2019 Topic: Love and Literacy on Film: Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend (2011; HBO Film 2018, director Saverio Costanzo; subtitled in English)
Biography:
Since 1982, at Middlebury College, C.A. Dana Professor of Italian (Ph.D., Italian, Indiana University) has taught all levels of Italian language, literature, and culture, along with courses in both Italian and translation on Dante, Italian-American literature and film, the Italian family, and the representation of Italian cities. At Middlebury, she has held various administrative posts, including Department Chair, Dean of the Italian School, and Faculty Head of Cook Commons. Her teaching and research interests include both medieval and Renaissance and modern and contemporary literature and culture, comparative studies in the visual arts and literature, and Mediterranean Studies. She has published articles and research instruments on Giotto, Dante, Petrarch, Machiavelli, and Boccaccio, and has given numerous invited presentations both in the US and Europe. She has received several NEH grants, including four NEH summer seminars, and an Enduring Questions team-taught course development grant. Current research includes a book, Dante’s Sense of Stone: An Alternate Pilgrimage of Rome on Dante’s polemic with imperial Popes’ representation of Rome in public art throughout central Italy. She is a member of the editorial board of Mediterranean Studies (Penn State University Press), the journal of the International Mediterranean Studies Association.