I am a Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Since July 2021, I have been the Chairperson of the Romance Languages Department at Hunter College.

My main research area is Early Modern culture and literature. I focus on the interaction between medicine, literature, and law and the relation between visual and verbal media in early modern Italy and Europe.
I am interested in analyzing macro-topics such as insanity, early modern criminal justice, the interaction between medicine and law in the courtroom, the coexistence of oral and written communication in legal documents and vernacular narrative, and the expression of emotions couched in legal actions, through micro-historical accounts found in archival records.

My interest in the relationship between fact and fiction led me to explore the historical novel genre in its canonical forms and its modern and contemporary variants.

I taught the Italian language at all levels and Renaissance Italian and European literature and culture at the undergraduate and graduate levels (M.A. and Ph.D.). My classes emphasize acquisition and experiential learning. I am also interested in integrating visual and verbal media in my teaching using emotions and emotional codes.

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