Chella Vaidyanathan (pronounced vied-ya-NAH-thun) joined the Emory Libraries late last year as a history and philosophy humanities librarian. She previously worked for six years at Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries, where she served jointly as a liaison librarian in multiple subject areas (history, anthropology, Africana studies, Latin American studies, Islamic studies) and as the curator of 19th-21st century rare books and manuscripts.
At the University of Miami, Chella served as the subject librarian for history, political science, and government documents. She has earned multiple awards from ACRL/ALA for her contributions to the library profession.
Born in Theni, India, and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, Chella began her studies in history as she earned bachelor’s, master’s and master’s of philosophy degrees from the University of Madras. She received her master’s degree of library science from the University of Maryland-College Park, a master’s degree in modern European history at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and completed Ph.D. coursework at Northern Arizona University, where she also taught courses for a year and a half.
Chella is an avid reader (focusing on descriptive works of foreign lands so she feels like she’s visiting), cooks southern Indian food, makes decorative boxes and does beading.
“I love the cultural diversity of Atlanta,” said Chella, “This area is a wonderful place to explore. I am really impressed to find south Asian/Indian grocery stores here. I like that there are so many different groups of people living together.”
You can reach Chella at chellammal [dot] vaidyanathan [at] emory [dot] edu.
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