The Edith Garland Dupré Library and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Library Committee are hosting the Annual Caffery Award Competition. Undergraduate and graduate students who would like to compete are to submit research projects in the form of research papers, digital research projects or a documentary film. All projects may be completed by individuals or groups of no more than five people.
The project must cite or investigate primary source materials in the Special Collections areas of the library, which include: University Archives and Acadiana Manuscripts Collection, Louisiana Room, Rare Book Collection, Cajun and Creole Music Collection and U.S. Government Information. There are no restrictions on the topic, but projects must investigate or cite primary sources from the Special Collections.
The deadline for submissions is Friday, Feb. 28, 2025 and the winner will be announced in May 2025. The winner will receive an award of $500. Projects will be evaluated based on the Caffery Award Rubrics. Projects will be judged by a panel consisting of the University Library committee, Head of Special Collections, and referees designated by the committee.
Zachary Stein, the assistant dean of Technical Services, referenced the winner from the 2019-2020 competition year as the most memorable submission in his six years of working at the library. Jessica Barton’s digital project, “Ambassador Jefferson Caffery (1886-1974): Latin American Posts,” detailed the life of Jefferson Caffery, whom the competition is named after and in honor of.
“At the time we were only doing essays, so I wasn’t really expecting to get a submission like that. It was really well done. It was so thoroughly researched and well organized,” Stein said.
Barton’s winning submission was so well done the committee decided to diversify submission options to include digital projects as well as documentary films. Stein said, “At that point we thought we should open it up to projects. That’s also a good piece of scholarship.”
Though the competition is a great way for student research to be awarded and recognized, there are not always submissions for the competition, or the submissions do not meet the competition requirements, so no one is awarded. Stein and the committee hope to get more consistent submissions.
The R1 status of the University has become an important part of its culture and brand. The research produced through this competition is only a fraction of what is being researched and produced by other parts of the University. As a way to display all of the work produced by students and faculty, Stein has been advocating for an institutional repository. A digital space where anyone can access an institution’s scholarly output, like videos, art and journal articles.
“This kind of thing would be a great platform for these kinds of papers because it shows student excellence. That’s something that I feel is incredibly important to R1. Just showing what our students are producing, what they are researching, and the kinds of topics our university holds dear,” Stein said.
The Annual Caffery Competition began in 1967 and was established by Ambassador Jefferson Caffery and his wife. The couple donated a gift of $5000 to create the Jefferson Caffery Research Fund to recognize outstanding scholarly research. Jefferson Caffery, a Lafayette native, was a prominent figure within the Lafayette community, coming from an influential family. His father was the mayor of Lafayette and contributed greatly to the building of the University.
Caffery attended the University, known then as Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, during its first year of operation in 1901-1902. Back then, it was essentially a junior high school. In his adult years, Caffery would enter the United States Foreign Service and retire in 1955 after an extensive career abroad. In 1971, he was awarded an honorary degree from the University.
In 2021, the University was awarded by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education an R1 designation. The designation was awarded to further exemplify the University’s dedication to research and discovery. The University was among the 3% of universities that achieved R1 status on the classification list.
The amazing research produced by students of the University deserves to be recognized in more ways than one. For more information about the competition, its origins or past winners, visit louisiana.libguides.com.