Six faculty members were chosen to receive Intersession Grants for January 2009, as announced by Harold W. Baillie, Ph.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University

     Marzia M. Caporale, Ph.D., assistant professor of French and Italian, and Linda Ledford-Miller, Ph.D., professor and chair of world languages, spent intersession working on a curriculum development project. Drs. Caporale and Ledford-Miller are preparing a formal proposal to restructure The University of Scranton’s French major.

     Josephine M. Dunn, Ph.D., associate professor of history, spent intersession at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., researching records concerning Scranton’s YWCA. The research is part of her ongoing study of women’s history in Scranton.

     David J. Dzurec III, Ph.D., assistant professor of history, revised his dissertation, “‘An Entertaining Narrative of…Cruel and Barbarous Treatment:’ Captivity, Narrative, and Debate in the Early American Republic 1775-1816.” Dr. Dzurec plans to publish the dissertation as a monograph focusing on the development of political culture of the early United States, particularly the impact of the Barbary Wars on American society and politics during the American Revolution and Early Republic.

     Virginia Picchietti, Ph.D., associate professor of Italian, received a grant for her article entitled “Writing the Shoah for Young Readers: The Case of Lia Levi.” Dr. Picchietti’s article examines the portrayal of the Shoah, the Hebrew term for the Holocaust, in the writings of Levi, an Italian author. Dr. Picchietti plans to publish her article as part of a book project on the Jewish Italian experience.

     Jennifer A. Tripp, Ph.D., assistant professor, chemistry, received a grant to study “Radiocarbon Dating of Shells using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: Evaluation of a New Pretreatment Method.” Dr. Tripp and her assistant, Christopher M. Russo ’09, Marlboro, N.J., traveled to the University of Oxford, England, in January to test a new pretreatment method for radiocarbon dating of shell using Oxford’s accelerator mass spectrometer to determine the correct date of purified shell samples. Dr. Tripp is working with two scientists at Oxford who are hoping to clarify dates for the migration of anatomically modern humans into Europe.