CURRICULUM VITAE
MONICA CALABRITTO
Professor (August 25, 2023) and Chairperson, Department of Romance Languages, Hunter College, CUNY, July 2021-
Professor (August 25, 2023), Department of Comparative Literature, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Tel (212) 772-5098 (Hunter)/ (212) 817-8166 (Graduate Center)
Email [email protected]
[email protected]
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Comparative Literature & Renaissance Studies, The Graduate Center, 2001.
M.Phil., Comparative Literature, The Graduate Center, 1998.
M.A., Comparative Literature, The Graduate Center, 1996.
B.A. (Honors), Classics, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Italy, 1991.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Professor, Department of Romance Languages (Italian, M.A. and B.A.), Hunter College, CUNY, Fall 2023-
Associate Professor, Department of Romance Languages (Italian, M.A. and B.A.), Hunter College, CUNY, Fall 2008-Spring 2023
Teaching Faculty, Ph.D. Program in Comparative Literature, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2010-
Assistant Professor, Department of Romance Languages (Italian, M.A. and B.A.), Hunter College, CUNY 2001-2008.
PUBLICATIONS
1. Books and edited volumes
Reimagining Suicide in the Early Modern World. An Interdisciplinary Approach. Co-editor, with Julia DeLancey and Elizabeth W. Mellyn. Under contract with Routledge UP.
Murder and Madness on Trial. A Tale of True Crime from Early Modern Bologna. Pennsylvania State University Press for the “Interactions in the Early Modern Age” series, May 2023.
Emblems of Death in the Early Modern Period. Co-editor, with P. M. Daly. Genève: Droz, 2014, 441 pp. (Reviews: Renaissance Quarterly (2014): 1369-70; Sixteenth Century Journal XLVII/3 (2016): 729-30; Journal of Jesuit Studies 2 (2015): 480-84; Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme 39.1 (2016) 155-57.
2. Journal articles, encyclopedia articles, book chapters
“Why did they do it? Narrations of suicides and attempted suicides in early modern Bologna.” In Reimagining Suicide in the Early Modern World. Under contract with Routledge UP.
“Madness, Creativity and Representation.” In A Cultural History of Madness in the Renaissance (1400-1600). Ed. Elizabeth Mellyn and Christina Ramos. (Bloomsbury Academic). Forthcoming.
“Narrativizing Early Modern Medicine.” Essay submitted for review.
“Postfazione: Hermann Haller, cittadino del mondo.” In ITALIA, ITALIE. Studi in onore di Hermann W. Haller. Ed. Daniela D’Eugenio, Alberto Gelmi, Dario Marcucci.(Milan: Mimesi Edizioni, 2021), 281-284.
“Violence in Early Modern Bologna: A Provisional Appraisal.” In Innovations in the Counter-Reformation. Ed. Shannon McHugh and Anna Wainwright. (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2020), 264-282.
“Teaching and Learning the Italian Language through Literature, Art, and Emotions.” In NEMLA Italian Studies, Special Issue: How to Use Literature in the Italian Language Class, 41 (2019), 17-32.
“Introduction” of Emblems of Death in the Early Modern Period. Co-authored, with Peter Daly.11-39.
“Italian Literature of the Renaissance and Reformation.” In Oxford Bibliographies Online, “Renaissance and Reformation.” Ed. Margaret King, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0226.xml?rske
“A Family Matter Turned Ugly: The Murder of Leone Marescotti, 1522.” In Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors. Ed. Machtelt Israels and Louis A. Waldman. 3 vols. (Harvard: Harvard UP, Villa I Tatti Series, 29, 2013), 186-191. (Reviews: Renaissance Quarterly (2014): 954-956).
“Curing Melancholia in Sixteenth-Century Medical Consilia, between Theory and Practice.” In Medicina nei secoli, monographic issue on the subject ‘Mali del corpo, mali dell’anima: malinconia, consunzione e mal d’amore tra medicina e letteratura’. 24:3 (2012) 627-664.
“Tasso’s melancholy and its treatment: a patient’s uneasy relationship with medicine and physicians.” In Diseases of the Imagination and Imaginary Disease in the Early Modern Period. Ed. Yasmin Haskell. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), 201-227. (Reviews: Parergon, 29:2 (2012): 249-251; Renaissance Quarterly, 65:3 (2012): 923-924; The Medieval Review, 12.10.16)
“Examples, References and Quotations in Sixteenth-Century Medical Texts.” In Citation, Intertextuality, and Memory in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Ed. Yolanda Plumley, Giuliano Di Bacco and Stefano Jossa. (Exeter: University. (Reviews: The Medieval Review, 12.08.04 https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/17616/23734)
“Furore melanconico tra teoria e pratica legale.” In Studi Storici: rivista trimestrale dell’Istituto Gramsci. 51:1 (January- March 2010) 113-137.
“Introduction.” Tomaso Garzoni, L’hospedale de’ pazzi incurabili/The Hospital of Incurable Madness. Tr. and ed. D. Pastina and J Crayton. (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2009), 1-33. (Reviews: Parergon, Volume 29:2 (2012): 239-240)
“A Case of Melancholic Humors and Dilucida Intervalla.” In Intellectual History Review, 18:1 (March 2008) 139-154
“Sixteenth-Century Imprese for and by Women: Scipione Bargagli’s Dell’imprese and Girolamo Ruscelli’s Le imprese illustri.” In The Italian Emblem. Ed. D. Mansueto and E. Calogero. (Glasgow: Glasgow Emblem Studies, 2007), 65-91. (Reviews: Renaissance Quarterly, 61:4 (2008): 1263-1265)
“Medicina practica, consilia and the illnesses of the head in Girolamo Mercuriale and Giulio Cesare Claudini. Similarities and differences of the Sexes.” Medicina e storia, 11 (2006): 63-83
“Garzoni’s L’ hospedale de’ pazzi incurabili and the Ambiguous Relation between Word and Image in Sixteenth-Century Impresa.” Emblematica. 13 (2003): 97-130
“Medical and Moral Dimensions of Feminine Madness: Madwomen in the Renaissance.” Forum Italicum. 36 (Spring 2002): 26-51
3. Book reviews
Michael Stolberg. Learned Physicians and Everyday Medical Practice in the Renaissance. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2022. Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 77:1(Spring 2024): 274-275..
Maria Pia Donato, ed., Medicine and the Inquisition in the Early Modern World. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019. Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 75:4 (Winter 2022): 1343-1344.
Paolo Savoia, Cosmesi e chirurgia. Bellezza, dolore e medicina nell’Italia moderna. Milan: Editrice Bibliografica, 2017. Mefisto, 2.1 (2018): 108-113.
Valeria Finucci, The Prince’s Body. Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renaissance Medicine. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 2015. Medical History, 60.1 (January 2016): 112-114.
Paolo Cherchi, Walter Pretolani, eds., Saggio di una bibliografia garzoniana. Ravenna: VACA, 2007. Annali d’italianistica, 28 (2010): 508-509.
Sharon Alison, Williams Lewin, Duane J. Osheim, eds., Chroniclers and Historians in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 2007. Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 62.1 (Spring 2009): 181-182.
Giuseppe Cascione, Iconocrazia: Comunicazione e politica nell'Europa di Carlo V. Dipinti, emblemi e monete. Milan: Edizioni Ennerre, 2006. Emblematica, Vol. 16 (December 2008).
Sergio Zatti, The Quest for Epic From Ariosto to Tasso. The University of Toronto Press, 2006. Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 60:2 (Summer 2007): 511-512.
Carol Thomas Neely, Distracted Subjects. Madness and Gender in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture; Ken Jackson. Separate Theaters. Bethlem (“Bedlam”) Hospital and the Shakespearean Stage. Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 56:4 (Winter 2005): 484-87.
Valeria Finucci, The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the Italian Renaissance; Vignali, Antonio, La Cazzaria. The Book of the Prick. Edited and translated by Moulton. Renaissance Quarterly. Vol. 57:3 (Fall 2004): 975-78.
Donald Beecher, Massimo Ciavolella, Roberto Fedi, eds., Ariosto Today. Contemporary Perspectives. Toronto: Buffalo: London: University of Toronto Press, 2003. Quaderni d’Italianistica, Vol. 24:2 (2003): 112-114.
Micaela Rinaldi, Torquato Tasso e Francesco Patrizi. Tra polemiche letterarie e incontri intellettuali. Ravenna: Longo Ed., 2001. Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 56:2 (Spring 2003): 170-171.
Edvige Giunta, Writing with Accent. Contemporary Italian American Women Authors. New York: Palgrave, 2002. Paterson Literary Review, 32 (2003): 265-268.
Zsuzanna Rozsnyói, Dopo Ariosto. Tecniche narrative e discorsive nei poemi ariosteschi. Ravenna: Longo Editore. Quaderni d’italianistica, Vol. 21:2 (2000): 155-157.
FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS & GRANTS
2018/2019; 2019/2020. Grant co-recipient from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to develop professional training workshop for high school and college instructors
2018/ 2016/ 2013/ 2010/ 2008/ 2006/ 2003/ 2002. PS-CUNY Research Grant, Hunter College, CUNY
2011. Presidential Schuster Award, Hunter College, CUNY
2019/ 2018/ 201/ 2015/ 2014/ 2010/ 2009/ 2008/ 2006. Presidential Travel Award, Hunter College
2007-2008. Mellon Humanities Fellowship, The Center for the Humanities, The Graduate Center, CUNY
2004-2005. Fellow, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence
CONFERENCES, LECTURES, COLLOQUIA, AND MEDIA APPEARANCES
1. Invited speaker
2024. Interview with Eric Rivenes on Murder and Madness on Trial. A Tale of True Crime from Early Modern Bologna for Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast, August 20. https://megaphone.link/ARML3285248981
2024. “Truth, Verisimilitude, and Fiction: Narrativizing Early Modern Medicine and Law.” Styles and Method in the Early-Modern and the Modern Period--Online seminar for the project EPISTYLE, coordinated by Università di Ca’ Foscari, Harvard University, and Cambridge University, May 27.
2024. Book presentation of Murder and Madness on Trial. A Tale of True Crime from Early Modern Bologna. Co-organized by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of History, Culture, and Civilization. Aula Capitani, Piazza S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna, May 20.
2024. “Medicine and Law on Trial.” Lecture organized by the Department of World Languages and the Medical Humanities Program, University of Arkansas, March 13.
2023. ““The Constant Torment of Love: The Psychosomatic Dimension of Love Sickness in Medieval and Early Modern Medical Literature.” Eros: Thinking, Feeling, Writing Love from Classical Antiquity to Early Modernity, New York University, October 12-13.
2023. Planning Your Publication Strategy. Professional. Development webinar for the Renaissance Society of America, June 8.
2023. Interview with Jana Byars on Murder and Madness on Trial. A Tale of True Crime from Early Modern Bologna for New Books Network Podcast, April 17.
2021. “Introduzione alla Psichiatria.” Contribution to the program Psiche: in viaggio nei misteri della mente, transmitted on RTV38 (Italy) on September 8, available here (minutes 12:00-16:00, 44:00-49:00, 1:22-1:23)
2019. “What do emotions have to do with a will? The last testament of Aurelio Barbieri (Bologna, 1597).” Johns Hopkins University, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, February 26.
2018. “Emotions on trial in early modern Italy: Criminal Insanity and Contested Wills in the Courtroom.” The Third Elizabeth Mazzocco Lecture in Renaissance Studies, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, April 17.
2017. “Paolo Cherchi and Tomaso Garzoni: a long and fruitful partnership”. “Omaggio a Paolo Cherchi.” New York University, April 26.
2013. “Researching Early Modern Manuscripts and Printed Books.” Speaker at the NEH Summer Seminar organized by Clare Carroll and Marc Caball, New York Academy of Medicine, July 3.
2013. “The madman, the evidence and the ‘truth’. A criminal case of homicidal insanity, Bologna, 1588”. History of Science, Medicine and Technology Colloquium, Johns Hopkins University, April 11.
2011. “Five chronicles of the Barbieri murder: or, how to change perspective by addition and subtraction”. Columbia Seminar in the Renaissance, February 8.
2010. “Public and Private American Universities: Access, Function and Structure.” Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Como, Italy, May 21.
2009. “La figura del mediatore tra Italia e Stati Uniti.” Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Como, Italy, May 21.
2007. “Melancholic humors” between medical and legal traditions”. Franklin and Marshall College, January 23.
2006. “Pazzia negli archivi: un documento inedito di Girolamo Mercuriale circa un caso di ‘humori melanconici’.” International conference on Girolamo Mercuriale. Forlì, November 8-11.
2006. “Garzoni's L’ Hospedale de'pazzi incurabili. The different faces of madness.” University of Exeter, November 7.
2006. “Learned and popular visions of Medicine and Madness.” The Center for European Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, January 25.
2004. “Stories of Madness in Sixteenth-Century Italian Chronicles.” Symposium on Themes in Renaissance History and History of Art, University of Warwick in Venice, Venice, November 30/December 1.
2004. “Popular perceptions of Madness: A Study of the City Chronicles of Bologna, Ferrara and Venice.” Simpson Center for the Humanities, Science Studies Series. University of Washington, April 27.
2. Chair, monitor, and respondent of panels
2025. “Love Across the Centuries (II).” Chair. American Association of Italian Studies, Philadelphia, Sorrento, March 13-15.
2024. “Love Across the Centuries.” Chair. American Association of Italian Studies, Sorrento, June 6-9.
2024. Panel with Viola Di Grado and Nadeesha Uyangoda. Multipli Forti: Voices from Contemporary Italian Literature, 3rd edition. Hunter College, CUNY, April 11.
2023. Juror and presenter at the Bridge Book Award 2023 8th edition, December 5, 2023 (Virtual event).
2023. Panel with Antonella Lattanzi and Karima 2G. Multipli Forti: Voices from Contemporary Italian Literature, 2nd edition. Italian Cultural Institute, New York, April 25.
2023. Panel with Ann Goldstein, Jenny McPhee, and Michael Moore on literary translation. Multipli Forti: Voices from Contemporary Italian Literature, 2nd edition. Rizzoli Bookstore, New York, April 26.
2022. Panel with Teresa Ciabatti, Valerio Magrelli, and Sandro Veronesi. Multipli Forti: Italian Literary Fiction Festival. Voices from Contemporary Italian Literature, Center for Italian Modern Art, New York, June 7.
2022. “Reimagining Suicide in the Early Modern World: An Interdisciplinary Approach. IV: Afterlives.” Chair. Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, March 30-April 2.
2021. “Medicine and Science.” Seminar organized by the RSA Program Committee. Monitor/Respondent. Renaissance Society of America, virtual conference, April 13-15, and April 20-22.
2015. “Meredith Ray, Daughters of Alchemy.” Invited respondent, book presentation at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, November 9.
2015. “Renaissance Bologna I: Violence and Justice.” Invited respondent. Renaissance Society of America, Berlin, March 26-29.
2015. “Dante High and Low, Then and Now.” Chair. Renaissance Society of America, Berlin, March 26-29.
2015. “Sexual Crimes and Punishment.” Chair/ Invited respondent. Renaissance Society of America, Berlin, March 26-29.
2014. “Murder and Mourning: The Passions and Death in Renaissance and Baroque Texts.” Invited respondent. Renaissance Society of America, New York, March 27-29.
2014. “New Trends in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology II: Medicine, Literature, and Theater.” Chair. Renaissance Society of America, New York, March 27-29.
2012. “Shaping Civility in Early Modern Italian Culture I.” Chair. Renaissance Society of America, Washington DC, March 22-24.
2012. “Roundtable: The Emblematic Operation in Sixteenth-Century and Beyond.” Chair. Renaissance Society of America, Washington DC, March 22-24.
2009. “Emblematic Visual Culture and the Sciences II”. Chair. Renaissance Society of America, Los Angeles, March 19-21.
2008. “Emblems and Medicine: Figures, Metaphors, Representations.” Chair. Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, April 3-5.
2007. “Emblems in Early Modern England.” Chair. Renaissance Society of America, Miami, March 23.
2007. “The Scope of Emblems.” Chair. Renaissance Society of America Conference, Miami, March 22.
3. Organizer of conferences, seminars, and panels
2025. “Truth, Verisimilitude, and Fiction: Narrativizing Early Modern, Science, Medicine, and Law.” Organizer. Renaissance Society of America, Boston, March 22-25.
2025. “ ‘These violent delights have violent ends.’ Love and violent passions in the early modern period and beyond.” Co-organizer of 2 round tables. American Association of Italian Studies, Philadelphia, 13-15 March.
2025. “Love across the Centuries (II).” Co-organizer. American Association of Italian Studies, Philadelphia, March 13-15.
2025. “Multipli Forti: Voices from Contemporary Italian Literature.” Co-organizer. 4th edition: New York, 14-16 January. https://iicnewyork.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario/multipli-forti-voices-from-contemporary-italian-literature-2025/
2024. “Love across the Centuries.” Co-organizer. American Association of Italian Studies, Sorrento, June 6-9.
2024. Spring 2024 Global Early Modern Studies Symposium: “Chasing the Archive: History, Theory, Practice.” Co-organizer 19 April.
2024. “Multipli Forti: Voices from Contemporary Italian Literature.” Co-organizer. 3d edition: New York, 10-12 April.
2023. Multipli Forti: Voices from Contemporary Italian Literature." 2nd edition: New York & Boston, 25-29 April 2023. https://www.raicultura.it/letteratura/eventi/Multipli-Forti-2a4365e6-f3e2-48b2-b5bd-a56da6dd699c.html
2022. “Multipli Forti: Italian Literary Fiction Festival. Voices from Contemporary Italian Literature.” 1st edition: New York, 6-8 June. https://www.fuis.it/italian-literary-fiction-festival-multipli-forti-voci-dalla-narrativa-italiana-contemporanea/
2022. “Reimagining Suicide in the Early Modern World: An Interdisciplinary Approach I-IV.” Co-organizer. Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, March 30-April 2
2020. “Osmotic Alliances K-16 and Beyond: Ideas for Content-based Experiential Learning 1 & 2.” Co-organizer. North Eastern Modern Languages Association, Boston, March 5-8.
2016. “Ariosto after 500 years.” Co-organizer. Sponsored by the Graduate Center, CUNY, New York University, Columbia University, the Italian Cultural Institute, and the Renaissance Society of America. October 17-21. https://symposiumariostoafter500years.wordpress.com/
2016. “Bolognese Matters between Religion and Law.” Renaissance Society of America, Boston, March 31-April 2.
2015. “From Household to Hospital: Public Health in Early Modern Italy.” Renaissance Society of America, Berlin, March 26-29.
2015. “Dante High and Low, Then and Now.” Renaissance Society of America, Berlin, March 26-29.
2015. “Dante and Politics in 20th-century Germany and Italy.” Renaissance Society of America, Berlin, March 26-29.
2014. “Dante in Contemporary Perspectives.” Co-Organizer. One-day Symposium, The Graduate Center, CUNY, October 24.
2014. “Evidence in Medicine, Astrology, Theology, and Natural Philosophy II & II.” Renaissance Society of America, New York, March 27-29.
2013. “The Emblems of Death in the Early Modern Period.” Symposium, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, November 15.
2009. “Care of the Body, Care of the Soul: Melancholy in a European Context I-IV.” Co-organizer. Renaissance Society of America, Los Angeles, March 19-21.
2008. “Early Modern Readers of Emblem Books.” Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, April 3-5.
2006. “Languages of Madness and Possession: Law, Medicine and Demonology in Early Modern Italy.” Renaissance Society of America, San Francisco, March 23-25.
2005. “Attitudes to Madness in Early Modern Europe.” Renaissance Society of America, Cambridge, UK, April 7-9.
2004.“Between Magic and Medicine: Ariosto’s Minor Works.” American Association of Italian Studies, Ottawa, Canada. April 29-May 2.
2004. “Emblems/imprese, authorship and women.” Renaissance Society of America, New York, April 1-3.
4. Papers presented
2025. “Narrativizing Early Modern Medicine.” The Renaissance Society of America, Boston, March 20-22.
2025. “Crimes of Passion, Crimes of Honor in the Early Modern Period.” American Association of Italian Studies, Philadelphia, March 13-15.
2024. “Love, Jealousy, and Murder in the Early Modern Period and Beyond, Between
Fact and Fiction.” American Association of Italian Studies, Sorrento, June 6-9.
2024. “Were they cruel or just mad? True crimes in Renaissance Bologna and Ferrara.” Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, March 21-24.
2023. “The Loves and Murder of Vittoria Accoramboni: Between Fact and Fiction.” Renaissance Society of America, San Juan, March 9-11.
2022. “Why Did They Do It? Narrations of Suicides and Attempted Suicides in Early Modern Bologna.” Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, March 30-April 2.
2021. “An Instance of the Fingerpost: Early Modern Evidence in Comparative Perspective.” Renaissance Society of America, virtual conference, April 13-15, and April 20-22.
2020. “Ideas on how to Teach History through Literature at the MA Level: The Importance of Empathy in SL Acquisition.” North Eastern Modern Languages Association, Boston, March 5-8.
2019. “Secondary Educators and College Instructors: Promising Prospects for a Fruitful Collaboration.” Co-presenter. North Eastern Modern Languages Association, Washington DC, March 21-24.
2019. “Experiential Target Language Learning: Versatility and Compassion through a Study of Portraiture.” Co-presenter. North Eastern Modern Languages Association, Washington DC, March 21-24.
2018. “In exile of one’s mind; a lexicon for Early Modern Insanity in Law, Medicine and Vernacular Narratives.” V Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Retórica (SBR) e nas IV Jornadas da Associação Latino-americana de Retórica (ALR) Belo Horizonte and Ouro Preto, Brazil, August 20-24.
2018. “The madman, the evidence and the ‘truth,’” as part of the seminar “Making Early Modern Experience.” American Comparative Literature Association, Los Angeles, March 29-April 1.
2018. “Emotions on trial: legal documents and criminal proceedings of violence, murder and insanity in early modern Italy.” North Eastern Modern Languages Association, Pittsburgh, April 12-15.
2016. “Matters of Wills in Sixteenth-Century Bologna.” Renaissance Society of America, Boston, March 31-April 1.
2016. “The complex ties between violence and madness in early modern Bologna: a provisional appraisal.” New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Sarasota, March 10-13.
2015. “Reflections on Terror, Violence and Fear.” Faculty panel at the conference “Reading Terror: Representations and Resistance,” organized by the students of the Comparative Literature Department, Graduate Center, CUNY, November 6.
2015. “Mad People and Family Business, Between the Hospital and the Legal Court.” Renaissance Society of America, Berlin, March 26-29.
2014. “The Notion of Evidence and the Changing Epistemology in Early Modern Italian Medicine and Law.” American Association of Italian Studies, Zurich, May 23-25.
2014. “Insanity, legal evidence and truth in early modern Bologna.” Renaissance Society of America, New York, March 27-29.
2013. “Writing Micro-History.” Sponsored by the Certificate Program in Renaissance Studies, The Graduate Center, CUNY, December 6.
2013. “Emblems of Death in the Early Modern Period: An Introduction.” Symposium on the Emblems of Death in the Early Modern Period, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, November 15.
2012. “New Trends in the History of Science and Medicine.” Roundtable, The Graduate Center, CUNY, October 19.
2010. “Chronicles and Social Memory in Sixteenth-Century Bologna.” The Annual Conference organized by the International Society for Cultural History on the topic “Cultural Histories: Close Readings, Critical Syntheses,” Turku, Finland, May 26-30.
2009. “Tasso’s melancholy and its treatment: a patient’s uneasy relationship with medicine and physicians.” The Renaissance Society of America Conference, Los Angeles, March 19-21.
2008. “Melancholic furor between legal theory and practice.” International Conference on the Cultural History of Emotions in Premodernity, Umeå, Sweden, October 23-26.
2008. “Five Chronicles of Paolo’s Madness.” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Chicago, April 3-5.
2008. “The Madness of Paolo Barbieri of Bologna: A Comparison of Social, Legal and Medical Perspectives.” The Society for the Study of Women in the Renaissance, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, October 16.
2006. “Girolamo Mercuriale’s consilium on ‘melancholic humors’ between medical and legal traditions.” Humanism and Medicine in the Early Modern Era. Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Western Australia, Perth, 22-23.
2006. “Violence and Madness in Early Modern Italian Chronicles.” Lecture co-sponsored by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund, the CUNY Doctoral Program in Comparative Literature, Specialization in Italian and the CUNY Renaissance Certificate Program. The Graduate Center, CUNY, May 11.
2005. “The madness of Paolo Barbieri of Bologna: comparing city chronicles, medical consilia, and criminal trials.” Renaissance Society of America, Cambridge, UK, April 7-9.
2005. “Doctors, chroniclers and nuns: Official and ‘popular’ visions of madness in Sixteenth- Century Italy.” Giornata di Studio: New Work in the history of science and medicine.” Villa I Tatti, Florence, February 8.
2004. “Ariosto’s Erbolato and the distillation of medical tradition.” American Association of Italian Studies. Ottawa, Canada, April 29-May 2.
2004. “Popular perceptions of madness: a study of the city chronicles of Bologna, Ferrara and Treviso.” Renaissance Society of America, New York, April 1-3.
2003. “ ‘Huius...horrendae affectionis salutaria remedia à nobis sunt inquisita...’ Innovation and Tradition in Early Medical Remedies.” Renaissance Society of America, Toronto, Canada, March 27-29.
2002. “Sixteenth-century imprese for and by women: Scipione Bargagli’s Dell’imprese and Girolamo Ruscelli’s Le imprese illustri.” VI International Emblem Conference, Society for Emblem Studies, La Coruña, Spain, September 10-14.
2002. “Whose Madness and According to Whom? Theoretical and Practical Perspectives on the Notion of pazzia in Early Modern Italy.” Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science, New Orleans, February 22-23.
2001. “Garzoni’s L’ hospedale de’ pazzi incurabili and the ambiguous relation between word and image in the sixteenth-century impresa.” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Chicago, March 29-31.
TEACHING
1. Courses taught at Hunter (last 8 years)
Literature, in Italian:
Writing and Reading Workshop on Italian Literature, Art, and Film (M.A. and B.A.; Spring 2023/2019/2017; Fall 2014)
History of Italian Literature, 13th-15th century (B.A.; Spring 2017/Spring 2016)
Renaissance Comedy: Innovation and Tradition (M.A. and B.A.; Spring 2021/2015; Fall 2018)
The Past Viewed through the Binocular of the Present: Twentieth-century Narrative Perspectives of Early Modern Italy (M.A. and B.A.; Fall 2023/2019/ 2016)
Tasso’s Melancholy in European Perspective (M.A. and B.A.; Spring 2016)
History of Italian Literary Theory and Criticism, from Tasso to Calvino (M.A. and B.A.; Fall 2015)
Niccolò Machiavelli: The Fox, the Lion and the Man (M.A. and B.A.; Fall 2021/Spring 2014)
Literature, in English:
Italian American Women Writers (B.A.; Spring 2021)
Italian Women Writers, 19th/21st century (B.A.; Fall 2020)
Italian Renaissance Literature and Art (Winter session in Florence, 2023, 2016 & 2017)
Love in Early Modern European Philosophy and Literature (Thomas Hunter Honors Program, Fall 2025, 2022/Spring 2019)
Italian Language:
Beginner Italian, advanced beginner, and advanced intermediate Italian (B.A.; Summer 2014/Summer 2015/Summer 2017/Fall 2019)
Advanced Italian Composition (B.A.; Spring 2014)
Advanced Italian Grammar (B.A.; Fall 2019/Fall 2020)
2. Courses taught at the Graduate Center, CUNY:
Unrestrained Passions, Violence, Murder, and Betrayal: Tales of True Crime in Early Modern Europe and Beyond (Fall 2023)
The Past Viewed through the Binocular of the Present: Twentieth-century Narrative Perspectives of Early Modern Italy (Fall 2020)
An Instance of the Fingerpost: Early Modern Evidence in Comparative Perspective (Spring 2019)
Clues, Evidence, and Conjectural Paradigm: A Comparative Investigation of Early Modern Narratives (Fall 2018)
Melancholy: Between Illness of the Body and Malady of the Soul. A Comparative Perspective (Fall 2015)
Love in Early Modern European Philosophy and Literature (Spring 2011)
Violence, Crime, and Madness between History and Literature in Early Modern Europe (Fall 2013)
History of Literary Theory and Criticism I (Fall 2021/2016/ 2014)
3. Guest teaching at Columbia University, Department of Italian (Graduate)
From Commedia erudita to Commedia dell’Arte: Tradition and Innovation (Fall 2018)
4. Dissertation Committees, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Committees chaired:
Yael Lavender-Smith (Winner, Dissertation Fellowship, the Graduate Center, CUNY; Lecturer, Hebrew Studies, Modern Languages Department, University of Oklahoma), Fall 2015
Luisanna Sardu (Visiting Assistant Professor, Modern Languages and Literatures, Manhattan College), Fall 2015
Erika Mazzer (Winner, Dissertation Fellowship, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2016) Spring 2018
Carlo Bottone, Spring 2021
Committees Served as Member:
Antonella Della Torre, Nicole Paronzini, Jane Shmidt (Associate Director, Student Engagement to Placement, Career Services, Pace University), Laura Feola, Lisa Tagliaferri (Postdoctoral Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Daniela D’Eugenio (University of Arkansas) Adrian Izquierdo (Baruch College, CUNY), Stefania Porcelli, Fabio Battista (University of Alabama) Laura Di Bianco (Johns Hopkins University)
5. Dissertation Committees outside of CUNY
Committees Served as Member:
Raphaelle Burns, Columbia University, Spring 2020 (University of California, Los Angeles)
Clément Godbarge, New York University, Fall 2017 (NEH Senior Fellow,
Medici Archive Project)
SERVICE
1. Service to the Profession
2006-2009 Renaissance Society of America, Emblem Studies Representative
2006-2009 Renaissance Quarterly, Editorial Advisory Board
2003-2013 H-Italy http://www.h-net.org/~italy/ Book Reviewer Editor (Middle Ages and Renaissance)
Editorial Referee/Special reader
The University of Toronto Press (books)
Modern Language Association of America (books)
Renaissance Quarterly (essays)
Emblematica (essays)
Jesuit Sources (essays)
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies (essays)
Consultant Judge, Fellowship Competitions
The Folger Institute, Long-Term Fellowship
Renaissance Society of America, Travel Grant 2022-
Renaissance Society of America, High School Grant 2022-
Tenure and Review Consultant
Pace University
College of Staten Island, CUNY
Scripps College
Department Review External Consultant
Smith College, Department of Italian
2. University Service
Hunter College, CUNY
2021- 2024 Chair, Department of Romance Languages
2019- 2021 Member, Senate Undergraduate Academic Requirements Committee
2019 Co-organizer, “When History Comes to Life: Experiential Pedagogy in the World Language and Social Sciences Classrooms. A Conference on Teaching and Learning.” Training Conference for secondary school teachers and college instructors of World Languages and Social Sciences, November 15
Invited speaker on the panel “Emotion, affect, and community building in the CUNY classroom.” ACERT seminar, December 6
Co-organizer, Development of workshops for secondary school teachers and college instructors of world languages, Spring
2011, 2012-2018 Member, Personnel and Budget Committee, Romance Languages Department
2018 Co-organizer, “Bringing the Museum into the World Language Classroom: A Content-based Professional Development Workshop.” Training workshop for secondary school teachers of world languages, Hunter College, CUNY, October 19
2016, 2021 Co-organizer, Open House Italian Program, Hunter College
2014/ 2015/
2016/2017 Undergraduate Advisor, French, Italian, and Spanish, Summer
2012/2023 Member, Tenure-track search committee for Italian; search chair for doctoral lecturer in Italian; member, tenure track search committee for French and Spanish, doctoral lecturer in Spanish, lecturer in Spanish
2011 Reviewer of the Undergraduate Handbook, Italian Section
2010- Head of the Curriculum Committee, Italian Section
2010- Member, Graduate Admission and Award Committee, Italian Section
2010- Member, Graduate Entry and Comprehensive Exam Committee, Italian Section
2008 Member, Grade Appeal Committee
2006-2009 Department Representative at the Faculty Delegate Assembly
2003, 2019 Course Development-- Italian American Women Writers and Artists; Writing and Reading Workshop on Italian Literature, Art, and Film
2003 Member, Senate Teacher Evaluation Committee
2002-2003/ Member, Curriculum Committee, School of Arts & Sciences
Fall 2017/
2018-2019
2002/ 2003. Member at-large of the Hunter College Academic Senate
2001- Member, Prizes and Awards Committee, Italian Section
2001- Undergraduate and Graduate Advisor, Italian
2001-2004/ Founder and organizer of the Italian Club
2012-2013/
Spring 2017
2. The Graduate Center, CUNY
Fall 2021- Student Service Committee
Fall 2011- Director of the Italian Specialization, Ph.D. Program in
Spring 2021 Comparative Literature
Spring 2019, Acting Deputy Executive Officer
2021
Fall 2011-
Spring 2021 Member, Executive Committee
Fall-2011- Member, Admission and Award Committee
Fall 2011-
Spring 2021 Member, Faculty Membership Committee
Member, Curriculum and Exam Committee
Member, First Exam Committee
2014-2023 Member, Graduate Council
2015- Member, Global Early Modern Studies Certificate Program, Advisory Board
Fall 2015 Acting Coordinator
3. Membership
American Association of Italian Studies
Renaissance Society of America
Society for Emblem Studies
Northeastern Modern Language Association
Modern Language Association
American Association of Teachers of Italian
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
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