To aid new professionals in building mentor relationships with their established colleagues.
The M. Lesley Wilkins Award was established by MELA, with the generous support of the Wilkins family, to honor our dear friend Lesley’s special contributions to Middle East librarianship. Lesley ardently supported bringing new librarians into the profession of Middle East librarianship, and wanted to nurture and help young professionals to grow into those who will carry on as more of the original MELA membership retires, or passes away. The award is given in alternating years.
Awardees receive a cash award of $1000. Awardees agree to allow their names and photographs to be used in any publicity by MELA or other organizations contacted by MELA, and to write an article on their experience to be published in MELA Notes, the open-access, official journal of MELA (https://www.jstor.org/journal/melanotes).
Applicants with less than six years’ experience in the profession of any aspect of Middle East librarianship are eligible to apply for the award; candidates are eligible to receive the award once only. Candidates must be MELA members.
2025 M. Lesley Wilkins Education Award Committee Members:
- Mohamed Hamed, University of California, Berkeley, Chair
- Farshad Sonboldel, University of California, San Diego
- Jake Benson, University of Manchester
The 2024 M. Lesley Wikinds Education Award: Farshad Sonboldel
This year, the M. Lesley Wilkins Education Award Committee received two outstanding nominations/applications. We are delighted to announce that Dr. Farshad Sonboldel is the winner of this year’s competition. Farshad has been the World History and Cultures Librarian at the University of California, San Diego, since 2023. Although he joined MELA recently, Farshad already made significant contributions to the association and worked in collaboration with numerous colleagues. In 2021-2022, he served as book review editor for MELA Notes, and took over the Editor-in-Chief position in 2022. With the Wilkins Award, he will gain training in Persian and Islamic manuscripts curation, cataloging, and preservation techniques, seek guidance from colleagues and world-renowned experts and establish a network of mentors in the field of digital humanities. The award will help to cover travel expenses for a one-month fellowship (Bahari Fellowship in the Persian Arts of the Book ) at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, U.K.
The 2018 M. Lesley Wilkins Education Award: Heather Hughes
Left to right: award recipient Heather Hughes (UC Santa Barbara), Robin Dougherty (Yale), and Jaleh Fazelian (University of Missouri–St. Louis).The 2016 M. Lesley Wilkins Education Award: Jonathan Rodgers
Left to right: award committee member Jaleh Fazelian (John Carroll University), award recipient Jonathan Rodgers (retired, University of Michigan), award chair Robin Dougherty (Yale University).The 2014 M. Lesley Wilkins Education Award: David H. Partington
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Left to right: award chair John Eilts (Stanford), David Partington (Harvard, retired); photo by Jonathan Rodgers taken at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Room at the Estelle & Melvin Gelman Library of the George Washington University, Washington, D.C.Donate
In order that sufficient funds can be raised to enable this prize to be awarded in perpetuity the MELA Board has set a fund-raising target of $10,000 (ten thousand US dollars). Donations will be permanently restricted and invested in order to preserve the intent of the M. Lesley Wilkins Education Award and to enable it to grow and be sustainable. Future MELA Boards shall look into possible opportunities that would maximize the revenue gained from the Fund’s investments.
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To make a donation by check or money order, complete a contribution form and mail with payment made payable to “Middle East Librarians Association” with “M. Lesley Wilkins Education Award Fund” in the memo field. Be sure to let us know if there is a third party who should be notified of this contribution.
The Middle East Librarians Association is an IRS 501(c)(3), tax-exempt organization. Your gift is tax deductible to the full extent allowed by the law (please consult your tax adviser).