Amie Wright arrived at Concordia after working for several years in various libraries and non-profit organizations in Calgary. Wright was impressed with the quality of the history faculty at Concordia and appreciated being exposed to a broad range of historical perspectives and approaches. She graduated in 2008 with an Honours degree in History and was her graduating class’s Valedictorian. She wrote her honours thesis, “La Bebida Nacional: Pulque and Mexicanidad, 1920-46,” on the cultural history of pulque, under the supervision of Dr. Nora Jaffary. Wright’s thesis won several awards including the David Fox Memorial Prize and the Canadian Journal of HistoryGraduate Student Essay Competition. Wright went on to complete a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Western Ontario. Most recently, Wright has worked at the New York Public Library (NYPL) where she began as the Selections Supervisor, and is currently the Program Manager, of MyLibraryNYC. MyLibraryNYC is the NYPL’s outreach program to educators and students in roughly 280 public schools in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. The program provides educators with access to teacher sets, special curated collections of materials for classroom use. Wright also regularly conducts professional development workshops for educators which aim to introduce them to new materials, help them incorporate primary sources in the classroom, and address historical topics from multiple perspectives. According to Wright, her background in history has proven to be an invaluable asset when she is evaluating nonfiction material for children and adults. In addition, she admits that she never thought her discussions with Dr. Jaffary regarding the importance of questioning primary sources would be so important, but it has proved essential in her work at the NYPL. Wright encourages current history students to be open to different opportunities and to think creatively about how to use their degrees.
