![Collage of Book Covers featuring several sets of eyes, a sculpture of a women in front of a a Doric column, aqua swirls, an d grey bubbles](https://sites.psu.edu/thunlibraryarchives/files/2021/12/Lex-Vision-e1639770410822.jpg)
Julie Porterfield, former Penn State University Libraries Outreach and Instruction Archivist, in collaboration with Jacqui Reid-Walsh, who has joint appointments in Education and WGSS (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), received a Penn State Humanities Institute Collaboration Colloquia grant to sponsor six conversations about representations of girls in archives and special collections during the 2021-2022 academic year. I jumped at the chance to join this group, and have enjoyed our lively and thoughtful discussions about our assigned readings on Girlhood.
We also made zines inspired by images from stories and images from Special Collections. (Three of us chose an image from an old German cautionary tale of a young girl on fire, so we were burning to express ourselves.) In another session, Bill Minter kindly showed us how to create handmade books (no fire involved in that session, although I did add an origami sun to my book).
Radical Girls @ Penn State Berks is an exploration and celebration of “girls” in our local archives, current members of the Berks Women’s Commission, and our amazing student library assistants and short story intern who all happen to be Radical Girls.
Shout Out to Our Wonderful Student Library Assistants and Short Story Intern