Featured student: Elena Shaw, SLU Class of 2024

This summer I have had the good fortune to work in depth on Spanish political stickers in my collection with a rising senior, Elena (Ellie) Shaw. I got to know Ellie last spring when she was a contributing writer for the Weaving the Streets & People’s History Archive that I oversee with John Collins from SLU. You can see her posts from her off-campus study in Spain at Lavapiés: The Perfect Place for Rebellion; Incendiary Commentary: The Ninots of Las Fallas, Valencia; and The Battle for Quinta Torres Arias: from Common Ground to Private Playground. While in Spain, Ellie also contributed several photographs for a new digital image collection in Jstor called The Streets are Talking: Public Forms of Creative Expression from Around the World.

Ellie was awarded a prestigious St. Lawrence University Fellowship for eight weeks in June and July, and together we sorted through hundreds of Spanish political stickers in my collection to identify political parties and to develop several themes for her to research and write about.

The list of topics below is hers, and Ellie focused on those highlighted in tan.

Topics in Spanish political stickers

Animal rights

Anti-fascism

Anti-police

General strikes (29 March, 20 June, 29 September, 14 December)

Public education

Bull fighting

Solidarity with other countries

Right-wing stickers

LGBTQI+ rights

Gender and sexuality, women’s rights

  • “No Means No”
  • Access to women’s health education
  • Anti-patriarchy
  • International Women’s Day (March 8)
  • International Day Against Gendered Violence (November 17)
  • Abortion rights

May 1

Pro-communism

Pro-labor, workers’ rights, employment, 35-hour work week

Anti-capitalism and the economy

Austerity cuts

No OTAN (NATO)

Nature and the environment

War and peace

Picasso and Guernica references

Topics specific to Catalonia (pictured above)

  • Catalonia, 1970s-1980s
  • Political parties and organizations supporting Catalan independence
  • 2017 referendum
  • Voting
  • Advocating for independence
  • Education
  • Cinema and culture
  • Language
  • Financial burden
  • Anti-monarchy
  • Youth for independent Catalonia

Spanish political parties identified in the stickers

  • AIT – Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores
  • AP – Alianza Popular
  • CCOO – Comisiones Obreras
  • CGT – Confederación General de Trabajadores
  • CIU – Catalan Convergència i Unió
  • CNT – Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
  • EUA – Esquerra Unida Alternativa
  • ERC – Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
  • IU – Izquierda Unida
  • JERC – Joventuts d’Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
  • PCE – Partido Comunista de España
  • Podemos – Left wing party
  • PP – Partido Popular
  • PSC – Partido Socialista de Catalunya
  • PSOE – Partido Socialista Obrero Español
  • PSUC – Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya
  • UGT – Unión General de Trabajadores

As part of her fellowship, Ellie wrote 12 text panels to accompany selected Spanish stickers that will eventually be used in the Paper Bullets mega-exhibition and coffee table book I am working on. We will do a mini-version of the Spanish component of the exhibition next year at SLU. Ellie also catalogued 137 Spanish stickers for the Street Art Graphics digital collection in Jstor. I am doing final edits on them now, and Arline Wolfe at SLU will add subject headings in the fall.

I will be posting some of Ellie’s research here on Stickerkitty, but for now here is the bio she wrote for this project.

Hello! I am Ellie Shaw, a dynamic individual from the St. Lawrence University class of 2024. I am pursuing a double major in Psychology and Hispanic Studies, along with a minor in Public Health. I have a fervent passion for art and its potential to drive change. With this, I have embraced the role of an activist in advocating for sociopolitical causes. I aspire to become an art lawyer, leveraging my expertise to protect and promote artists’ rights and creative expression. Beyond my academic pursuits, I find solace and joy in the great outdoors, often spending my free time hiking, climbing, or riding my bike!

Photographs of Ellie Shaw courtesy of Jessica Dodaro, St. Lawrence University Communications