Winners of Library Treasures Summer 2026 Scholarships

Kelsey Bialo (PhD Student, Department of Linguistics), “Exploring Minor Syllables and Sesquisyllabicity in Micronesian languages”

This project explores whether languages of Micronesia exhibit sesquisyllabicity, a pattern involving minor or reduced “half” syllables that precede a full stressed syllable. Sesquisyllables are a widely documented feature of languages spoken in Mainland Southeast Asia but are rarely discussed in the context of Austronesian languages. Using reference grammars from Hamilton Library’s Asia and Pacific Collections, this project will systematically analyze syllable structure and stress patterns across a representative sample of 10–15 Micronesian languages. By comparing these patterns to those of Mon-Khmer and Tibeto-Burman languages known for having minor syllables, we can evaluate whether syllable structures observed in Micronesian languages align with or challenge existing definitions of sesquisyllabicity. This study will produce a structured database of syllable types and stress patterns in the sampled languages, alongside a research report on what these patterns reveal about syllable structures cross-linguistically and the sound systems of Pacific languages spoken in and around Hawaiʻi.

Kelsie Kuniyoshi (PhD Student, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management), “Pilina Inoa: An Exploration of Trans-Pacific Ethnobiological Knowledge Through the Samuel Elbert Collection”

It is well understood that language encodes ecological and biological knowledge, yet there are gaps in its interpretation, especially for endangered languages. As such, this project draws upon recent work on pilina inoa, nomenclatural relationships in Hawaiian ecological knowledge systems, to investigate how naming conventions documented by linguist and lexicographer Samuel Hoyt Elbert reflect broader biocultural relationships across Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. Best known as co-author of the Pukui-Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary, Elbert conducted extensive fieldwork throughout Polynesia and Micronesia, documenting oral traditions, species names, place names, and Pacific folklore. Using unpublished field notes, annotated photographs, teaching materials, correspondence, and manuscripts that are not available online, this research explores how Indigenous naming systems encode ecological relationships, memory, and environmental knowledge across Oceania. Findings from this project will contribute to Hawaiian Studies, Pacific Islands Studies, Linguistics, and Ethnobiology while supporting broader conversations surrounding biocultural conservation, place-based education, and Indigenous knowledge systems preserved within the HPC collections.

SeungHyeon Pyo (PhD Student, Department of History), “Hijacking the Invisible Hand: The Language of Markets and Corporate Incubation of Early Japanese Aviation”

How did the imperial state orchestrate the rise of aviation, an overwhelmingly expensive industry, despite a near-total absence of organic market demand? The trajectory of early Japanese flight offers a case study in the transnational assembly of such a sector. This article reconstructs Japan’s nascent aviation industry as a critical infrastructure forged at the nexus of transport, logistics, and militarism. Faced with chronic unprofitability and interwar imperial anxieties, the fusion of national industrial imperatives with private capital gave rise to a succession of experimental corporate forms. Tracking this institutional engineering from the 1914 Imperial Aviation Association to the 1928 chartering of the National Aviation Transport Company, this study cuts through the semantic slippage inherent in Gerschenkronian narratives that bifurcate “natural” market formation and state-led “substitution.” I contend that early Japanese flight materialized within corporate shells designed to breathe life into an industry otherwise lacking market momentum. This process casts aviation as a geopolitical artifact whose strategic necessity outpaced its commercial feasibility; In the crucible of sovereign competition, markets were manufactured.

Sijian Wang (PhD Student, Department of History), “Living with Toxicity: Chemical Disinfectants in China, 1910-1950”

This project traces the introduction of chemical disinfectants into China during the 1910s, beginning with anti-plague campaigns in Manchuria and followed by their rapid spread into urban markets and everyday domestic life. Focusing on carbolic acid, mercuric chloride, and Lysol, it shows how chemical hygiene became embedded in gendered expectations, as urban housewives were tasked with managing household sanitation while advertisements promoted the cosmetic benefits of antiseptics. Drawing on extensive primary sources—including digitized newspaper databases and materials from the Russian and Northeast Asia collections at Hamilton Library—the study demonstrates how expanding capitalist markets reshaped scientific imaginaries and everyday practices in cities such as Tianjin and Shanghai. Reports of disinfectant-related suicides further reveal the intimate entanglement of hygiene and toxicity. By reconstructing this history, the work also reflects on contemporary patterns of disinfectant overuse, highlighting the enduring tension between ideals of cleanliness and their hidden health and environmental risks.