Alumnae Graduate Fellowship 2016-17 Description
pam.james
12 May, 2015 05:07 PM
Susie Phillips, Alumnae Teaching Professor 2014-17
janet.bilandic
13 April, 2015 07:58 AM
Diane Luchese, Dissertation Fellow, 1996
janet.bilandic
09 April, 2015 10:43 AM
Centennial Fall Lecture by David Zarefsky
janet.bilandic
09 April, 2015 10:31 AM
Alumnae of NU Undergraduate Research Scholars
admin
09 April, 2015 12:56 AM
Diane Luchese
Dissertation Fellowship Recipient, 1996
Diane Luchese
Alumnae Dissertation Fellow, 1996
Music theorist/organist Diane Luchese is a Professor of Music at Towson University. Since joining the faculty in Fall 1999, she has been teaching courses in music theory, aural skills, counterpoint, and analysis. Before her appointment at Towson, she taught at the Ohio State University, Chicago Musical College, New England Conservatory, and in DePaul University's Community Music Division. She previously held positions as an organist/choir master in the New York, Boston, and Chicago metropolitan areas, and currently freelances as a church organist in the Baltimore area.
Luchese's research interests include counterpoint; pedagogy as informed by cognition research; curriculum development; rhythm, time and motion; and the musics of Bach, Hildegard, Messiaen, and Ligeti. Accordingly, she has presented papers at numerous conferences, which include meetings of the Society for Music Theory, the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies, the First International Congress on Messiaen Studies, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, the Symposium on Music and Nature, and the Bridges International Conference. In 2010 she contributed a chapter to Olivier Messiaen: The Centenary Papers, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Her articles have been published in Sonus and The American Organist. Luchese has performed recitals throughout the northeast, and especially enjoys performing early and contemporary works. In 2009 she performed John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP in a 15-hour uninterrupted performance at Towson University, and in 2012, Cage’s centennial birth year, performed an 11-hour realization at the nief-norf Research Summit held at Furman University. She recently recorded a CD of contemporary organ music featuring Baltimore pipe organs, which will be released on the Raven label in summer 2015.
Luchese earned a Ph.D. in music theory from Northwestern University, Master of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory in both music theory and organ performance, and a Bachelor of Music in organ performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was awarded the Bronson Ragan Memorial Award for Excellence in Organ. Her organ teachers include Yuko Hayashi, Frederick Swann, and Paul-Martin Maki. She also studied composition privately with M. William Karlins and Robert Cogan.
Reflection on the Alumnae Fellowship:
"I was honored to receive the Dissertation Fellowship at Northwestern. When at the dissertation stage, I was a single, female musician living alone, already financially strapped with the loan debt from my previous two master degrees. Because of all my work responsibilities, I found it difficult to find sufficient time to make the progress I needed. Receiving this award made it possible for me to concentrate entirely on my research. In addition to the financial support from this grant, being among the "chosen women" that year gave me a boost of confidence, which was sorely needed to combat the uncertainty, inexperience, self-doubt, and insecurity that all accompany a huge and daunting task never done before! From time to time since completion, young scholars working on their dissertations contact me after reading mine as part of their research. Each contact reminds me of the immense gratitude I have for receiving the fellowship."
Deeana Klepper
Dissertation Fellowship Recipient, 1992
Deeana Klepper
Alumnae Dissertation Fellow, 1992
I earned my Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Medieval European History, under the direction of Robert Lerner. I am currently Associate Professor of Religion and History at Boston University, where I have taught since the fall of 2000. Most of the classes I teach explore Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in historical contexts. In addition to my work with undergraduates, I also work extensively with graduate students and have had the pleasure of directing several dissertations as primary advisor. My research focuses on Christian-Jewish encounter in medieval Europe. In addition to the Alumnae Fellowship, I have enjoyed research support from the American Academy in Rome, the University of Pennsylvania Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Boston University Center for the Humanities. I have published one book so far, The Insight of Unbelievers: Nicholas of Lyra and Christian Reading of Jewish Texts in the Later Middle Ages, and numerous articles and essays, including, most recently, “The Encounter Between Christian Authority and Jewish Authority over Scriptural Truth: The Barcelona Disputation 1263” and “Historicizing Allegory: The Jew As Hagar in Medieval Christian Text and Image.” I am currently working on a project that examines the intersections between Christian theological approaches to Jews and Judaism and the practical engagement between Christians and Jews in medieval European society. I am also very involved in adult continuing education in the Boston area, frequently teaching courses on Jewish history and Christian-Jewish relations in a variety of settings. I live with my husband in West Roxbury, MA; one of our daughters graduated from Boston University in 2013 with a double major in history and anthropology and now lives and works in Washington, DC, the other is currently a junior studying sociology, also at Boston University.
Reflection on the Alumnae Fellowship:
"I so clearly remember the year I held the Northwestern University Alumnae Fellowship, trying to finish a dissertation with a two-year old at home and another baby on the way. The Alumnae Fellowship was crucial to my professional success not only in providing material support, but also in serving as a reminder that I was still a scholar, all outward appearances to the contrary! I can’t say how important it was to know that there were others standing behind me, encouraging me along. At that time, no other graduate students in my department had children while working on their degrees, and no one could remember a graduate student having children while working on a degree— at least not a woman. There were almost no role models among the faculty at that time either; there were precious few women in my department, and of that small handful only one had children during my time there. So it felt rather isolating and crazy to think that I could combine serious scholarship and an academic career with having a family. My department wasn’t evil, I just don’t think anyone quite knew how to be supportive of a female Ph.D. student who seemed to be introducing stumbling blocks to the ideal career path. The fellowship gave me time to concentrate on finishing my dissertation and also demonstrated to me that there were people who had confidence in me; who thought I could do this. There is no question that having children slowed my dissertation progress and that my options immediately post-doctorate were somewhat limited by the fact I had a family to take into account. But I am very happy to say that it all worked out. I did finish the dissertation and get my degree. I did not go on the national job market immediately because my husband was not in a position to leave his job and I was not willing to split our family. But within a few years, we were ready to move and I got a fantastic visiting position at Williams College in western Massachusetts, after which I landed a dream job at Boston University."
Mary Poole
Dissertation Fellowship Recipient, 1975
Mary M. Poole
Alumnae Dissertation Fellow, 1975
Mary Poole arrived at Northwestern as a graduate student in 1974, and just never left. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Michigan, and she earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Theatre from Northwestern. She is exceedingly proud to have been the first recipient of the University Alumnae Dissertation Fellowship, without which she would have been unable to finish her degree.
She has performed in the university productions since her graduate student days, and then as faculty in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Glass Menagerie, The Gin Game, The Belle of Amherst, and in Arsenic and Old Lace, directed here by Frank Galati. Professional appearances in Chicago include acting with Apple Tree, City Lit, Griffin, Red Twist, Victory Gardens, and Wagon Wheel Theatre. This spring, she will join in the Hypocrites production of Three Sisters. She directs on the mainstage, most recently, Twelfth Night, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Three Sisters.
Currently, she teaches all nine quarters of the acting sequence in the Department of Theatre, where she has been a full faculty member since 1990. Her principal research areas focus on acting theory and contemporary British playwrights, and she is published in Communications, the journal of the International Brecht Society. Mary serves as the Master at Jones Fine and Performing Arts Residential College; and is a member of the British Scholarships Committee of the Office of Fellowships. She has been placed on the ASG Faculty Honor Role three times, and in 2010 was appointed a Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Senior Lecturer. She is the proud aunt of two nieces, both of whom, following their great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, and aunt, have chosen teaching careers, becoming the fourth generation committed to education.
Reflection on the Alumnae Fellowship:
"I was brought up to be a proper young woman of the time: polite, well-mannered, selfless, ego and emotions under control, expressing only cheer, warmth, and a willingness to serve others. I wasn’t allowed to get dirty, let alone fight for things I wanted. But my father, bless his heart, was curious, ambitious of mind, and well-informed. He inspired my hunger for a life of the mind. I was top of my little high school class, but not prepared for Michigan, where I promptly fell in love with an intellectual boy who left for Viet Nam. I flunked out twice, then met Jim Coakley and John Styan, theatre professors who believed theatre to be a legitimate method of exploring the world, and, that art was essential to human life and learning. Through them, I became a committed and successful undergraduate. When they both moved to Northwestern, I followed them. I finished the M.A. here at Northwestern (and my college funds), wanting more thinking, more learning, more of who I realized I could become. On graduation day, I was offered a paid managerial position, while Northwestern invited me into the doctoral program. The Alumnae changed my life. Because you saw ambitious young women without other resources, because you valued their voices and futures, you made it possible for them to choose the academic path. Your generosity and attention has changed more lives than just the recipients’, for I went on to teach, as I’m sure many of the other fellows did, too. Your gifts then, have affected not only our lives, but the hundreds of students we have taught. What a wonderful idea the grant was, and what profound effect it continues to have. I feel such gratitude to the women of 1975 who took action, and to those of you who carry on their legacy and renew it each year. Thank you, and Brava!"
Kelly O'Donnell, 2014 Alumnae Award
admin
03 February, 2015 11:10 PM