“Professor Alcorn has done Italian-Americans a great service by devoting his life to teaching and preserving the history of the Italian people,” said Senator DeLuca. “He is a master of his craft – a passionate historian and teacher whose collective body of work tells an important story about both the resourcefulness of the common man and the glory of Italian genius. Most importantly, Professor Alcorn has worked tirelessly to share his immense knowledge of Italian history with others. He is most deserving of this honor.”

Professor Alcorn lives in West Hartford and oversees Trinity College’s Italian Programs which comprise a campus in Rome, Elderhostel/Italy programs at a dozen sites in Italy, and the Cesare Barbieri Endowment for Italian Culture at the Hartford campus. Professor Alcorn has leveraged the Barbieri Endowment to showcase leading scholars in a broad range of cultural events free and open to the public, including lectures about the cleaning of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes, and a symposium about Pius XII and the rescue of Jews in Italy during the Holocaust.

Alcorn served twice as Visiting Professor at the University of Palermo and was the first American historian to gain full access to the town archives in Corleone. He has published ground-breaking essays on the poetry of renowned Italian writer and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi, and his extensive research into Sicily has uncovered decisive new evidence about such contentious topics as peasant unrest, the mafia and emigration.

Senator DeLuca, the highest ranking Republican in the state legislature, is a former Chairman of the IALCEF and currently serves on the Board of Directors. The IALCEF is a bi-partisan organization composed of Connecticut state legislators of Italian decent. The caucus holds two major fundraisers a year to benefit their scholarship fund, which provides students in Trinity College and Central Connecticut State University’s Italian Studies program with the opportunity to travel to Italy.