Assistant Professor, Renaissance Literature
Marissa Nicosia, Ph.D., was awarded a grant to extend her work with students who transcribed an early modern recipe book as a starting point to explore ecology, food, medicine, and women’s history.
Yearlong course work housed in the Abington College Undergraduate Research Activities (ACURA) program, in partnership with the Penn State University Libraries, allowed students to learn skills in paleography, text analysis, and archival research, as well as conduct individual research while visiting Philadelphia institutions such as the Free Library of Philadelphia Rare Book Collection, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and the Science History Institute.
The students had the opportunity to test medicinal and culinary recipes from the manuscript using the nutrition education kitchen at Penn State Center Philadelphia, which formed the basis of a public event called “A Taste of 1677.”
Awarded: 2018–2019