KU Libraries call for proposals for new exhibit program highlighting faculty research
LAWRENCE — KU Libraries are calling for proposals for the 2025/2026 David M. Bergeron and Geraldo Sousa Exhibit Program, which showcases the research of University of Kansas faculty using the extraordinary resources housed within Kenneth Spencer Research Library’s collections.
KU faculty are invited to submit proposals for their work to be presented as a Spencer Research Library exhibition, curated in collaboration with library colleagues. The exhibit will be installed in the Spencer Library gallery during the early spring of 2026. The selected faculty member will be awarded a stipend of $5,000.
Proposals will be evaluated based on the topic’s relevance to the campus and greater community, the researcher’s rich use of Spencer Library’s collections, and the feasibility of the exhibit plan and timeline. Full details are available on the libraries’ website, with an online application form due Jan. 7, 2025.
Faculty members considering a proposal are encouraged to contact Caitlin Klepper at ksrlref@ku.edu in advance to discuss potential collections, exhibit themes and other factors that will make a strong and achievable proposal.
The Bergeron-Sousa Exhibit Program is made possible through a gift to KU Libraries from David Bergeron, KU professor of English emeritus, and Geraldo Sousa, KU professor of English.
Last fall, Bergeron co-curated the inaugural exhibit in the series, “To the Great Variety of Readers: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio,” collaborating with Beth Whittaker, Spencer Library director and associate dean. The display included the library’s fragment of the First Folio of 1623 and Second Folio of 1632, and an array of related materials from Spencer Library collections.
Bergeron, a prolific author and preeminent Shakespearean scholar, intensively uses KU Libraries collections in his research.
“I want to underscore that all of these items come out of the Spencer Library,” Bergeron said of the inaugural exhibit, “which is a reminder of the remarkable resources that are available in this library.”
Sousa, a scholar and instructor in the KU Department of English for 20 years, has been an active member of the KU Libraries Board of Advocates from its inception.
“KU has always been an outstanding university, but the libraries have been and are still the heart of it,” he said.