First recipients of Italian Studies Library Research Award arrive on campus
The first recipients of the Italian Studies Research Library Award, funded jointly by the Notre Dame Center for Italian Studies and Notre Dame International, arrived on campus to further their research in Italian Studies.
Joyce Rondaij, from the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is conducting research on Primo Levi, the Italian chemist and Jewish Holocaust survivor.
Rondaij consulted the ‘Primo Levi Collection,’ which is just one of the Hesburgh libraries’ premiere collections in Italian literature, in developing her project.
“I am very grateful for the opportunity to consult the 'Primo Levi Collection' and the general collection of the Hesburgh Library, which holds many secondary books on Levi and on Holocaust literature. Both the collections and the undisturbed research time are very helpful for me while writing an introductory book on Primo Levi's life and work, for a Dutch audience,” she says.
Marco Ruggieri, from the University of Edinburgh, UK, is conducting a research project titled “Rethinking Italian Fascism on Screen.”
A key area of his research involved Notre Dame’s Christopher G. Wagstaff Italian Film Collection, which includes more than two thousand Italian films and television programs.
“I am very thankful to the University of Notre Dame for letting me take advantage of the Christopher G. Wagstaff Film Collection and to all the staff of the Hesburgh Libraries and the Center for Italian Studies," says Ruggieri. "Their support throughout my research period at Notre Dame was absolutely invaluable. Thanks to the Wagstaff Collection, I was able to analyze several films made in that timeframe – including some that I would have struggled to find elsewhere."
“Home to the John A. Zahm, C.S.C. Dante Collection, Notre Dame has long been a destination for international scholars working in Dante Studies," says Theodore Cachey, Fabiano collegiate chair in Italian Studies and director of the Center for Italian Studies.
"It’s wonderful to see researchers now starting to access the Primo Levi and Wagstaff collections thanks to this new collaboration with Notre Dame International."
The Italian Studies Research Library Award encourages applications from established scholars, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students across the globe. Projects are selected in consideration of their relevance to the Hesburgh Libraries’ collections. Notre Dame’s research awards help to fund travel and accommodation for one to three weeks’ stay at the university.
Learn more about the Italian Studies Library Research Award.