What wonders do the halls of Lutnick Library have to offer for the 2026 spring semester? On our late-to-class mad dashes and in our sleepy-eyed study sessions, we can easily overlook the enthralling and informative displays all around us. It is the purpose of this article to illuminate the hard work crystallized within these projects, in the hopes that they will catch your eyes next time you are in Lutnick Library.
Hiking up the ramps and marching through the glassy doorways, you will find a row of cases to your left, lined with images of athletes, sport equipment, and transcribed interviews. This is The Art of Sports: Ancient and Modern, curated by students in Professor Ava Shirazi’s Fall 2025 Classics course of the same name (CSTS H270). The final project asked students to work in teams and curate a collection of visual/verbal juxtapositions across time and practice, raising questions and significations around the sensorial dimensions of sports. Within these cases, there are touching reflections on the effects of bodily injury, personal accounts of entering “flow state,” historical investigations into women’s field hockey at Haverford, and visual-conceptual explorations of “directional movement.”
Towards a Casteless Future, on the other hand, graces the Magill Wing cases and adorns a length of wall tucked next to the librarian offices. It is a collection of zines, poems, photos, and artwork created or curated by students in PEAC H220: Caste and Power, taught by Professor Varun Khanna and Professor Prea Persaud in Fall 2025. The course and the projects examine the roots and realities of caste as a powerful social infrastructure in South Asia and the South Asian diaspora. Between large, powerful collages of Dalit lives and protests by activist photographers, zines handmade by students hang by white strings, each examining intersections of caste with race, gender, mental health, art, food, and all forms of socio-cultural practice. Between penciled script, colorful lines, and annotated pictures, these little creations begin to imagine something much bigger: visions of a casteless future and a society beyond oppressive hierarchies.
Finally, as you make your way down the stairs to the Rebecca and Rick White Gallery, you will be greeted by American Nation-Making: Historical Narratives and Revolutionary Mythology. Curated by Delali Lyons ’26, this exhibition anticipates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by re-considering the legacy of the American Revolution. Beginning with the revolution itself and its neoclassical ideals, American Nation-Making then traces echoes of its myth-making in the Haitian Revolution, Latin American independence movements led by Simón Bolívar, and the American Civil War. Utilizing archival materials from the Haverford and Bryn Mawr Special Collections, the exhibition shines light on how power affects the creation of historical records, bringing critical insights to the age-old question: Who gets to tell their story, and what happens to those who do not? For an in-depth walkthrough of the project, I would recommend checking out this article, or better yet, stopping by the exhibition some time between now and July 31, 2026.
And so, this has been our quick rundown of what’s been going on around Lutnick! All three projects discussed will be on display for the upcoming months. Should you have even a dime of time on you, we highly encourage you to take a few minutes appreciating and/or meditating upon these exhibitions. You will have shown support for your fellow schoolmates and will likely leave the library feeling a little wiser.
