WESTMINSTER — McDaniel College in Westminster announced this week that it has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Nora Roberts Foundation to advance research and study of romance literature.
This is the second year the college has received funding from Roberts, a best-selling author of more than 200 romance novels.
Officials said the grant will support McDaniel's academic minor in romance fiction and an online creative writing course on the subject.
The college's Hoover Library has a specific American romance collection, and McDaniel is considered one of the few centers for the study of the romance genre. McDaniel English professor Pam Regis organized an international conference on the subject in November 2011 at the college, which included presentations on "popular romance in the new millennium."
Dr. Roger Casey, president of McDaniel, said he believes the grant and the association between the college and Roberts will, "raise the profile of the romance novel among scholars and the academic community."