CGLC Visiting Fellow

The first visiting fellowship has been awarded to Dr. Francesco Melfi, of Cleveland Heights OH, for his proposal to conduct research on the pedagogical and linguistic strategies employed by the German-speaking Moravian missionary David Zeisberger (1721-1808) among the Delaware Indians and among the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in the Great Lakes region during the 18th and early 19th centuries, for a book on the subject.

Dr. Melfi, a linguist with Ph.D. in Hebrew literature at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, became interested in the history and geography of the Great Lakes after moving to Ohio, and commenced his intensive studies of native languages and Moravian settlements. For his research he will be using the Fliegel Indexes of the Moravian mission records on microfilm at the Michigan State University Libraries.