BC English Professor Wins Cornaro Award

Brooklyn College English professor Geraldine DeLuca has been selected as a recipient of the 2007 Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Award, which is given out by the New York State chapter of the Order of Sons of Italy in America.

Established in 1978, the Cornaro award recognizes outstanding Italian American women in higher education who have made significant contributions to their profession and community. Lady Elena Lucrezia Piscopia Cornaro was reputedly the first woman to receive a doctorate, which was conferred to her in 1678 by the University of Padua in Italy.

The award carries with it a crystal commemorative piece, an honorarium, and an invitation to the State's Scholarship ceremonies on June 2, 2007 in Suffern, N.Y.

DeLuca, who is of Italian heritage, was born and raised in Brooklyn. She has taught at BC for more than 30 years. She founded, along with BC English professor Roni Natov, a critical journal called The Lion and the Unicorn, which is published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

She has served as director of freshman writing and as coordinator of the program in writing across the curriculum. She co-edited an anthology of articles about teaching writing called Dialogue on Writing (Erlbaum, 2002). She also served on the board of the college's Center for Teaching and was its chair for two years. In 2004, she received Brooklyn College's Faculty Citizenship Award for her continued commitment to teaching, program organization, and faculty development.  In 2006 she became the Director of the college's new Core Curriculum, and has shepherded it through its first successful year.

She is currently revising a collection of stories called Bensonhurst Sutra, which links her work in memoir, Italian-American culture, and contemplative studies.