South Asia Book Award

2011-12 Award Committee Details

Chair: Shawn Brommer
Youth Services & Outreach Consultant, South Central Library System, Madison, WI

Service: Chair of the 2012 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Committee; 2007 Caldecott Award Committee; 2005 Mildred Batchelder Award Committee (award for the most outstanding translated book for children); 2004 - 2005 Charlotte Zolotow Award Committee (award for the most outstanding picture book text) and has Chaired Children's Book Award Committees for the New York and Wisconsin Library Associations; First Lady's Literacy Committee, 2006 - present, Book reviewer for School Library Journal, Frequent presenter at state, regional and national library association conferences.

Victoria Bradley
English and Social Studies Teacher, J. Frank Dobie Middle School, Austin, TX

Victoria has taught ESL for 23 years in seven states. She serves on the Bob Bullock Texas State Museum committee to connect history to language arts & science. Victoria has been very active in many workshops offered by the South Asia Institute at the University of Texas-Austin.

Jennifer Burke
Children's Librarian, Dewitt Community Library, Syracuse, NY

Jennifer graduated from SUNY Albany in 2008 and has been working at the Dewitt Community Library. She is very interested in internationalizing the children's collection at her library and has been proactive about searching out authors and programs that deal with issues of world cultures and multiculturalism. Last winter, she and an English professor at SUNY received a grant to do a series of programs looking at the immigrant experience in New York.

Dr. Tarini Bedi
Associate Director, South Asia Language and Area Center and the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Dr. Bedi is a cultural anthropologist who conducts her research in Maharashtra, India. Her research and teaching interests are in urban anthropology, nationalism, gender, and local politics in South Asia. Her work has been published in the Journal of International Women's Studies, The Economic and Political Weekly, and Man in India. Dr. Bedi is currently working on a book project on performative politics and the rise of female political patronage in urban India. Bedi received her undergraduate degree at Bennington College in Social Sciences and Theater, an MA in Political Science from McGill University and an MA and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Svetha Hetzler
Head of Youth Services, Middleton Public Library, Middleton, WI

Service: 2009 - 2010 Charlotte Zolotow Award Committee; has served on regional book award committees; co-author of "DIY Programming and Book Displays: How to Stretch Your Programming without Stretching your Budget and Staff" (Libraries Unlimited, 2010).

Oralee Kramer
Middle School Teacher, Chinook Middle School, Bellevue, WA

Oralee Kramer has taught in Washington State for thirty years. Most of her experience has been at Chinook Middle School in Bellevue where she has taught gifted students in a Language Arts/Social Studies block. She is now teaching Honors Eighth Grade Social Studies which is serves gifted, mainstreamed special education, and ESL students. A member of the Washington State Council for the Social Studies for over 25 years, she chairs the K-8 inservice with innovative programs. Oralee has been fortunate to participate in East Asia Outreach programs since 1988 in the role of student, travel participant and master teacher. She was a member of the National Council for the Social Studies/Children's Book Council book selection committee for three years. Since that time, she has written a column called Booklink for the WSCSS newsletter. Oralee served on a book/ teaching materials review committee for the U of WA South Asia Outreach Center. She has traveled in China, Japan, Thailand, and India, as well as several areas in Europe.

Marge Loch-Wouters
Head of Youth Services, LaCrosse Public Library, LaCrosse, WI

Service: 1995 Newbery Award Committee; 2002 Caldecott Award Committee; Board member, Association for Library Services for Children, 2008 - 2011; Member and Chair - Sagebrush/Econoclad Literature Program Award Committee, 2002-2004; Chair, ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee; served on Wisconsin Library Association's Children's Book Award Committee; Book reviewer for School Library Journal; Frequent presenter at state, regional and national library association conferences; 2010 Wisconsin Library Association's Librarian of the Year.

Award Coordinator: Rachel Weiss
Assistant Director, Center for South Asia, UW-Madison, WI
rweiss@southasia.wisc.edu; (608) 262-9224

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