Adria L. Imada, PhD, associate dean of the UC Irvine Graduate Division
IRVINE, Calif. – Adria L. Imada, associate dean of the UC Irvine Graduate Division, has been elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), a 212-year-old national research library and community of learners dedicated to discovering and sharing a deeper understanding of the American past. Imada joins a distinguished roster of more than 1,100 members from forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and five other countries. Elected for their achievement in academic or public life, AAS members range from scholars, collectors, and librarians to artists, writers, and history enthusiasts. Since the Society’s founding in 1812, fourteen United States presidents, more than seventy-five Pulitzer Prize winners, scores of Bancroft Prize winners, many Guggenheim fellows, and several MacArthur Award winners have been elected to membership.
Imada was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. She currently serves as a professor of History at UCI and also teaches in the inter-school Medical Humanities undergraduate and graduate program. An award-winning writer, Imada specializes in U.S., Pacific, Indigenous, and disability histories. She also has broad teaching interests in health equity and visual culture.
Located in Worcester, Massachusetts, the American Antiquarian Society holds the world’s largest and most accessible collection of original printed, handwritten, and visual sources from before 1900 in what is now the United States. The library of over four million items includes books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, children’s literature, music, and graphic arts material. AAS connects people across the globe with these collections through its digital catalog and resources, online exhibitions, and virtual learning experiences. In addition, it supports dozens of researchers, artists, and writers each year with a variety of fellowship programs. In 2013, President Obama presented the Society with the National Humanities Medal in a White House ceremony.
The American Antiquarian Society is located at 185 Salisbury Street in Worcester, MA. The library is open Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The library is free and open to anyone with projects or interests related to the collections. All are welcome to join its free public programs held throughout the year. To learn more, visit americanantiquarian.org.