Dante’s Volume from Alpha to Omega brings together essays written by internationally recognized scholars to explore the poet’s encyclopedic impulse in light of our own frenzied information age. This comprehensive collection of essays, coedited by Carol Chiodo and Christiana Purdy Moudarres, examines how Dante’s spiritual quest is powered by an encyclopedic one, which has for more than seven centuries drawn a readership as diverse as the knowledge his work contains. The essays investigate both the intellectual and spiritual pleasures that Dante’s Commedia affords, underscoring how, through the sheer breadth of its knowledge, the poem demands collective and collaborative inquiry. Rather than isolating the poetic or theological strands of the Commedia, the book acts as a bridge across disciplines, braiding together the well-worn strands of poetry and theology with those of philosophy, the sciences, and the arts. The wide range of entries within Dante’s poetic summa yield multiple opportunities to reflect on their points of intersection, and the urgency of the convergence of the poem’s aesthetic, intellectual, and affective aims.
ACMRS Press, 2021
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Teaching
Voyage to Italy – Travels in the Digital Humanities
This introductory course leverages an obsolete technology to explore special collections holdings associated with travel to Italy during the Gilded Age. It is an early example of a course aimed at introducing undergraduate students to computational methods for humanities research.
Dante in Translation
More information on how the course was developed is available from the Collaborative Learning Center at Yale University. An article on the innovative blended design of the discussion section has been published in the volume, MLA Approaches to Teaching Dante, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz and Kristina Olson (2019).
Practical Pedagogy in the L2 Classroom
Quick and easy suggestions for (and by) L2 instructors who would like to rethink common assignments in the language classroom while gaining familiarity with the publishing platform Scalar. Have an idea? Contact me!
Vernacular Visions: Women of the Middle Ages
This course examines the visionary through the genres of autobiography, hagiography, correspondence and dialogue written by hermits, recluses, wives, mothers, founders of religious communities, and reformers. We begin with the women of the early Christian Church, moving to the visionaries of the early twelfth century like Hildegard of Bingen to mystics of medieval Italy such as Claire of Assisi, Angela of Foligno and Catherine of Siena. We will also read selections from thirteenth century mystic Marguerite Porete’s Miroir des simples âmes and later fourteenth century women writers such as Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe and Christine de Pizan.
Advanced Italian Workshops
Le parole in bocca: Cibo e letteratura nella cultura italiana
In questo corso gli studenti hanno la possibilità di sviluppare la loro padronanza dell’italiano e di aumentare le competenze comunicative e grammaticali già ottenute. Con l’aiuto di testi tratti dalla letteratura, dalla storia gastronomica, dal cinema, e dalla pubblicità, il corso fornisce agli studenti una prospettiva nuova della cucina italiana e l’opportunità di espandere le loro capacità comunicative.
Letteratura, cinema e cultura: le voci dell’Italia giovane e della giovane Italia
In questo corso gli studenti hanno la possibilità di sviluppare la loro padronanza dell’italiano e di aumentare le competenze comunicative e grammaticali già ottenute. Con l’aiuto di testi tratti dalla letteratura, dal cinema e dalla cultura, dalla nascita della nazione italiana a metà dell’800 al suo ingresso nella Unione europea alla fine del 900, il corso fornisce agli studenti sia uno scorcio della vita giovanile italiana e sia l’opportunità di espandere le loro capacità comunicative.
Intensive Elementary Italian
Elementary Italian in Grado, Italy
An intensive, full immersion course designed for first-year Italian students, combining language study at the elementary level with an exploration of Italian literature, film, and culture. Grado is an ancient Roman town located in northeastern Italy on the Adriatic coast.
Racconti per una sera a teatro – Pirandello from page to stage
This advanced theatre workshop in Italian culminates in a staged production. Students collaborate on a collective staged adaptation and a social edition of a translation of a novella by Modernist playwright Luigi Pirandello. The course incorporates audio, textual and video production technologies to assist students in the linguistic and technical aspects of staging an original production.