Faculty Development Funds Support John Cabot University'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 subjects that provides our students with a first-class liberal arts education.”

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 2014-2015 academic year (in alphabetical order):

Pejman AbdolmohammadiPolitical Science and International Affairs
Professor Abdolmohammadi will present his paper entitled “The Role of Women in the First Generation of Persian Secular Intellectuals in the XIX century” at the 7th Biennial Convention of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies held in Istanbul, 8-11 September.

Silvia Ammary – English Language and Literature
Professor Ammary delivered a paper entitled, “Androgyny in E.E. Cummings’s Paintings and Poems” at the NeMLA Conference panel “Locating the Androgyne: The Status of In-Betweenness in Gender Studies” in Toronto, May 2015. She also participated in the International Conference-Happiness & Hope 2015 where she delivered a paper entitled “The Aesthetics of Hope in American Modernist Fiction” which will be part of Inter-Disciplinary.net in Lisbon, Portugal, March 2015.

Federigo ArgentieriPolitical Science and International Affairs
Professor Argentieri participated in the 46th National Convention Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies in San Antonio, Texas, November 2014, and he presented a book by Romano Pietrosanti entitled Imre Nagy, un ungherese comunista, Università degli Studi di Padova, January 2015. He attended the 8th Forum Europa-Ucraina, “Ucraina-nuova apertura” at the Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies, Lodz, Poland, February 2015. He will be in Poland, 8-10 September 2015 to participate in the 25th Economic Forum in Krinyca.

Stefano ArnoneMathematics, Natural Science and Computer Science
Professor Arnone attended the Second Scientix Conference in Brussels on 24 October 2014 and he participated in the 7th ADALTA User Group Meeting where he presented a joint research project, Naples, 28-29 May 2015.

Tom Bailey – Philosophy
Professor Bailey participated in the conference “Philosophy and the Social Science” and delivered a paper entitled “Habermas’s and Rawls’s Postsecular Modesty” at the Institute of Philosophy, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, May 2015.

Pal BelényesiEconomics and Social Sciences
Professor Belényesi carried out research in Sweden and Finland on “Digital Competitiveness and its Supporting Regulatory Actions – Sweden and Finland.”

Benedetta Bessi History and Humanities
Professor Bessi conducted bibliographic research in local libraries in Athens in October 2014.

Massimo BetelloHistory and Humanities
Professor Betello presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Archaeology in New Orleans, LA in January 2015. He also participated in an archaeological excavation at the ancient city of Grumentum located near Grumento Nova (PZ) with the University of Cardiff, 1-22 August 2015.

Emanuele Brancati – Economics and Social Sciences
Professor Brancati participated in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Monetary Economics Summer Institute 2015 where he presented his paper entitled ‘Financial Markets, Banks’ Cost of Funding, and Firms’ Decisions: Lessons from Two Crises (with P. Palduzzi and F. Schiantarelli), 6-9 July 2015.

Nicola BrandtArt History and Studio Art
Professor Brandt presented the multi-media project Indifference at the Venice Biennale in May 2015.

Federica Capoferri Modern Languages and Literature
Professor Capoferri participated in the conference “Intersezioni/Intersections” where she delivered a paper entitled “Finis terrae.
Roma di Fellini e il declino del paradigma della Città Eterna” in the special session OneDay Conference on Fellini, Florence, June, 2015.

Paola Castelli Economics and Social Sciences
Professor Castelli participated in the 2015 Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Conference where she presented the poster entitled “Monitoring Memory Absence: from Disqualifying to Diagnostic Monitoring”, Philadelphia, March 2015.

Clelia Clini Communications
Professor Clini participated in the international interdisciplinary conference “Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Imaginings and Representations”. This conference was jointly organized by the Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging (CoHaB), the European Union, the Marie Curie Actions ITN program, and the University of Mumbai, Centre for Advanced Studies in India, where she delivered a paper entitled “‘One Foot In, the Other Foot Out’: Lives Across Borders in Tishani Doshi’s The Pleasure Seekers”, Mumbai, March 2015.

Francesca Conti Economics and Social Sciences
Professor Conti carried out extensive summer fieldwork in her research on professional and junior second-generation athletes in Italy.

Carlos DewsEnglish Language and Literature
Professor Dews embarked upon a research trip to the archives of the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians housed in the Simon Schwob Memorial Library at Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia, August 2015.

Michael DriessenPolitical Science and International Affairs
Professor Driessen presented a paper at the 2014 American Political Science Association conference in Washington, D.C. in August 2014. He also presented a paper and chaired a panel at the 2014 Società Italiana di Scienza Politica in Perugia, Italy in September 2014. He was part of an international conference on interreligious dialogue hosted by the Pontifical Institute for the Study of Islam and Arabic (PISAI) at the Urbaniana University, Rome, January 2015. During the summer of 2015, Professor Driessen undertook a 10-day research trip to Saudi Arabia and Qatar in order to conduct interviews for his book on Global Politics of Interreligious Dialogue in the Middle East.

Aidan Fadden – English Language and Literature
Professor Fadden gave a literary reading and launched the publication The Plan for Magma Poetry, Issue 60, U.K., November 2015.

Majlinda JoxheEconomics and Social Sciences
Professor Joxhe carried out a study with Professor Paola Castelli “Gender Bias Competition and Context Evaluations. Evidence from a Lab-In-The-Lab Experiment” with students from Statistics II (MA-209) as collaborators.

Margaret KnellerMathematics, Natural Science and Computer Science
Professor Kneller attended the AMICAL Conference “Clearing Thresholds: Information Literacy & Faculty-Librarian-Technologist Collaboration” at the American University in Bulgaria, May 2015. She also participated in the “European Climate Change Adaptation Conference (ECCA 2015) held in Copenhagen, May 2015.

Jens KoehlerArt History and Studio Art
Professor Koehler was part of a meeting of experts on terminology in ancient water technologies “Lexicon Group” and a meeting of the scientific advisory board of the Frontinus Society, Bonn, Germany, April 2015.

Andrea LanzoneHistory and Humanities
Professor Lanzone gave a Lectio Magistralis on the socio-economic-political conditions of Native American Indians in the United States and participated in the Florida Political Science Association (FPSA) annual conference at the University of Central Florida.

Antonio Lopez Communications
Professor Lopez was invited to participate in the conference ‘Digital Communication in the Time of Disclosure’ in cooperation with Arab-U.S. Association for Communication Educators (AUSACE), Irbid, Jordan, 26-28 October 2014, but was unable to attend due to extenuating circumstances. He participated in the National Association of Media Literacy Educators (NAMLE) conference in Philadelphia, June 2015.

Riccardo MaioliniBusiness Administration
Professor Maiolini presented two papers at the annual DRUID15 Network Conference “The Relevance of Innovation,” Rome, 15-17 June 2015.

Linda NolanArt History
Professor Nolan co-led a workshop and delivered a paper entitled “Missing Monuments in Rome and Paris: Michelangelo and the French Revolution” at the “Early Modern Women Conference: It’s About Time” at the University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 2015.

Lorenza Parisi Communications
Professor Parisi took part in an International Conference on “Protest Participation in Variable Communication Ecologies” as member of the conference organizing committee at the University of Sassari, Italy, June, 2015.

William PettitArt History and Studio Art
Professor Pettit received support for the restoration and recuperation of an old chapel in the town of Cottanello, Rieti. He also participated in the 9th International Experimental Archeology Conference where he presented a demonstration of his current research, University College, Dublin, January 2015.

Andrea Pirro – Political Science and International Affairs
Professor Pirro presented a paper entitled “United in Opposition? The Populist Radical Right’s Response to the European Crisis” at the 22nd International Conference of Europeanists, Sciences Po Paris, July 2015. He then participated in the 9th European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference where he chaired a section and panel, and presented the book entitled “The Populist Radical Right in Central and Eastern Europe: Ideology, Impact, and Electoral Performance, Montreal, August 2015. Professor Pirro will take part in the 111th American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting where he will chair a session and present the paper entitled “Populism 2.0: Mobilizing on the Left, the Right, and the Internet,” San Francisco, CA, September 2015.

Zara PogossianHistory and Humanities
Professor Pogossian participated in the conference “Eleven Hundredth Anniversary of the Church of Aghtamar” July 2014, and attended the annual meeting of the Italian scholars of Armenian studies in Bologna: Associazione Padus-Araxes, June 2014. She also received continued support for her study of Syriac. In March 2015, she participated in the IX Giornata di Studi Armeni e Caucasici where she delivered a paper entitled “Espansione del monachesimo cenobita e controllo del territorio: Il caso di Vaspurakan nella seconda metà del IX secolo,” Venice, March 2015

Lars RensmannPolitical Science and International Affairs
Professor Rensmann presented the first version of the final chapter of his forthcoming book at the 110th American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., August 27-September 1, 2014. He participated in the European Sociological Association’s International Conference “Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism in the Shadow of the Holocaust,” which addresses one of his current research areas, Vienna, September 4-7, 2014. In April, Professor Rensmann participated in the Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting where he presented a theory paper entitled “Digital Politics and the Public Square: Rethinking Contemporary Democratic Unrest” in Chicago, April, 2015, and in May, in Rome, he chaired a session and presented a paper entitled ‘The Frankfurt School on Antisemitism and Racism Revisited.”

Shannon Russell English Language and Literature
Professor Russell participated in the British Association of Victorian Studies (BAVS) Annual Conference on Victorian Age(s), Leeds, August, 2015.

Silvia Scarpa Political Science and International Affairs
Professor Scarpa participated in the Conference “Boat Refugees” and Migrants at Sea: A Comprehensive Approach Integrating Maritime Security with Human Rights.” She also participated in the XIX Congress of the Italian Society of International Law on “Il futuro delle organizzazioni internazionali. prospettive giuridiche” (The Future of International Organizations. A Legal Perspective).

Sabrina Schmidt Art History and Studio Art
Professor Schmidt participated in the Seminar “Les Minérales, Les Sédementaires et les Teintures,” held by the artist Roland Palmaert, January 22-25 2015 in Brussels, Belgium.

Alessandro SignoriniBusiness Administration
Professor Signorini collected data on the Canadian experience of fundraising for social entrepreneurs toward the drafting of a comparative national study on the fundraising efforts for a complex organization like Ashoka, the largest network of social entrepreneurs in the world, Canada, Summer 2015.

Carolyn SmythArt History and Studio Art
Professor Smyth participated in the 61st Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America where she presented a paper entitled “Between Heaven and Hell, Doctrine and Cult: The Seicento Church of S. Maria del Suffragio del Purgatorio ad Arco in Naples and the Devotions of Consolation,” Berlin, March 2015.

Erika Tasini Communications
Professor Tasini attended the 8th Power to the Pixel Cross-Media Forum which is part of the BFI London Film Festival, October, 2014. She also participated in the Berlinale Film Festival where she took part in a variety of panels and viewed new films relevant to her current and future teaching activity and her work as a female film professional, Berlin, March 2015. In addition, in March she also participated in the Forum on Interactive Documentary at Goldsmith College, UK. From 28 June to 4 July 2015 Professor Tasini participated in the Power to the Pixel 2015 Lab for cross-media projects, Inverness, Scotland, 28 June-4 July 2015.

Vanda WilcoxHistory and Humanities
Professor Wilcox published a monograph entitled Morale and the Italian Army during the First World War, accepted for publication in early 2016 by Cambridge University Press as contribution to the Cambridge Military History series.

Lila YawnArt History and Studio Art
Professor Yawn attended the Renaissance Society of America annual meeting and presented a paper entitled “Cellini’s Necromancer and Magic in the Monti Sibillini” and chaired the panel “Topographies of Magic and the Underworld, 1350-1700 (II), Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, 25-28 March 2015. In June, she participated in the conference “The Middle Ages in the Modern World” where she presented a paper entitled “Benedict XVI’s Ruby Slippers and ‘Medieval’ Papal Fashion Choices since Vatican II” at the University of Lincoln, UK. At the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds in July 2015 she presented a paper entitled “On Giant Bibles and Historiographic Bubbles: The Bibbie atlantiche, 11th-12th Centuries, from Sirletus to Supino,” Leeds (UK).