Senior Spotlight: Izzy Sauer (BA'25, history)
"I am proud that the work I have done through my research and my work in archives has been able to amplify historically marginalized voices. I have met and worked with so many professors in the department who share this goal and who have encouraged me to continue with the work I do. I cannot be more grateful for my time in this department, and I hope to continue doing the work I love through a career in libraries and archives!" - Izzy Sauer
Research Interests
Izzy is currently writing her senior thesis on the 1981 Brixton Uprising in London, examining how Black activists responded to the state-led narrative that categorized the Uprising as a riot. She argues that the British state deemed Black Britons as inherent outsiders to Britain and that Black women were vital to grassroots organizing in London to combat narratives of Black unbelonging before and after the Uprising.
Internship Involvement
During her sophomore year, Izzy worked as a digitization assistant at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois. In her junior year, she served as a collections intern at the Champaign County History Museum and as a course assistant for HIST 398, a public history class. In her senior year, Izzy was a digital oral history archivist intern with the 1947 Partition Archive, which collects and shares first-hand accounts of the partition in India in 1947.
RSO Involvement
From her sophomore to junior year, Izzy served as President of the Society of Minority Students in History and was a member of the Department of History committee for undergraduate studies. From junior year to the present, she is the junior lead editor for the Undergraduate History Journal at Illinois and a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society at the University of Illinois.
Recognition and awards
Izzy was awarded the Walter N. Breymann Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduate History Majors for the 2023–2024 academic year. In Spring 2024, she received the Adele M. Suslick Award for Historical Research from the Champaign County History Museum. She was also awarded the C. Ernest Dawn Undergraduate Research Travel Award in Summer 2024.
Plans after college
Izzy is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science with a focus on archival and special collections.