News Briefs

Dr. Jonathan M. Hess, professor of Germanic languages and director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at UNC, has received international recognition for his book "Germans, Jews and the Claims of Modernity."

The Modern Language Association awarded the book honorable mention for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Germanic Languages and Literature, to be presented later this month in Philadelphia.

The judges’ citation called Hess’ work, "a fundamental reappraisal of the way Jewish intellectuals reacted to emancipation, modernity and the promises of secular universalism in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries."

The American Library Association’s Choice magazine had earlier named the work, published by Yale University Press, an outstanding academic title for 2003.

Hess is based in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Aldo Scaglione, Erich Maria Remarque professor of literature at New York University, was W.R. Kenan professor of Italian and comparative literature at UNC from 1968 to 1987.

The Modern Language Association, the largest of the American learned societies in the humanities, has 30,000 members in the United States, Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

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The March of Dimes has awarded Jane Barlow, UNC School of Nursing clinical instructor, a $20,000 grant to integrate prematurity prevention education into her Hospital Early Intervention Program.

The program is aimed at empowering families of medically fragile infants and toddlers to advocate for and access comprehensive health, social and educational services for their children.

  "The key is parent education," said Barlow. "Having a hospitalized child may provide the most exposure a family has ever had to health professionals. We can use that opportunity to educate parents in their reproductive years to promote healthy births and babies."

The March of Dimes presented the grant funding to Barlow at a Prematurity Awareness Day family rally held recently in Research Triangle Park.

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News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu