Faculty Development Funds Awarded to Support JCU's Outstanding Professors
JCU Vice President and Academic Dean Mary Merva is pleased to report that JCU faculty development funds continue to support the professional development of an outstanding group of faculty. “Faculty is the heart of a University and it is their ongoing research and passion for their subject that brings to JCU a first-class liberal arts education for our students.”
Faculty Development Funds have been supported by a generous donation from the Paul and Maxine Frohring Foundation and have been awarded to the following professors for research and professional projects during the 2013-2014 academic year (in alphabetical order):
Silvia Ammary – English Literature
Professor Ammary participated in the PAMLA Conference in San Diego where she presented a paper entitled “Hemingway’s Macaronis and Martinis” at the session “With Pens and Forks: a Frank Look at Food Writing.” She also participated in the International Journal of Arts & Sciences (IJAS) International Conference for Academic Disciplines in Barcelona in June, where she presented a paper entitled “Hemingway in Spain.”
Brunella Antomarini – Philosophy
Professor Antomarini presented a guest lecture and discussion on the Renaissance in Italian Cinema at the University of California at Riverside, May 2014.
Federigo Argentieri – Political Science
Professor Argentieri traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, for a series of activities including the presentation of a paper at the 45th Annual Convention of the ASEEES and the delivery of a guest lecture entitled “1993-2013: Is the Berlusconi Era Over?” at the Dante Alighieri Society of Massachusetts. He also gave a lecture entitled “Can the Experience of Eastern Europe Teach Something to the West?” at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In addition, Professor Argentieri received funding to support his research and the scholarly meetings he conducted in order to complete his chapter of a politics textbook as well as for a research trip to Moscow in July to visit the Russian State Archive for Contemporary History (RGANI).
Stefano Arnone – Mathematics
Professor Arnone participated in the 2014 AMICAL Annual Meeting and Conference, which had as its theme this year “Student Engagement and Learning Spaces” in Athens, April 2014.
Tom Bailey – Philosophy
Professor Bailey participated in the Conference entitled “Pluralism and Conflict: Distributive Justice Beyond Rawls and Consensus” at Fatih University, Istanbul, June 2013 where he presented a paper “Rethinking Conflict and Consensus: Habermas and Rawls on Religion.” Professor Bailey also presented the paper “Translation and Conjecture: Postsecular Cosmopolitanism in Habermas
and Rawls” at two conferences: “The Cosmopolitan Ideal: Challenges and Opportunities” of the Global Studies Association annual Conference, University of Roehampton, London, July 2013 and the European Consortium for Political Research Conference, Sciences Po Bordeaux in September, 2013, where he participated in the panel “Postsecular Cosmopolitanism?” Professor Bailey received funding for his participation in the Annual Conference of the Società Italiana di Scienza Politica at the University of Florence, September 2013, where he presented a paper entitled “Postsecular Democracy? Habermas and Rawls on Religion” as well as for the preparation of the index for the collection he edited entitled “Deprovincializing Habermas: Global Perspectives (Routledge, 2013). Professor Bailey participated in a conference at the University of Galway, the 7th in a series he is co-organizing on “Nietzsche the Kantian?” on which a number of edited volumes will be based. He also participated in a conference at the Paris Ouest – Nanterre University where he presented a paper entitled “Kant in Greek: The Early Nietzsche’s Kantian Idealism.”
Lawrence Bartolomucci – Economics
Professor Bartolomucci traveled to Poland in September to represent John Cabot University at the conference “Optimizing Infrastructure Revenues – How to Invest and Not to Lose?” held at the XXIII Economic Forum in Krynica Zdroj.
Benedetta Bessi – Classics
Professor Bessi participated in the AMICAL Conference in Athens where she led a discussion session entitled “Greek Islands Hopping: A proposal for creating an online learning object across AMICAL institutions,” May 2014.
Massimo Betello – Classics
Professor Betello attended the workshop “The Connected Past,” at the University of Southampton, UK, 17-18 September 2013. He also received funding for research relevant to his Ph.D. dissertation on sidewalks and stepping stones.
Ada Bertini-Bezzi – Italian Language
Professor Bezzi participated in the NYU Workshop entitled “L’importanza di un inserimento più strutturato dell’insegnamento della fonetica nelle classi universitarie americane: efficacia e limiti delle nuove tecnologie” in Florence in January 2014. Professor Bezzi also participated in two conferences: the FLTAL’14, 4th International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics at the International Burch University in Sarajevo, May 2014 and the HEPCLIL-2014, Conference on Higher Education Perspectives on Content and Language Integrated Learning at the University of Vic, Catalonia, Spain in March 2014.
Federica Capoferri – Italian Language and Literature
Professor Capoferri attended the XXVI AIPI (Associazione Internazionale Professori di Italiano) Conference entitled “Est-Ovest/Nord-Sud: Frontiere, passaggi, incontri culturali” where she presented a paper entitled “Roma città re-aperta. L’urbe multietnica di Igiaba Scego,” Bari, August 2014.
Paola Castelli – Psychology
Professor Castelli received funding for a summer research trip to Professor Simona Ghetti’s laboratory at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, July-August 2014.
Clelia Clini – Communications
Professor Clini participated in the Conference “Dépendance/Indépendance: Les Cinémas Indiens. Colloque International” at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, where she presented a paper entitled “British by Right, Punjabi by Heart! Contested notions of dependence and independence in Punjabi Films.” She also participated in the Conference entitled “Diasporic Indian Cinemas and
Bollywood on the Diaspora: Re-imaginings and Re-Possessions” organized by CASII (Centre for Advanced Studies in India) and OUICP (Osmania University Centre for International Programmes) in Hyderabad, India.
Isabella Clough-Marinaro – Italian Studies
Professor Clough-Marinaro participated in the international conference on “Contemporary Urban Issues: Informality” at Istanbul University in October2013 where she presented a paper entitled “‘We Work it Out’: Informal Roma Settlements in Rome and the Limits of Tactical Urbanism”. She also participated in a conference and gave a public lecture at University College London (UCL) on “Legality through Illegality: The Paradoxes of Rome’s ‘Nomad Camps.'”
Daniel Connelly – English Literature
Professor Connelly participated in a Poetry Reading at the Troubadour Club in London, UK.
Shannon Cox – English
Professor Cox participated in the International TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Convention in Portland, Oregon, March 2014 where she gave a presentation entitled “The Heart of Writing Instruction is Reflective” with Dr. Ingrid Bowman of Santa Barbara, CA and Beth Ann Boyle, President of TESOL Italy.
Silvia Dall’Olio – Italian
Professor Dall’Olio presented a paper entitled “Identity and Professionalism: the Study Abroad Institute Past and Future” at the Second International Conference on Human Capital Management and Development in Transnational Education organized by Syracuse University and
Gonzaga
University in Florence, May 2014. She also received funding for the 5-week period of research to be conducted at the University of Minnesota Library and its affiliated Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), July-August 2014.
Michael Driessen – Political Science
Professor Driessen participated in the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference in New Orleans, LA in October 2013 where he participated in a panel on political Islam after the Arab Spring organized by Jocelyne Cesari of Harvard University and presented a paper entitled “Muslim Democratization and Power Realities: A Comparative Analysis of Islamist Political Constraint in Algeria, Indonesia and Turkey.” He also received funding for research in Jordan and Lebanon and for Arabic language training.
Elizabeth Geoghegan – English Literature
Professor Geoghegan participated in the international conference on Flannery O’Connor in Dublin in July 2014, with a paper entitled “Delicate Adjustment: Flannery O’Connor and The City of Rome.”
Karen Georgi – Art History
Professor Georgi received funding for the obligatory index for her forthcoming book.
Margaret Kneller – Natural Sciences
Professor Kneller participated in a conference entitled “Warsaw Climate Change Related Meetings” in conjunction with the Warsaw Climate Change Conference in Warsaw in November 2013. She also participated in the “FFA2014: Meeting the Food and Environmental Challenge: How to Sustainably Produce More with Less and Trade Better” in Brussels from 31 March through 1 April 2014.
Jens Koehler – Art History
Professor Koehler participated in the International Congress on the History of Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering in the Mediterranean Region “De aquaeductu atque aquaurbium Lyciae Pamphyliae Pisidiae – The Legacy of Sextus Julius Froninus” where he presented a paper entitled “Death in the Bath. From Therapeutic Hazard to a Reconstruction of Ancient Roman Bathing,” in Antyala, Turkey, 31 October-9 November 2014.
David Levy – Philosophy
Professor Levy attended the American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting in Washington in August 2014 with the aim of professional development.
Antonio Lopez – Communications and Media Studies
Professor Lopez participated in an academic workshop organized by The American University in Kosovo in collaboration with The American University in Cairo entitled “Engage Students in Creative Multimedia Production,” in Kosovo on 21-22 March 2014. This event was part of a series of professional development workshops supported by AMICAL, of which JCU is a member. He also participated in the UNESCO Conference “First European Media Literacy Forum” in Paris in May.
Tijana Mamula – Communications
Professor Mamula participated in the 2013 Screen Studies Conference in Glasgow where she presented a paper entitled “From ‘Psychophysical Correspondences’ to the Media-Unconscious: Kracauer’s Theory of Film Today” which lead to a contract for an edited volume on the topic of “Cinema and Multilingualism” (work in progress). She also attended the Annual Conference of the American Comparative Literature Association where she co-organized one of the workshops on “Cinema and Multilingualism” at New York University in March 2014.
Linda Nolan – Art History
Professor Nolan delivered a paper at the Conference “Palimpsest: The Layered Object” at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), in Savannah, Georgia in March.
Zara Pogossian – Philosophy
Professor Pogossian received funding for a course in Syriac (Aramaic) at the Pontificio Istituto Orientale which will greatly enhance her scholarly position by allowing her direct access to primary sources in that language. She also attended the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, UK in July 2014, where in addition to presenting a paper, she was invited to chair a session and participate in a panel that discussed a new research project focusing on European identity and globalization. Professor Pogossian also participated in a conference in Montpellier, France, in March 2014 where she presented a paper on Armenian monasticism.
Tiziana Provvidera – Humanities
Professor Provvidera delivered papers and lectures (3 events) on “Politics and Culture. N. Bobbio’s and E. Garin’s Legacy” focusing on the book she recently edited “Della Stessa Leva.” Lettere
(1942-1999) at the Centro Studi Piero Gobetti (Turin) during the Academic Year 2013-2014. Her article entitled “Nota sulla fortuna di Giusto Lipsio in Italia” was also translated into English.
Lars Rensmann – Political Science
Professor Rensmann received funding for part of the translation costs for the realization and publication of his book entitled The Frankfurt School and Anti-Semitism: Politics, Theory, and the Transformation of the Social Sciences that is under contract with SUNY Press (to be published in 2015) in one of its most renowned series. Professor Rensmann participated in the 2014 Western Political Science (WPSA) Conference in Seattle, April 2014, where he presented a paper on “Politics in the Global Public Sphere” and served as chair and discussant on WPSA panels. His paper was nominated as “Best Paper.”
Andrew Rutt – English
Professor Rutt participated in the International Flannery O’Connor Conference where he presented a paper entitled “Irony and Spirituality: The Challenge of Translating Flannery O’Connor’s Prose into Italian” at All Hallows College, Dublin in July 2014.
Sharon Salvadori – Art History
Professor Salvadori participated in the conference entitled “God is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth: Light in Islamic Art and Culture” at the Università degli Studi di Palermo in November.
Alessandra Seggi – Communications
Professor Seggi participated in a 10-day Intensive Seminar on “Visual Methods” at the University of Antwerp. She also participated in the Workshop entitled “Assessing Intercultural Competence” at the Intercultural Competence: Key to the New Multicultural Societies of the Globalized World Conference in Siena, Italy, at where she also presented a paper entitled “Steps Away, Worlds Apart: Communicating between Cultures in Rome” – An Intercultural Communication Course Proposal.
Alessandro Signorini – Marketing
Professor Signorini received funding to accomplish further research and interviews relevant to publication of his doctoral dissertation as summarized in the paper “Previous Alliance Relationships and their Effects on Future Acquisition Performance: the Case of the Airline Industry.”
Carolyn Smyth – Art History
Professor Smyth participated in a lecture at Villa I Tatti, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, September 2013.
Erika Tasini – Communications
Professor Tasini participated in the Italian Documentary Screenings 2013 in Palermo, Sicily, October 2013. She also attended The Italian Doc Screening in Palermo in October 2013. In addition, Professor Tasini attended, as a selected participant, the IDFA Academy development program of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and the 60th Flaherty Seminar, Colgate University.
Michele Testoni – International Affairs
Professor Testoni participated in the Transatlantic Studies Association (TSA) Annual Conference at the University of Ghent in July 2014.
Brian Thomson – Communications
Professor Thomson received funding to complete coursework for Apple Certified Trainer for Final Cut Pro X in light of the JCU production program’s decision to adopt Apple’s Final Cut Pro Z as its default editing suite and thus to consolidate JCU’s position in training and certification of students in the near future.
Vanda Wilcox – History
Professor Wilcox participated in the 7th Conference of the International Society for First World War Studies entitled “Encountering the Other in Wartime: the Great War as an Intercultural Moment?” where she discussed a paper by Mauro Pellegrini from The White War Museum of Temu – Brescia, entitled “Italian Soldiers, Strangers in their Country: Isolationism and Social Reaction in “War Zone”. The “Calcinato Case,” 1915-1919, held in Paris, France, September 2013.
Lila Yawn – Art History
Professor Yawn participated in the XVIIIe Colloque International de Paléographie Latine, and post-conference research for completion of an article for publication in the conference acts, where she delivered a paper entitled “Occasional Workshops and Clustered Production of Eleventh-Century Italian Giant Bibles and Patristic Manuscripts.” She also conducted research in Florence in Fall 2013.
