Bessho to Receive 2024 Pratt Severn Student Paper Award
The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Seiji Bessho has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Pratt Severn Best Student Research Paper Award. The purpose of the award is to encourage student research and writing in the field of information science.
Bessho’s paper entitled, “Concentration, Evacuation, Internment, Incarceration, Relocation: An Evaluation of Library of Congress Subject Headings Relating to Japanese American Incarceration” was selected from among a pool of outstanding candidates who were judged based on criteria including: technical competence in information science; significance of information science findings; originality; clarity of expression; compliance with JASIST instructions; style; and organization.
Upon learning of their selection as the winner of the 2024 Pratt Severn Best Student Research Paper Award, Bessho said, "I am humbled and honored to be given the ASIS&T Pratt Severn Award, especially given the paper's relation to the discourse surrounding more equitable classification system used in the library field. I feel it affirms the need to further develop conversation regarding what it means to change a system that has been long entrenched in racism, colonialism, and white supremacy. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, Dr. Julia Bullard, for her guidance and patience throughout the research project."
Seiji Bessho (he/they) is a graduate student at University of British Columbia School of lnformation studying in the Dual Master of Library and Information Science and Master of Archival Science Program. As an immigrant living in the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, he is interested in critiquing and exploring the current practices of archival and library fields for a more equitable, inclusive, and representative field.
Bessho will receive the award at the 2024 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, 25-29 October in Calgary, AB Canada.