As part of a Capstone project for the Masters of Arts in Engaged and Public Humanities, Anjelika Deogirikar Grossman partnered with the Booth Family Center for Special Collections (BFCSC) at Georgetown University Library to introduce students and the community to Artists' Books in the University's Collections. On Tuesday, March 24, 2026, twenty-five students, faculty, staff and members of the public came together in the Murray Room to explore nine artists’ books that Anjelika researched and selected because the books introduced an idea or topic in a new way through touch-based inquiry and awe, and interrogated the idea of a “book.”
In addition, Anjelika created two zines as artifacts that were shared and distributed to participants, which have been used by BFCSC in public facing programming: "How to Handle Special Collections (including Artists' Books)" and "Guide to Georgetown University Booth Family Center for Special Collections." Using the scaffolding of see, discuss, create, and reflect, the “Art in your Hands” program also invited participants to create their own one-page zine and/or to contribute found poetry on how to reimagine higher education to a single-edition Artist Book “Florilegia”created by Anjelika for LDES-7302 Critical Speculative Design for Anti-Racism in Higher Education taught by Professor Ijeoma Njaka in Fall 2025.
As an extension to the research for this program, this project was presented at TLISI 2026 in May 2026 — "Teaching with Artists’ Books from the Booth Family Center for Special Collections at Georgetown University Library" with Anjelika, Jay, and Georgetown alumni Hasini Shyamsundar (SFS ’22, M.A. in Learning, Design and Technology, ’26). Finally, based on the positive feedback from the program, Anjelika and Hasini hosted a follow-on event “Study Break: Zine-Making” at the Baker Family Terrace at the Red House to invite the community to learn how to make a one-page zine and explore found poetry.