siena. There she established an extraordinary career as a caring and rigorous teacher and researcher who promoted student research, feminist analytical thinking and evidence-based medicine. Brown was the wife of University at Albany Distinguished Teaching Professor of Biology Emeritus Stephen C. Brown.

Professor Patricia Stocking Brown died in 2004 from metastatic breast cancer. The University at Albany Libraries' Department of Special Collections & Archives holds Brown's papers along with those of the grassroots nonprofit Capital Region Action Against Breast Cancer (CRAAB!), which she co-founded in 1997, and the New York State Breast Cancer Network, a coalition of grassroots breast cancer groups around the state, she co-founded soon after.

Donors from the University at Albany's Women's Studies and Biology Departments, including Professor of Women's Studies Emerita Bonnie Spanier, established The Patricia Stocking Brown Fund for Feminist Social Justice Research in University Libraries to support and promote students' interest in and use of primary materials related to the study of social justice, housed in the Department of Special Collections & Archives. Award applicants must be a registered University at Albany graduate or undergraduate student and currently engaged in or planning a research project/class paper related to feminist social justice. Awardees must utilize at least one manuscript or archival collection at the University as part of his or her research.