My courses focus on the Medieval and Renaissance period. They are centered on the literature, culture, history, philosophy, religion, arts and social practices of the Italian peninsula, within a Mediterranean and comparative perspective.
Please refer to the Departmental website for a full description of these courses, and the specifics about their offerings. Please note: all of these courses are taught in English.
COURSES OFFERED IN 2023-24
ITAL 303 and RMST 341
Shifting Identities and Perceptions in Medieval and Renaissance Italy.
This is a course that aims at blending the visual and the literary arts that flourished in the Italian peninsula from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. We will follow a chronological order, moving from Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio to Pico, Machiavelli and Castiglione, from Giotto to Leonardo.
ITAL 404 and RMST 454
Eros Unbound: the Ecology of Love at the Edge of Modernity.
Is there such a thing as an “ecology of love”? The short answer is: “yes”; the long answer is: “we may have forgotten almost all about it.” Can we retrieve the memory of that ecology, and thus free love from its fetters, so as to reclaim truer bonds: bonds that make us free, rather than imprison us?
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ITAL 403 and RMST 453
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy: a visionary journey into medieval eco-cosmology
From exile to reintegration, from wretchedness to felicity, this is the story of a process of inner growth and transmutation, whose liberating power has touched countless readers over the ages and across cultures. More than ever today Dante’s poem is apt to teach us how progressively to uncover the vastness that lies hidden within every single atom of our own self, and of the universe that surrounds us.
RMST 402
Think Like a Forest: a Dialogue Between Pre-Modern Worldviews, Environmental Humanities, Indigenous Knowledge
Somewhat like an old-growth forest, pre-modern Europe produced a vast corpus of texts and images that mirror and teach an organic way of thinking and of becoming. In this course we will deepen our understanding of these expressions of ecologically-oriented, transformative worldviews. Our approach will be complemented and supported by select readings in contemporary environmental humanities, and in North-American Indigenous perspectives on education as the human path to wholeness.
Italian 404A /Italian Studies 414A
The World in the Eye of the Beloved: Love in the Mediterranean Middle Ages
Italian 405 /Italian Studies 415
Golden Pathways: the Fall of Byzantium, the Italian Renaissance and the Recovery of Ancient Wisdom