This Tuesday, Dec. 4, Timothy McCall, PhD, assistant professor of Art History, will deliver this semester’s final lecture in the Library’s Scholarship@Villanova series. Dr. McCall’s talk is entitled “Buttons forming Bodies: Princely Fashion in Early Renaissance Italy,” and has been developed alongside a remarkable body of scholarship which focuses upon, among other things, Italian Early Modern constructions of gender and sexuality. The scope of the talk will exceed Renaissance Italy, however, and approach ideas about modern fashion and even the relationship between clothes and our own bodies in a contemporary context.

The Scholarship@Villanova series highlights bold publications and research from distinguished faculty members here at Villanova, and Dr. McCall’s work certainly reflects the intellectual rigor and adventurousness which has become a hallmark of this series. His expertise ranges from Medieval and Early Modern Court life to Italian architecture in contemporary film, and his interest in the intersection between visual culture and history places his work at the cutting edge of his field.

The research Dr. McCall will present this Tuesday is part of a larger book project, entitled Brilliant Bodies: Men at Court in Early Renaissance Italy.

The event will be held in room 205 on the second floor of Falvey Memorial Library at 12:00 p.m.  In the tradition of previous Scholarship@Villanova lectures,  it will be free and open to the public.

Graphic design by Joanne Quinn

By Nikolaus Fogle

Let’s say you’re taking a course on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. You’ve gone to the lectures, read your textbook, maybe a few articles, and now it’s time to start working on your term paper. You know you need to dig deeper, and you want sources that will provide insight while also helping you identify the key points of dispute about Kant, so you can intelligently enter the debate. This is when you turn to The Cambridge Companion to Kant.

The Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture—171 volumes at last count—provide a wealth of resources to students and scholars alike. Each one is devoted to a specific figure, period, or topic, and helps readers break into the serious scholarship on that subject.

There are Cambridge Companions to Plato, Nietzsche, Marx and Jung, to Arabic philosophy, the Scottish enlightenment, and postmodern theology, to name a few. The series ranges broadly, as titles like The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Skepticism and The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture testify. There are even a couple of surprisingly specific ones, like The Cambridge Companion to Nozik’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

They’re ideal resources for term papers, since each volume is carefully curated to inform and advance the scholarship at the same time. The contributors are most often internationally-recognized authorities on their subjects. For instance, The Cambridge Companion to Kant is edited and introduced by Paul Guyer, the author of at least eight books on Kant, and one of the principle translators of Kant into English. It also includes essays by a dozen other Kant experts, each focusing on a particular facet of his thought.

Finally, the bibliographies at the end of each volume are ready road-maps to some of the most important literature on their subjects. Sometimes they’re even broken down into thematic sections, e.g., books and articles on Kant’s moral theory, his anthropology, his philosophy of religion, etc.

So as you write your term papers this semester, give the Cambridge Companions a try. Falvey has both the print and digital editions of nearly every one.

Pictured here is the basket the Library contributed to the Health Promotion’s 16th Annual Basket fundraiser at the Campus Activity Team’s (CAT’s) Holiday Bazaar. Donations will give attendees the opportunity to win baskets sponsored by the Library and other campus offices.

Proceeds will purchase gifts for families through Delaware County’s Children & Youth Services.

The CAT’s Bazaar will be held in the Connelly Center Villanova Room on Thursday, Nov. 29, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Friday, Nov. 30, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The library basket includes a donation of $250 to the Red Cross’s Hurricane Sandy relief fund.

The Falvey University Staff Council  team created the basket using the generous donations from the library staff. Falvey USC team volunteers are William Greene, Gina Duffy, Becky Whidden, Marie Roman, Margaret Duffy, Jeannine Ahern, Joanne Quinn, Mary Heyman, Linda Hauck (incoming chair) and Phylis Wright (current chair).

Photograph by Alice Bampton

By Alice Bampton

Nikolaus (Nik) Fogle, PhD, has joined Falvey as the philosophy librarian and Philosophy, Theology and Humanities team coordinator, positions previously held by Bente Polites, who retired in spring 2012.

As a subject librarian and team coordinator, Dr. Fogle will work with the Augustinian Historical Institute, Augustinian Institute, Center for Peace and Justice Education, Classical Studies Program, Ethics Program, Department of Humanities, Department of Philosophy (including its graduate program), Department of Theology and Religious Studies (including its graduate program) and the Theology Institute.

Dr. Fogle, a native of Wallingford, Pa., attended Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., and transferred to a warmer climate at The University of Arizona, Tucson, where he majored in philosophy and minored in classics, receiving a bachelor’s degree. For his doctorate in philosophy he returned to the east, attending Temple University, Philadelphia. At Temple, Dr. Fogle focused on social/political and continental philosophy. His dissertation was published last year as “The Spatial Logic of Social Struggle”. 

He taught philosophy and urban studies at various universities; his most recent teaching position was at Renmin University of China (People’s University of China), Beijing. Fogle says, “The main thing that struck me about Chinese students was their degree of focus and dedication.”

Dr. Fogle will be participating in the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, beginning his fellowship in July 2013. CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowships provide recent PhDs “a unique opportunity to develop expertise in the new forms of scholarly research and the information resources that support them ….”

Dr. Fogle’s hobbies are traveling, experiencing new cultures, and discovering exciting and delicious things to eat. “I live for good books and good conversations. I can really nerd out, too. I’m a big fan of Doctor Who,” he says. “I’m really grateful for the warm welcome I’ve received from everyone here at Villanova [University]. I can’t imagine a better place to be.”

Back in July, we began online proofreading of The Decadent by Ralph Adams Cram, as reported here.  This title has become the first of our proofreading projects to be completed and posted to Project Gutenberg.  The finished product can be found here.

The brief novella follows a socialist who travels to visit one of his former students and finds his philosophy significantly changed.  Short on plot but containing some vivid imagery, the story seems written primarily to allow the author to reflect on social and political issues of the time.  The significance of much of this is lost on the 21st century reader, yet the book still provides a surprisingly atmospheric experience.

The entire text can be read online or downloaded in a variety of formats used by portable devices like Kindles, Nooks or iPads.

With Thanksgiving behind us and the end of the semester fast approaching, the season for paper writing has begun in earnest.  Here at the Library, we offer a number of resources to aid you as you research and write.  Take a look before you get too swamped—we might be able to help you with some of the heavy lifting:

1. Citation Styles: A Primer with Resources—This topic guide features resources for all the major citation styles. If you’re having trouble collecting and arranging sources, or if you’re interested in the finer details of a certain style, this guide can point you in the right direction.
2. RefWorks Tutorial—RefWorks is a tool which automates some of the work behind citation gathering. Here’s a tutorial detailing how to use this valuable resource—definitely worth checking out if you have a longer research paper.
3. The Writing Center—The Writing Center is located in the Learning Commons on the second floor of the Library. Make an appointment with a member of the very capable staff there as you build or edit your work, and your paper will show for it. Tutors are available to help writers in any field, and with any amount of experience.

As always, check out the Library website often for more information. Happy writing!

Are you or your students working on projects related to James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Dolley Madison, Eliza Lucas Pinckney or Harriott Pinckney Horry? When you need to consult the print sets, do you typically need it at a time when the library is closed? Are you frustrated by the limitations of print indexes? If you answered in the affirmative to one or all of the above questions, then you will be glad to hear that the papers and correspondence of these five founding-era individuals are now available online via the American Founding Era digital collection. Published online by the University of Virginia Press, the content of the collection is based on the most recent critical editions, such as the 27 volumes set of the Papers of Alexander Hamilton edited by Harold C. Syrett, and it includes all editorial annotations. Also available are the papers of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams and documents related to the History of the Ratification of the Constitution. The papers of John Jay, John Marshall and Andrew Jackson will be added in the near future and will further enhance the value and importance of the collection.

Each collection includes an introduction to the digital edition with detailed information about content sources and editorial history. Collections can be browsed in chronological order or by corresponding print volume. Aside from 24/7 access, the digital editions present unique opportunities to scholars and students alike, making it easy to locate keywords and names in individual collections as well as to search simultaneously across the complete American Founding Era collection. Results are tagged with collection-specific icons which identify the source collection (see image at right). Each document includes the page numbers of the original print edition in brackets together with a page icon which will open a jpeg image of the print page (). Each document also includes a reference to the print volume, a canonical URL and a recommended citation.

Correspondents are indexed as authors and recipients. The correspondent search function has an auto-complete feature which brings up matching names and the number of available documents for each author and recipient (see image at left).

The records for the print editions in the library’s catalog include links to the online collection. A link to the American Founding Era collection has been added to the Databases A-Z list.

Questions or comments?  Contact me directly (jutta.seibert@villanova.edu) or post your comments online.

Attention Communication Students! Stop by the library and finish up your papers.

By Alice Bampton

Dante’s Illustrated Adventure is an online exhibit highlighting illustrated editions of the Divine Comedy owned by Falvey Memorial Library’s Special Collections and features a video introduction by the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, ’75 A&S, University president. This exhibit was curated by Diane Biunno, PhD, a summer intern in Special Collections.

Dr. Biunno is currently enrolled in Drexel University’s Master of Science in Library and Information Science program. She also teaches Italian at Villanova University.

“I think that Dante is relevant, especially for Villanova [University] students and for students of Italian. He is considered the father of the Italian language and he’s one of the greatest poets in Western literature. The Divine Comedy has influenced how many Christians and Catholics view the afterlife, and his conception of grace and divine justice in the Divine Comedy was heavily influenced by Saint Augustine,” Dr. Biunno says.

Father Donohue introduces “Dante’s Illustrated Adventure” in a video, reading the opening canto of Dante’s Inferno.

Following the Curator’s Welcome, the exhibit is divided into eight parts: Dante’s Biography, Meet the Illustrators, Dante’s Guides, Sacred Spaces & Scary Places, Sinners, Monsters & Mythical Creatures, Saints, and Bibliography.

Dr. Biunno worked with Michael Foight, Special Collections and Digital Library coordinator, and Laura Bang, Digital and Special Collections curatorial assistant, to create this exhibit. Joanne Quinn, design specialist, created the graphics.

More information about the online exhibit can be found on the Blue Electrode blog.

By Alice Bampton

The public relations committee for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week (HHAW) created the window display in Falvey “to raise awareness on campus about the issues of hunger and homelessness in the local community and world-wide. Through education, service and advocacy, we are committed to promoting solidarity with the poor,” said Sasha Ducey, the committee chair. She and her three assistants, Jenna Dilorio, Robyn Bastian and Skye Jang, mounted the exhibit after consulting Joanne Quinn, Falvey’s design specialist. Quinn created the large central “Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week” poster. All other graphics are the work of the HHAW public relations committee.

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week , this year Nov. 9-16, is affiliated with Campus Ministry and the Center for Peace and Justice Education. In 1975, the Rev. Ray Jackson, OSA, organized a few students to establish Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Although Father Jackson died in 1997, his legacy lives on. More than 500 colleges, universities and other groups now participate in HHAW.

The top left of the display features an eye-catching image of a homeless man. Posters made of corrugated cardboard comment on homelessness. One large hand-lettered poster to the right lists Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week events. Discarded newspapers and plastic grocery bags cover the bottom. Next to a rumpled sleeping bag appear the words, “What if this was your bed?”

This thought-provoking, stark display makes a visual and verbal statement about the plight of those who are hungry and/or homeless.

Photograph by Alice Bampton