Dr. Julie Costello, assistant professor
of English at Hope College, has been named a "Towsley
Research Scholar" at Hope.
The award was announced during the college's
annual Faculty Recognition Luncheon, held on Monday, Jan. 8.
The Towsley Research Scholars Program is funded
through an endowment made possible through a grant from the
Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation of Midland. The
foundation's awards to the college have also included grants
for the construction of the Van Wylen Library and the new
science center, faculty development in the pre-medical
sciences and support for an endowed chair in communication.
Through the Towsley Research Scholars Program,
newer Hope faculty members receive support for a project for
four years. An additional scholar is appointed each year.
Past recipients are Dr. David Ryden of the political science
faculty (1997), Dr. J. Jeffery Tyler of the religion faculty
(1998), Dr. Matthew Elrod of the chemistry faculty (1999)
and Dr. Charlotte vanOyen Witvliet of the psychology faculty
(2000).
Costello has been a member of the Hope faculty
since 1998. Her scholarship focuses on Irish and Scottish
women writers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and
she will use the Towsley support to continue work on a book
tentatively titled "Remembrance, Rebellion, and the Bardic
Nation: Irish and Scottish Romantic-period Women's
Writings."
She recently completed another book, "Romanticism,
Maternity, and Conceptions of the Body Politic: Mothers 'on
Trial' 1750-1820," which is being considered for publication
by Cambridge University Press. She has contributed a number
of chapters or articles to books or scholarly journals, in
addition to making numerous presentations at professional
conferences.
She is past managing editor of "Nineteenth-Century
Contexts." She also served for one year as production
manager and another year as assistant editor of "Bullán: An
Irish Studies Journal."
Costello earned her bachelor's, master's and
doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. The university
presented her with the Shaheen Graduate Student Award in the
Humanities 1997-98, awarded to one student yearly in the
humanities division; she also received the Notre Dame
English Department's "Award for Excellence in Teaching" in
1997.