The ‘Hidden Stories Fund’ is a temporary fund to support CENL members who have new projects to collect, preserve, research and highlight the stories from, by and related to underrepresented communities in their national collections. This fund‘s aim is to encourage and support working with underrepresented communities to ensure that their stories are preserved for future generations.

In its meeting in September, the CENL Executive Committee reviewed all of the submissions. Because it is the last round of Hidden Stories funds before the fund is terminated, the Executive Committee decided to award three grants instead of two, thereby approving all submitted proposals. We are delighted to announce that the following applications were successful:

Greece – “We, the Afro-Greeks: Black literature as a bridge between cultures.” The project aims to address the lack of visibility and inclusion of Greeks of African descent, frequently referred to as “Afro-Greeks”, in the dominant public narrative of Greece, by enriching the collections of the National Library of Greece with black literature and by creating spaces for their stories to be told, heard, and spread among its audience.

Romania – “The woman and her professional avartars. Representations in the communist press.” In Romania, like in all communist countries, great attention has been paid to the role of women in new professional fields. The press of time, following the ideological principles of the regime, built through images and texts the typology of the working woman. The project will select visual material (text and image), which illustrate the female’s gender stereotypes. The most representative images will be scanned and assembled into a virtual exhibition with curatorial texts.

Croatia – “The first croatian woman librarian: the road to gender equality.” Through an exhibition and a video reportage on Elza Kucera, public attention will be drawn to the first Croatian woman doctor of philosophy, woman psychologist, woman librarian and woman public servant. The exhibition and reportage will guide through the unconventional life, education and career of a Kucera, emphasize her engagement in the fight for women’s equality as well as her significant role in encouraging other women to pursue intellectual careers.