Goucher Art History Professor April Oettinger Receives Curriculum Development Grant From Peirce Center

May 20, 2010 |

Goucher College’s Brooke and Carol Peirce Center for Undergraduate Research in Special Collections has awarded April Oettinger, assistant professor of art history, a curriculum development grant to attend the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia this summer.

Oettinger will be taking a historical survey of texts in traditional book layouts and changing them into electronic formats. The survey will support the development of The Art and History of the Book (Art 382), a new course that will be offered in the fall in which students will explore the history of the book and book illustration in the Western world. The course will be taught in Goucher’s Special Collections and Archives.

Oettinger earned a doctorate in Italian Renaissance art history from the University of Virginia and teaches courses in the history of Western art from the ancient world through the 18th century, as well as seminars on Venetian art, landscape art, and the art and history of the book.

A Fulbright-Hays fellowship recipient, Oettinger has also received grants from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the William Morris Society, and a Dame Francis Yates fellowship from the Warburg Institute at the University of London. She is working on a book titled Romance and the Revival of Antiquity in Italian Renaissance Art, 1440-1580. 

The Peirce Center seeks to engage undergraduates in original research that takes advantage of the rich resources in Special Collections and Archives at the Goucher College Library. The Peirce Center supports internships, research fellowships, course development and enhancement, lectures, master classes, fieldtrips, digitization projects, exhibits, and other activities. The center also partners with faculty to incorporate rare and special materials into their curricula and pedagogies, enhancing Goucher's reputation for offering innovative learning opportunities.

The center operates as a programmatic component of Special Collections and Archives of Goucher College and is directed by the special collections librarian and college archivist, along with an advisory steering committee that includes faculty, staff, students, scholars, and the college librarian.

For more information, visit the Peirce Center Website at http://www.goucher.edu/x38128.xml.