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 Research & cataloguing . Marketing . Art History
Exhibition Design . Current Affairs

Teaching & tutoring . How-to guides . Transcription
Additional skills . Education

Research & cataloguing (1981 to present)

  • VersaQuill Copywriting Workbook, a series of worksheets, summaries, and checklists for writing persuasive copy, organized in practical, step-by-step form. Publicized on the VersaQuill site and the VersaQuill blog (2010)

  • Researcher and production manager (freelance) for an independent press at a major university: researched images and permissions, wrote historical survey, designed and laid out text and cover, saw book through press, assisted in website design, consulted on marketing and sales. Book completed in 2.5 months (2009)

  • Research bibliographer for Martayan Lan Rare Books (specializing in travel, history of science, history of art); wrote and edited descriptions, laid out catalogues in Quark (2008-2009)
  • Researched and wrote Understanding Internationalism, vol. 10 in Understanding American History, a series of texts on American foreign relations aimed at high-school students (2008-2009; in press)
  • Researched, evaluated and described about 2000 art-related books and other items for possible sale by Second Renaissance Books (now the Ayn Rand Bookstore, 2001-2002)
  • Research bibliographer for Richard C. Ramer Old and Rare Books, a New York- and Lisbon-based dealer specializing in Spanish and Portuguese books; wrote and edited descriptions, laid out catalogues in PageMaker, set up Filemaker databases to manage stock and inventory, designed and set up website with searchable inventory (1984-2000)
  • Assistant Cataloguer of Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts, Beinecke Library, Yale University: wrote physical descriptions of manuscripts, transcribed text, identified the authors, etc. (part-time and summers while writing Ph.D. dissertation, 1981-1984)

Marketing (1984 to present) Designed eye-catching, legible, and memorable marketing materials for small businesses and own publications

 Art history publications & lectures (1989 to present). Areas of interest: art and ideas, ancient to modern; outdoor representational sculpture in New York City; history of architecture.

·        Art history innovators: 4-hour walking tour of sculpture and painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for honors students from Duke University (2009)

·        History of sculpture from ca. 3000 BCE to 19th c., organized as a 3-hour walking tour of sculptures the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2008) (flyer)

·      Western painting and sculpture, 1400-1900, 6 hours of lectures on the Cordair Fine Arts cruise (2008)

·        Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide, published by New York University Press and favorably reviewed in the New York Times, Sculpture magazine, and elsewhere (2007). Sample pages: Statue of Liberty essay p. 1, 2, 3

·        Three articles on art (each over 15,000 words) published in The Objective Standard: A Journal of Culture and Politics (2006-2007): first, second, third

·        Outdoor sculpture in New York City: walking tours (2004-2008)

·        Forgotten Delights website (since 2002) and blog (since 2006), focusing on outdoor representational sculpture. Website receives over 250,000 hits per month.

·        Forgotten Delights: The Producers (self published): took photographs, laid out pages, proofed, saw through press, marketed (2003)

·        History of painting for Beyond Books, an online service providing supplementary materials to high schools, 5 units totaling about 30,000 words (2000)

·        Lectures on art at The Jefferson School and Second Renaissance Conferences, (1989-2002)

·        Audiotapes of lectures available for purchase at the Ayn Rand Bookstore

 Exhibition design (2005-2006)

  • Research and writing for American History Workshop, an exhibition design firm, on their project for a lobby exhibition (the “Living Wall”) at the Hill Pavilion of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Helped gather and summarize faculty and staff ideas for the exhibition; collected 500 quotations and images.

Current affairs (1990 to present)

 Teaching & tutoring (1982 to present)

·        Homeschooled daughter in history, geography, civics/politics, English language and literature, and the visual arts, based on curriculum of my own design

·        Taught Greek and Latin to undergraduates

How-To Pieces (2003-2007)

Transcription (2007-2008)

·        Transcription and translation of French-language documents by Swedish diplomats regarding the American Civil War (2008). Sample

·        Transcription of hundreds of pages of correspondence of a noted American performer and her relatives for use by an author writing the performer's biography (2007)

 ADDITIONAL SKILLS

Computers: Experienced on Mac and PC; familiar with Microsoft Word, FileMaker Pro, and FrontPage; some experience with Quark

Languages: Fluent reading ability in French and Spanish; working reading knowledge of Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek; smattering of German and Italian.

Photography: Took photos of sculpture for Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide, Forgotten Delights: The Producers and www.ForgottenDelights.com.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Classics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH. Semple Fellow and Semple Traveling Fellow to Spain.

B.A. in Classics, Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA. Magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

 

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Testimonials

Her writing is clever and clear, her business manner is professional and friendly, and her work is reliable and thorough. ...

Excellent writer, creative and versatile ... deals with deadlines very efficiently.

Her writing skills are excellent and her design always beautiful. ...

I’ve worked with several researchers, and Dianne was by far the most reliable, professional, savvy, and efficient.

The articles were informative, entertaining, well researched and professionally composed. Proofing and factual errors were non-existent. …

A web-savvy and entrepreneurial spirit married to a whip-smart writer/ researcher/ historian … She can take an idea and run with it ...

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