Meet Atla Diversity Scholarship Recipient Ryan Zohar

We are excited to introduce Ryan Zohar as the second of three recipients of the Atla Diversity Scholarship for 2020-2021! Ryan is currently a student in the dual MA/MLIS program between New York University and Long Island University. He is working on a master’s in library & information science at LIU’s Palmer School of Library & Information Science and a master’s in Near Eastern Studies at NYU’s Hagop Kevorkian Center. Within these programs, he is particularly interested in Middle East Studies, Jewish Studies, and metadata management for non-Roman script materials.

He graduated in 2019 from the Dual BA Program between Columbia University and Sciences Po. He studied Political Science and Middle East Studies at Science Po, and Middle East, South Asian & African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia. (“It seems I gravitate towards dual degree programs!” Ryan told us.) He also recently completed a fellowship in Amman, Jordan, through the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA).

Ryan said, “While I have not yet had experience with building collections in the areas of Jewish Studies and Middle East & Islamic Studies myself, I am interested in highlighting the role of non-Anglo-American sources in research libraries. I find working in libraries to be a unique vantage point for thinking about knowledge production. From here, I am interested in asking, which sources form the bulk of our collections? Which types of sources are used in academic research, and which sources get overlooked? With most of my experience thus far having been in technical services, I am interested in the future of metadata management and production for non-Roman script materials, especially as we increasingly move towards a linked data environment.”

From here, I am interested in asking, which sources form the bulk of our collections? Which types of sources are used in academic research, and which sources get overlooked?

Ryan joined Atla last year while looking for a community that would combine his interest in libraries and religious studies. “I enjoy reading the different articles and blog posts that Atla publishes,” said Ryan. “I’ve also been interested in the Atla Digital Library and, in particular, the new curated digital exhibits. I hope to participate in other Digital Library initiatives once I gain more familiarity with the collection.” He added, “I also look forward to participating in the Technical Services Interest Group (TSIG).”

Ryan is currently the Librarian of the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, where he manages the Institute’s multilingual collections and hopes to deepen his knowledge of cataloging and metadata for digital libraries. When he is not in the library, he spends his time listening to music, writing, translating, and hiking. As a brand-new Washingtonian, he also enjoys exploring the city and checking out new neighborhoods with his friends.

When asked what being an Atla Diversity Scholar means to him, Ryan said, “It means a great deal to me for a number of reasons. Many of the reasons I first approached LIS and Middle East Jewish Studies were a result of what I felt to be the institutional and historiographic flattening of Middle Eastern Jewish culture, an impression largely driven by my own family’s background and experiences. A return to sources from these communities, I felt, could help more recent scholarship work past overdetermined cultural divides. In many respects, Middle Eastern print cultures are still underrepresented in American academic libraries and scholarship on the region has historically reflected this.

A return to sources from these communities, I felt, could help more recent scholarship work past overdetermined cultural divides.

“Because of this, I’ve learned to approach the question of diversity in librarianship in two main interconnected ways.  First, by highlighting the importance of making the profession more accessible and inclusive of individuals whom the profession has tended to overlook and marginalize. Second, I think it is important to approach the question of diversity epistemologically. How have certain languages or print cultures been overlooked in collection development practices? How can inclusive description practices – which use terms from the contexts in which materials arose – encourage the use of materials by diasporic or underrepresented communities? How can these materials be made more accessible to partially proficient or non-fluent heritage speakers of languages?

“Atla’s support has been instrumental not only because its financial support has allowed me to continue exploring these questions in my academic work, but also because it has provided me with a welcome into a community that will help me engage with these issues and learn from others whose experiences around anti-racist, social justice, and diversity efforts in librarianship will have differed from my own.”

Please join us in congratulating Ryan on being an Atla Diversity Scholar for 2020-2021!

Learn more about the Diversity Scholarship and how the generous donations to the Scholarships & Grants Annual Fund make this scholarship possible.