Dr.Virginia Donovan, an assistant professor in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, has been named the first recipient of the James Ford Bell Research Fellowship by the University of Minnesota's James Bell Ford Library.

Donovan's research centers on French and French colonial history during the period 1661-1830. Her recent work on the Quebec corsair Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville led to the project she will be pursuing at the Bell Library, a literary comparison of d'Iberville's writing with the Bell's French corsair archive.

Donovan intends to make available a textual analysis and translation of selected French corsair manuscripts for use by other scholars as part of her project.