L to R: Duane Milne, Ph.D.; Melanie Kisthardt, Ph.D.; Courtney Gambrell, Sister Susan Cronin, IHM, Ph.D.

Immaculata University’s Courtney Gambrell of Newtown Square, PA, presented her poster “Demystifying Charles Chesnutt’s Tales of Conjure” at the Undergraduate Research at the recent Capitol Conference in Harrisburg.

Gambrell was one of 36 students representing 17 colleges and universities from across the state who gathered with faculty and Pennsylvania legislators and staff to share their research. The goal of the conference was to demonstrate that research is important to the educational development of college students and that they can make valuable contributions that enrich the knowledge, cultural heritage, and economic well-being of Pennsylvania.

Charles Chesnutt was a 19^th-century author who was the first African-American writer to be published in The Atlantic Monthly. Chesnutt wrote many of his stories in regional dialect, and Melanie Kisthardt, Ph.D., chair of Immaculata’s English/Communication Department, noticed that her students were struggling to understand the unfamiliar language and phonetic spellings. Wishing to honor Chesnutt’s literary achievements and to extend the longevity of the literature so that its meaning would not be misunderstood, Gambrell began translating the stories into modern English.

Under Kisthardt’s direction, Gambrell spent two years working on four of Chesnutt’s “conjure” short stories. In them, ex-slave Julius McAdoo describes incidents in which slaves turned to “conjure,” or voodoo, to endure the inhumanity of slavery. This emphasis on voodoo made the slaves feel empowered and linked them to their African roots.  In addition to the close reading necessary for her translations, Gambrell researched “local color” literature, Chesnutt’s diaries and letters, and the presence of voodoo in America and the Caribbean as a result of the African diaspora.

Immaculata University is a Catholic, comprehensive, coeducational institution of higher education, located on the Main Line between Malvern and Exton, 20 miles west of Philadelphia.

A resident of Secane, PA, Dr. Orlando received her doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she went on to become a postdoctoral research fellow. She was most recently a postdoctoral fellow in Villanova University’s Department of Biology. She has experience teaching laboratory and lecture courses such as cell and molecular biology, and advanced cell biology. She has also mentored students and guided their directed research.

Dr. Orlando has presented her research at meetings for various scientific associations, such as the American Society for Cell Biology and the Genetics Society of America. She has co-authored articles that appeared in publications such as The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Molecular Biology of the Cell, and Experimental Cell Research. Dr. Orlando’s research covers a range of subjects, including the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity and the evolutionary conservation of genes across species.

“I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to teach at Immaculata,” commented Dr. Orlando. “I get to work with a truly wonderful group of people—and I don’t just mean my colleagues in the Biology Department (who have been amazing!), but members of the Immaculata ‘family,’ from administration to support staff. The Immaculata students themselves have impressed me not only by their academic excellence but their ability to handle their busy course loads with schedules filled with sports, jobs, and extracurricular and volunteer activities. As a biology teacher I get a chance to teach students whose goals are to go into various health-related professions, and the passion these students have for their future profession fills me with hope and pride.

“I am also grateful for the opportunity to apply for and receive an OSR [Office of Sponsored Research] mini-grant to help fund research projects I am working on with a few undergraduates,” Dr. Orlando added. “My own undergraduate research experience was what inspired me so many years ago, and I hope to be able to pay it forward with my own students at Immaculata in the years to come!”