Kansas State University

K-State Libraries' Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Special Collections has presented University of Chicago doctoral student Yaniv Ron-El with the Consumer Movement Archives Research Award.  

Generously funded by an endowed gift from Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse, the $3,500 award allows researchers to visit the Consumer Movement Archives, which was established in 1987 with support from the Morse family. Ron-El is the third recipient of this award to date. The Consumer Movement Archives provides a national repository to preserve and provide access to collections of leaders, activists and organizations involved in efforts to protect consumers.  

Richard Morse, professor and head of K-State's department of family economics from 1955 to 1987, endeavored to protect consumer rights for more than 50 years with a special emphasis on federal and state protections for people in the areas of truth-in-savings and truth-in-lending. Thanks to this award, a new generation of scholars is benefiting from his life's work. 

Ron-El's doctoral research is rooted in historical sociology and utilizes archival materials. He said that his regard for historical sociology was fueled by interest in how American consumers operated and mobilized in previous decades. 

"Why did 'the consumer' become a central political category for mobilization during the 1960s, as the American consumer movement rose to prominence?" Ron-El said. "How were American consumers mobilized and collectively organized by the mushrooming movement organizations during the 1970s? And what explains the movement's transformation and waning in popularity and in scope in the 1980s? By focusing on this movement, I aim to contribute to both the social movement literature in sociology and to the increasingly growing historical, sociological and business-scholarly literature on consumer politics."  

Ron-El soon will visit the Morse Department of Special Collections to pursue his research goals. 

Questions about the Consumer Movement Archives and its collections can be directed to Thomas Bell, curator, at thosbell@k-state.edu.