Skip to main content
This monograph, under contract with the University of Toronto Press, aims to recover traces of a “buried”, non-circulating work, Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia, in the manuscript tradition of medieval Italian poetry. Through the lens of... more
This monograph, under contract with the University of Toronto Press, aims to recover traces of a “buried”, non-circulating work, Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia, in the manuscript tradition of medieval Italian poetry. Through the lens of material philology and the study of the surviving manuscripts of the De vulgari eloquentia, I argue that, far from being aesthetically motivated, Dante’s selections of poetry in the treatise were ideologically motivated, and that subsequent manuscript and printed-book anthologies were inspired—directly and indirectly—by Dante. The pervasive medieval focus on hierarchism undergirds the De vulgari eloquentia, medieval rhetorical culture, poetic exchanges, and the manuscripts responsible for the transmission of medieval lyric.
Research Interests:
An analytical-critical review of Dante Studies in 2021.
Research Interests:
An analytical-critical review of the field of Dante Studies in 2020.
Research Interests:
Previous investigations of Alessandro Manzoni’s Dantean borrowings have unearthed a quantity of stilemes and syntagm that have revised substantially the thesis that Dantean reminiscences in Manzoni are “pochissimi” and possess only an... more
Previous investigations of Alessandro Manzoni’s Dantean borrowings have unearthed a quantity of stilemes and syntagm that have revised substantially the thesis that Dantean reminiscences in Manzoni are “pochissimi” and possess only an “affinità generica” (A. Mazza, 1965). Scholars such as Paola Azzolini (1986) and Aldo Cottonaro (2001) have seen in Manzoni’s work a dantismo that is present in larger doses, even if those references are at times antiphrastic, while Aldo Vallone (1985, 1992) identified in Dante’s use of “silenzi” a forerunner of Manzoni’s modern innovative expedient. Through her studies of Manzoni’s recycling of Dantean similes, Maria Gabriella Riccobono (2013, 2015, 2018) has added an important component to Dante’s reception in Manzoni. Rodney J. Lokaj’s systematic study (2002) of Manzoni’s reuse of Dante in the “comic key” has contributed greatly to our understanding of Promessi sposi as a treasure trove of references, veiled and unveiled, to the sommo poeta. 

Inf. 5 has been thought commonly to be the touchstone of intertextuality between Dante and Manzoni. This essay unearths further connections between Inf. 5 and Promessi sposi, and also explores a series of Dantean stilemes and syntagm present from Inf. 3 and Purg. 24 and used by Manzoni throughout the novel, beyond what De Sanctis called Manzoni’s “commedia di carattere” (Promessi sposi, chapters I-VII). As a result of the systematic borrowing of Dantean episodes and lexicon, it is evident that Manzoni borrows consciously from the poet, and that such borrowings are not incidental to the narrative.

Finally, this essay argues via Manzoni’s Osservazioni sulla morale cattolica that his antiphrastic use of Inf. 5 in Promessi sposi constitutes a correction to Dante’s depiction of mercy in the early canti of the Comedy, for in PS chapters VIII and XXXIV–site of the thickest network of references to Inf. 3 and 5–Manzoni provides an antidote to Dante’s somewhat-unorthodox and long-debated depiction of pietà by emphasizing mercy for others and the pairing of compassion and sound judgement (compassione e giudizio [PS ch. XXXIV]), respectively.
This essay considers Jacopo Corbinelli’s interest in Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia, and identifies the matrix of linguistic ideas animating Corbinelli—fuoriuscito fiorentino a Parigi—and linking Dante’s DVE, the Retorica di Ser Brunetto... more
This essay considers Jacopo Corbinelli’s interest in Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia, and identifies the matrix of linguistic ideas animating Corbinelli—fuoriuscito fiorentino a Parigi—and linking Dante’s DVE, the Retorica di Ser Brunetto (whose 1546 printed book edition Corbinelli owned and annotated, and now resides in the Biblioteca Trivulziana in Milano [F25]), and Corbinelli’s 1577 printed editio princeps of Dante’s treatise. A later reader rubricated the DVE “Rectorica Dantis,” reflecting similarities between Dante’s treatment and definition of rhetoric in the treatise and in Brunetto’s Rettorica, and Corbinelli evinced a particular interest in Brunetto’s Rettorica and he put together his own volume of rhetoric. In short, Corbinelli’s understanding of the medieval civic art of rhetoric, as filtered through Brunetto and spurred on by the new reality in France–after all, he, like Brunetto, was a Florentine refugee in France–motivated him to read Dante's treatise as the later rubricator of Berlino 437 had done: as a 'rectorica Dantis’ and as a political-civic work.
Research Interests:
An analytical-critical review of monographs published on Dante during the year 2020.
Research Interests:
The annotations that seventeenth-century French Italianist Gilles Ménage made to a copy of the 1577 editio princeps of Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia allowed him to “invent” medieval Italian literature contemporary to Dante. By exploring... more
The annotations that seventeenth-century French Italianist Gilles Ménage made to a copy of the 1577 editio princeps of Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia allowed him to “invent” medieval Italian literature contemporary to Dante. By exploring Ménage’s annotations and Pietro Bembo’s reliance on Dante’s categorizations, this survey aims to underline the importance of Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia in the construction of a medieval canon.
Research Interests:
A critical and analytical review of monographs on Dante published in 2018.
Research Interests:
This essay examines the satirical DVE from multiple perspectives, and focuses especially on the constellation of terms in the treatise that can be considered representative of the medieval conception of satire and even in some cases... more
This essay examines the satirical DVE from multiple perspectives, and focuses especially on the constellation of terms in the treatise that can be considered representative of the medieval conception of satire and even in some cases censorial (deridere, desistere, stultitia, inscius, presumptuositate, improperium, obproprium, contemptive, laudabiliter, yronice, gratulanter, tristiloquium, persuasorie, dissuasorie); on the choice of some exemplificatory poems chosen precisely for their own satirical character (Una fermana scopai); on the exemplification of noble poems that function as poetic models to be followed in contrast to those satirical poems; and above all on the main purpose of the treatise, whatever its style, which is the correction, by way of noble poetry (quibus conveniat uti...) of poetry composed without “knowledge and art” (quibus non conveniat uti...). According to the copyists of two of the three surviving manuscripts, the reception and transmission of the DVE reflected the didacticism of this medieval satirical impulse, since it distinguished itself as a work seeking to persuade and to dissuade, to prescribe and proscribe. Finally, I will connect Dante’s satire of original sin—clearly derived from the medieval tradition of the tractatus de vitiis et virtutibus—to his literary satire of poets via the presence of a shared vocabulary with the medieval theological and didactic treatises on vice and virtue. The multifarious and complex structure of the treatise means that many of these previous readings are not mutually exclusive, and do not contradict a satirical reading of the treatise. We now understand that medieval satire is not linked to a single genre, that it is not formalist; on the contrary, satire is saltens, in the sense that it can inhabit multiple generic typologies.
Research Interests:
An introduction to and translation of Conte Annibale Ranuzzi's "Il Texas, della sua condizione presente e del suo avvenire politico e commerciale" (1842).This brief account is one of the earliest of the Republic of Texas in a European... more
An introduction to and translation of Conte Annibale Ranuzzi's "Il Texas, della sua condizione presente e del suo avvenire politico e commerciale" (1842).This brief account is one of the earliest of the Republic of Texas in a European language.
Research Interests:
A critical and analytical review of monographs on Dante published in 2017.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
It has been said that North Texas is one of the best spots from which to view the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse (April 8). As such, the University of Dallas is recognizing the event with a host of fun events. Join us from the University of... more
It has been said that North Texas is one of the best spots from which to view the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse (April 8). As such, the University of Dallas is recognizing the event with a host of fun events. Join us from the University of Dallas Mall for food trucks, eclipse viewing, and much else!

Dr. Olenick (Physics) will have four telescopes set up for public viewing except during the totality. University President Sanford will speak right before Noon. Then from 12:10 to 12:45 p.m. there will be a series of lectures and talks taking place from locations on The Mall. Italian Program Director Anthony Nussmeier will be talking about, what else, Dante, from his perch on the Capp Bar Terrace: “'Qual è colui ch’adocchia e s’argomenta / di vedere eclissar lo sole un poco' (Par. 25.118-119): The Eclipse and the Sun in Dante’s Commedia."

His brief, 10-minute talk will be repeated a number of times for visitors to campus:

There will also be talks by faculty from English, History, Theology, and other disciplines.

#uditalian #italianculture #italyintexas #texasinitaly #dantealighieri #dante #divinacommedia #dantedi2024 #ECLISSE #solareclipse2024 #totalsolareclipse2024 #LoveYeUD
Research Interests:
A six-part online course for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, held Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Central) beginning October 22, 2024. https://sfarchdiocese.org/ospm/ Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s posthumously-published... more
A six-part online course for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, held Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Central) beginning October 22, 2024.

https://sfarchdiocese.org/ospm/

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s posthumously-published novel (1958) recounting the southern perspective of Italy’s unification (1861) is an elegiac tale of a way of life in transition. The Leopard elucidates better than any work of historiography the key questions of Italian unification, and puts forward in novel form Alexis de Tocqueville’s observation about the shift from aristocracy to democracy in Democracy in America: “Among democratic nations new families are constantly springing up, others are constantly falling away, and all that remain change their condition; [...] Aristocracy had made a chain of all the members of the community, from the peasant to the king; democracy breaks that chain and severs every link of it” (Democracy in America, vol. 2, ch. 2).

Will protagonist Don Fabrizio, patriarch of the House of Salina, remain the aristocratic “Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina”, or will he become, in a new, democratic Italy, simply “Mr. Corbera”? Is Italian unification a true union or is it an imposition, even an invasion? What will be the role of the Church in a united Italy whose founders, observes the Jesuit priest Padre Pirrone in Part V of the novel, “won’t even leave us eyes with which to weep”? We will explore these questions and more in a six-part course on one of the Italian tradition’s most important works.

About the Professor: Anthony Nussmeier is Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Italian at the University of Dallas, where he teaches courses ranging from beginning Italian language to senior seminars. Dr. Nussmeier is Contributing Editor for The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies and Co-Editor and Book-Review Editor (Medieval, English-Language) of Annali d’Italianistica. He lectures frequently on Italian topics, and has made radio, podcast, and even television appearances on EWTN as part of the UD-produced program The Quest. Dr. Nussmeier has previously taught courses for the Archdiocese on Dante (2022) and Alessandro Manzoni (2023).
Research Interests:
A six-part online course on Dante from July 2022-August 2022. This course explores literature’s greatest poem, Dante’s Divine Comedy. Initial lessons will introduce readers to the beauty of the epic poem, as well as to the fractious... more
A six-part online course on Dante from July 2022-August 2022. This course explores literature’s greatest poem, Dante’s Divine Comedy. Initial lessons will introduce readers to the beauty of the epic poem, as well as to the fractious history of Dante’s Italy and his at-times contentious relationship with the institutional Church. Subsequent lessons will explore select canti from the three canticles (books) of the poem: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. Students will consider the role of the saints in Dante’s epic – including, among others, St. Lucy, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Dominic, St. Bernard, and St. Francis of Assisi – as well as their counterparts, the sinners residing in Hell, the obverse of all that is saintly.
Research Interests:
A six-part online course for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, held Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Central) beginning November 7, 2023. Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) was the author of sacred hymns, poems, tragedies, and... more
A six-part online course for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, held Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Central) beginning November 7, 2023. Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) was the author of sacred hymns, poems, tragedies, and treatises, but is best known for his 19th-century work I promessi sposi (“The Betrothed”), an historical novel set in 17th-century northern Italy that recounts the trials and tribulations of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia. Their quest to be married unfolds amidst the backdrop of twin calamities, one human, the other natural: the European wars of succession, and the plague that killed up to an astounding 70% of milanesi in a single year between 1629-1630.

The novel’s reach is such that even Pope Francis has encouraged all engaged couples to read the novel. The Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi revered and even venerated Manzoni so much that his famous Requiem commemorates the author’s death. Such was the power that the Catholic Manzoni exerted, especially on those dedicated to the project of Italian unification, that Verdi–a notorious free-thinker and agnostic, atheist even–called him “l’unico Santo del mio calendario” (‘the only saint on my calendar’). In an 1867 letter, the great composer commented on the novel’s embodiment of Truth:

I was sixteen years old when I first read I promessi sposi. […] [M]y enthusiasm is still the same; indeed, since I have come to know men better, it has become even greater. The fact is that this is a true book, as true as Truth itself.

Manzoni’s overpowering tale of justice, mercy, redemption, forgiveness,  and conversion. The text will be Michael F. Moore’s beautiful new English translation, just published in 2022 by Modern Library.
Research Interests:
Italy's political and cultural history through a literary lens for the Honors Program students at Texas Woman's University.
Research Interests:
This talk introduces the basic history of Italian lyric from its origins (c. 1230s) to Petrarca.
Research Interests:
A panel presentation on Dante's exchange of eclogues with Giovanni del Virgilio, in celebration of Virgil's birthday (October 15).
Research Interests:
I delivered this talk at the DFW Italians' "Cena di Gala" (March 24, 2023). It goes without saying, yet must be said, that Texas is not the first state in the union that we think of when we think of Italians in America. Nevertheless, I... more
I delivered this talk at the DFW Italians' "Cena di Gala" (March 24, 2023).

It goes without saying, yet must be said, that Texas is not the first state in the union that we think of when we think of Italians in America. Nevertheless, I argue that the Italian presence in the state of Texas is both of longer duration and greater breadth and depth than first appears. The truth of the matter is that Italians were in Texas long before either Italy or Texas even existed. In 2017, on the occasion of a visit to Texas, the then-Italian Ambassador to the United States penned an editorial in which he wrote that, and I quote “The history of relations between Texas and Italy stretches back centuries. Italians were among the first Europeans to come to Texas. Amerigo Vespucci probably viewed the Texas coastline in 1497 — and his countrymen were with Vazquez de Coronado on his epic journey across the High Plains in 1541. An Italian, Prospero Bernardi, fought alongside Texans in the war of independence at San Jacinto.”
Research Interests:
On the precipice of the First Circle of Hell, Dante the narrator describes his arrival synesthetically: “io venni al loco d'ogne luce muto.” The “silence” of the light is contrasted in the two verses immediately following by the... more
On the precipice of the First Circle of Hell, Dante the narrator describes his arrival synesthetically: “io venni al loco d'ogne luce muto.” The “silence” of the light is contrasted in the two verses immediately following by the incongruity of the “bellowing” of the sea, a mixed, animalesque metaphor that, Boccaccio notes in his Esposizioni, “è proprio de’ buoi.” According to the Florentine Ottimo Comento, Dante’s description stems from “l’oscurità del luogo, figura la cechitade del loro intelletto; chè come qui è intenebrato lo lume della ragione in sè, così quivi sentono privamento d'ogni luce.” In his late-fourteenth-century commentary, Neapolitan Guglielmo Maramauro writes the following: “Qui D. descrive como esso venne a questo loco MUTO, cioè rimoto d'ogni luce. E qui parla improprie, chè la muteza è solo atribuita a l'omo che non parla. Così questo loco è muto de luce, cioè privato d'ogni luce. E poriase mover un dubio: perchè D. fo con V. nel Limbo «luminoso etc.» e qui dice «I' venni in loco etc.?’”


The poetic necessity of convenientia (appropriateness) animates much of Dante’s poetry, but here I will study his use of “improper” rhetoric, for both Boccaccio (“impropriamente”; “proprio de’ buoi”) and Maramauro (“parla improprie”) highlight the incongruity of Dante’s poetics and the seemingly out-of-place metaphors among the upside-down world of Inferno.



This talk will explore the strategic use of synesthesia and other “inappropriate,” disordered, poetic instances as fundamental to Dante’s upside-down depiction of Hell, where everything from language to politics to music lacks order. In particular, it will consider the reception of this rhetorical trope– the obverse of appropriateness or that which is “proper”–in some of the earliest commentaries on the poem, as well as the literary legacy of Dante’s infernal silences.
Research Interests:
About the talk: After more than a decade of center-left and caretaker governments, Italians recently voted in snap elections for a new Parliament and thus Prime Minister. Giorgia Meloni, the leader of “Fratelli d’Italia” (‘Brothers of... more
About the talk: After more than a decade of center-left and caretaker governments, Italians recently voted in snap elections for a new Parliament and thus Prime Minister. Giorgia Meloni, the leader of “Fratelli d’Italia” (‘Brothers of Italy’), stands to become the next Prime Minister of Italy. Variously referred to in the media as “far-right”, “hard-right”, “extreme-right”, “fascist”, and “neo-fascist”, Meloni’s “Fratelli d’Italia” is the historical heir to “Alleanza Nazionale”, itself the evolution of “Movimento Sociale Italiano”, a post-fascist, nationalist, right-wing party formed in 1946. For her part, Meloni has distanced herself from easy labels and is a Tolkien-quoting, Chesterton-reading Scrutonian. Join the Young Conservatives of Texas and Italian Program Director Anthony Nussmeier for a presentation and discussion on Italian political history, the 2022 Italian elections, and presumptive Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Research Interests:
We made it! To celebrate the culmination of 100 Days of Dante we're bringing back some of our regular contributors for a special webinar! Join me next Thursday, April 28 at 12 p.m. (Central) for another webinar on Dante. The special... more
We made it! To celebrate the culmination of 100 Days of Dante we're bringing back some of our regular contributors for a special webinar! Join me next Thursday, April 28 at 12 p.m. (Central) for another webinar on Dante.

The special panel features:

Dr. Brian Williams, Templeton Honors College

Dr. Anthony Nussmeier, University of Dallas

Dr. Jenny Howell, Baylor University

Dr. Jane Kim, Biola University

Register at the link: https://bit.ly/3k2Bu0w
Research Interests:
In his 1950 essay “What Dante Means to Me,” T.S. Eliot observed that “no verse seems to demand greater literalness in translation than Dante’s, because no poet convinces one more completely that the word he had used is the word he wanted,... more
In his 1950 essay “What Dante Means to Me,” T.S. Eliot observed that “no verse seems to demand greater literalness in translation than Dante’s, because no poet convinces one more completely that the word he had used is the word he wanted, and that no other will do.” In Inferno 32, Dante the poet makes a metapoetic invocation to the Muses: “May those ladies who aided Amphion to build the walls of Thebes now aid my verse, that the telling be no different from the fact.” How does Dante sift, weigh, select each word to be the only possible correct choice, so that through the principle of convenientia (appropriateness) his lyric achieves mimesis (the imitation of nature)? How is it that his attention to the individual word, and even to the phonemes that make up those words, possesses an almost algorithmic quality? For Dante, verse form and the words chosen are never incidental to content. This talk will explore the intricate lexical architecture of Dante’s epic poem in an effort to demonstrate how he uses language to reflect reality.
Research Interests:
Faculty members from Modern Languages present a symposium on the sonnet in the Italian and Spanish traditions. The event will feature Dr. Christi Ivers (Assistant Professor of Spanish) and her talk "Innovation or Imitation? 'Spanishing'... more
Faculty members from Modern Languages present a symposium on the sonnet in the Italian and Spanish traditions. The event will feature Dr. Christi Ivers (Assistant Professor of Spanish) and her talk "Innovation or Imitation? 'Spanishing' the Sonnet in the Renaissance", Dr. José Espericueta (Associate Professor of Spanish, Chair of Modern Languages) and his "Plume and Gloom: Penning Baroque Sonnets in the Americas," and Dr. Anthony Nussmeier (Associate Professor of Italian), who will discuss Italian manuscripts, poetic debates, and "Twitter and the medieval Italian sonnet." Dr. Michael West (St. Ambrose Center, Humanities) will moderate. An informal reception will follow.
Research Interests:
Tuesday, August 10 @ 12 pm (CDT), join us for an EnCore Lecture with Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Italian Anthony Nussmeier, Ph.D. Together, we will preview the project "100 Days of Dante", a new multimedial initiative... more
Tuesday, August 10 @ 12 pm (CDT), join us for an EnCore Lecture with Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Italian Anthony Nussmeier, Ph.D. Together, we will preview the project "100 Days of Dante", a new multimedial initiative that aims to create the world's largest Dante reading group using video-lessons on all 100 cantos of the Divine Comedy. Dr. Nussmeier will also discuss other happenings in the field of Dante Studies as we commemorate the 700th anniversary of the great poet's death in 2021.

Please register to receive the zoom link.

https://calendar.udallas.edu/event/100_days_of_dante_at_700?fbclid=IwAR2pHV-lIBpbqvGy8YBo2iy28zR-ngCqwaBvN8XTzc99Mj8mJZiQYQVrr1M%23.YPr1MCqtXQR.facebook#.YPslso5KjGs

Tuesday, August 10 at 12:00pm

Virtual Event
Research Interests:
An invited lecture delivered at St. Basil the Great Byzantine Catholic Church (St. Anthony's Academy and the Little Lay Oratory). I explore Dante and his relationship to theology and the institutional church, as well as make the case... more
An invited lecture delivered at St. Basil the Great Byzantine Catholic Church (St. Anthony's Academy and the Little Lay Oratory). I explore Dante and his relationship to theology and the institutional church, as well as make the case that, because of this relationship and due to the particular nature of the Italian nation-state, Italy’s unification of one best understood through literature such as the Commedia.
Research Interests:
Join me Tuesday, August 11 at 12 p.m. for a lunchtime event, part of the UD EnCore Lecture Series sponsored by the University of Dallas Office of Alumni Relations. I will be talking about Dante's “Commedia”. The format of the (virtual)... more
Join me Tuesday, August 11 at 12 p.m. for a lunchtime event, part of the UD EnCore Lecture Series sponsored by the University of Dallas Office of Alumni Relations. I will be talking about Dante's “Commedia”. The format of the (virtual) EnCore lecture consists of my prerecorded lecture on Dante for the Catholic Faith and Culture Series, followed by a LIVE Q-and-A with me and Dr. Michael West, Outreach Director for Liberal Learning for Life. Registration is required and can be done by clicking on the link in the event description.
Research Interests:
What is the object of sacred art and sacred space? For the Catholic-Christian, it is, as Vittoria Colonna writes in her poem "Mentre che quanto dentro avea concetto", something that "turn[s] our hearts to God, inflames and moves them,... more
What is the object of sacred art and sacred space? For the Catholic-Christian, it is, as Vittoria Colonna writes in her poem "Mentre che quanto dentro avea concetto", something that "turn[s] our hearts to God, inflames and moves them, cleanses them of gloomy shadows.” For Catholic-Christians, Dante’s poem does this, as does the Baptistry of San Giovanni. If the ultimate aim of sacred space/art is to bring us closer to God, Who or what is the prime mover of Dante’s Comedy? Dante’s “sacro poema” is, in his eyes, a sacred space that, like a physical space, “turns our hearts to God, inflames and moves them”.
Research Interests:
An artist envisions something–a landscape, a form, a concept. Maybe he sketches, drafts a preparatory drawing. It is a process. How is teaching–and better yet, language teaching–akin to the artistic process? How is the creative process of... more
An artist envisions something–a landscape, a form, a concept. Maybe he sketches, drafts a preparatory drawing. It is a process. How is teaching–and better yet, language teaching–akin to the artistic process? How is the creative process of teaching language different from that of other disciplines?
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Italy is fertile territory for both the literary imagination and the plague. In his medieval Decameron, a work occasioned by the Black Death of 1348, Giovanni Boccaccio observed that in Florence, "citizen avoided citizen, among neighbors... more
Italy is fertile territory for both the literary imagination and the plague. In his medieval Decameron, a work occasioned by the Black Death of 1348, Giovanni Boccaccio observed that in Florence, "citizen avoided citizen, among neighbors was scarce found any that showed fellow-feeling for another, kinsfolk held aloof, and never met, or but rarely; enough that this sore affliction entered so deep into the minds of men and women, that in the horror thereof brother was forsaken by brother, nephew by uncle, brother by sister, and oftentimes husband by wife; [...] fathers and mothers were found to abandon their own children, untended, unvisited, to their fate, as if they had been strangers." It is no surprise, then, that Boccaccio, in the first twelve or so lines of the Decameron, associates "having compassion" (aver compassione) with being human (umana cosa) and uses the terms conforto AND consolazioni. Boccaccio's insights into (in)humanity were confirmed 500 years later in Alessandro Manzoni's splendid novel Promessi sposi (1827/1842), a tale of agape love, sacramental marriage, and mercy in the midst of which erupts the plague that afflicted northern Italy in 1629-1630. In Spanish-ruled, seventeenth-century Lombardy, Manzoni, too, depicts a culture of abandonment and fear; he cites historian Giuseppe Ripamonti in telling us that "there was something more afflicting and hideous still-reciprocal distrust and extravagant suspicion; and this not only between friends, neighbors, and guests; but husbands, wives, and children, became objects of terror to one another, and, horrible to say! even the dinner table and the marriage bed were feared as places of ambush, as hiding places of poisoning." As in 1348 and 1629, in 2020 every mask-wearing man, woman, and child is feared as a vector of disease. If one mark of a great work and a core text is to be the first or the best source of wisdom for understanding who we are, then there is none more apt than Manzoni's Promessi sposi. To read the novel is to understand the present moment, to encounter a refreshingly (horrifyingly?) familiar human and institutional psychological response to crisis.
Research Interests:
Previous investigations of Alessandro Manzoni’s Dantean borrowings have revised the thesis that his reminiscences are “pochissimi” (Mazza 1965). Paola Azzolini (1986) and Aldo Cottonaro (2001) have seen in Manzoni’s work a dantismo that... more
Previous investigations of Alessandro Manzoni’s Dantean borrowings have revised the thesis that his reminiscences are “pochissimi” (Mazza 1965). Paola Azzolini (1986) and Aldo Cottonaro (2001) have seen in Manzoni’s work a dantismo that is present in larger doses, while Aldo Vallone (1985, 1992) identified in Dante’s use of “silenzi” a forerunner of Manzoni’s modern innovative expedient. Maria Gabriella Riccobono (2013, 2015, 2018) has added an important component to Dante’s reception in Manzoni through her studies of the simile. Finally, Rodney J. Lokaj’s systematic study (2002) of Manzoni’s comic reuse of Dante has contributed greatly to our understanding of Promessi sposi as a treasure trove of references, veiled and unveiled, to the sommo poeta. 

Inferno V has been the touchstone of intertextuality between Dante and Manzoni. This talk unearths further connections between Inferno V and Promessi sposi, and also explores a series of Dantean stilemes and syntagm present from Inferno III, Inferno XV and Purgatorio XXIV. As a result of the systematic borrowing of Dantean episodes and lexicon, it is evident that Manzoni borrows consciously from the poet, and that such borrowings are not incidental to the narrative.
Research Interests:
In 1842, Italian geographer Count Annibale Ranuzzi wrote a breezy pamphlet entitled Texas: Della sua condizione presente e del suo avvenire politico e commerciale. As with the Torinese author Emilio Salgari and his fantastical tales about... more
In 1842, Italian geographer Count Annibale Ranuzzi wrote a breezy pamphlet entitled Texas: Della sua condizione presente e del suo avvenire politico e commerciale. As with the Torinese author Emilio Salgari and his fantastical tales about Sandokan in Malaysia some fifty years later, however, the Bolognese Ranuzzi wrote about his exotic subject despite never having gone to Texas. In Ranuzzi’s case, the interest in Texas stemmed from its status as a newly-independent republic, and as an ardent Italian patriot and adherent to the ideal of the Risorgimento he saw in Texas’ independence a glimpse of Italy’s own future. This talk will explore Ranuzzi’s nineteenth-century view of Texas from Italy, and compare and contrast his description of the new Republic with contemporary, on-the-ground accounts of Texas, including the early travelogue by Friedrich Wilhelm von Wrede, Sr., Lebensbilder aus den vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika und Texas (1844) [Sketches of Life in the United States of North America and Texas (1970)].
Research Interests:
Italian in Texas: Present and Future Conditions There is no doubt that the study of languages and literature is in crisis. Against these negative trends, at the University of Dallas we have just approved a new B.A. degree in Italian,... more
Italian in Texas: Present and Future Conditions

There is no doubt that the study of languages and literature is in crisis. Against these negative trends, at the University of Dallas we have just approved a new B.A. degree in Italian, one founded on the identity of the university and grounded in the Western intellectual tradition. This paper will discuss the conceptual idea behind the creation of the new Italian B.A. and will also provide concrete examples of the artes liberales in the Italian classroom. The other goal of this paper is to outline the symbiotic relationship between Italy and Texas vis-a-vis the teaching of Italian. I will note the surprising number of connections between the “Republic” of Texas and the Republic of Italy before discussing the role of Italian-language programs at universities in Texas and our experience at the University of Dallas.

Anthony Nussmeier
University of Dallas

Anthony Nussmeier is Assistant Professor of Italian and Director of Italian at the University of Dallas, a Catholic liberal arts college where every undergraduate student–at least in theory–reads Dante’s Commedia, and where there is an Italian flag at the entrance to campus. He is Contributing Editor (Dante Studies) for The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies. Anthony is the author of a trio of forthcoming articles on Dante and satire, on the seventeenth-century French Dantista Gilles Ménage, and on the 1577 Latin editio princeps of the De vulgari eloquentia, and has published on related topics such as Boccaccio’s Vita di Dante and Dante and his poetic predecessors in journals such as Textual Cultures, Medioevo letterario d’Italia and The Medieval Review.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper provides a blueprint for Italian outreach at land-grant universities, whose missions have traditionally focused on the agricultural and the mechanical. It will discuss the successes—and challenges—in promoting, expanding and... more
This paper provides a blueprint for Italian outreach at land-grant universities, whose missions have traditionally focused on the agricultural and the mechanical. It will discuss the successes—and challenges—in promoting, expanding and marketing Italian at a land-grant university. Particular attention will be paid to service-learning; to the incorporation of Italian into the broader university and the community; and on the integration of a comprehensive curriculum that can be extrapolated to similarly-situated universities.
"Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture" is an initiative at the University of Dallas organized by Provost Dr. Johnathan Sanford, Dr. Greg Roper, and Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel. It is an effort to bring the insights and knowledge of... more
"Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture" is an initiative at the University of Dallas organized by Provost Dr. Johnathan Sanford, Dr. Greg Roper, and Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel. It is an effort to bring the insights and knowledge of University of Dallas faculty to a broader audience. "Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture" seeks to enrich lives by providing intellectual formation that encompasses the breadth and depth of human culture. Together we explore the history, traditions, and works that have shaped the Catholic inheritance, resulting in a deeply Christian portrait of the human person. So far, two courses have been created, and a third and fourth are in the works.

Italian Program Director Anthony Nussmeier contributed a lesson on Dante to the recently-published "Course II: The Person: History and Tradition", and will also be working on Course III. If you are interested in getting together with members of your local community to study the intellectual roots of Catholicism, check out the website, linked below.

From the website: "The University of Dallas invites you and members of your local community to start a Catholic Faith & Culture cohort. Once a week members engage in a study of our faith that extends across the Liberal Arts--philosophy, literature, fine arts, even political science. The best UD professors will guide you through important concepts and texts. Through this participation in Catholic higher education made accessible, you will think more profoundly about the Catholic faith and discuss these ideas with other members of your community."

https://www.catholicfaithandculture.org/
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
I am part of a trio that has formed a 501c3 non-profit, "DFW Italians," for the express purpose of putting on the inaugural DFW Italian Festival, which will take place October 7-8, 2023 in Irving, Texas. So far, highlights of the festival... more
I am part of a trio that has formed a 501c3 non-profit, "DFW Italians," for the express purpose of putting on the inaugural DFW Italian Festival, which will take place October 7-8, 2023 in Irving, Texas. So far, highlights of the festival include:

-an Italian Catholic procession
-food, wine, beer, and cocktails
-a bocce tournament and courts
-live music and entertainment (Amanda Pascali, Giulia Millanta, UD Chorale, Irving Symphony Orchestra, Opera on Tap, et al)
-a Vespa raffle
-an Italian car show
-educational presentations on olive oil, pasta-making, travel to Italy, and much more
-live theater
-Italian lessons
-movie screenings
Research Interests:
2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of L’Aeronautica, Italy’s Air Force. Join the Italian Program and the University of Dallas as we recognize the anniversary with a series of presentations on Italian contributions to... more
2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of L’Aeronautica, Italy’s Air Force. Join the Italian Program and the University of Dallas as we recognize the anniversary with a series of presentations on Italian contributions to aviation. Speakers include Commendatore Vincenzo Arcobelli (Rep., CGIE, the Consiglio Generale degli Italiani all’Estero, or General Council of Italians Living Abroad); Lieutenant Colonel Andrea Cerri (Commander of RAMI, the Reale Aeronautica Militare Italiana, or the Royal Italian Air Force, at Sheppard AFB right here in Texas); and Major Antonio Junior Marinaro (F-35 RMI CPP, Fort Worth).

All are welcome to attend Monday, May 1, at 6 p.m., in Art History Auditorium (Haggerty Art History Building).

For more information, please contact University of Dallas Italian Program Director Anthony Nussmeier at anussmeier@udallas.edu.
Research Interests:
Author, translator, and interpreter Michael F. Moore, Ph.D., will be visiting the University of Dallas Monday, November 14 and Tuesday, November 15. Moore will give a public lecture Tuesday, November 15 at 4 p.m. in Haggerty Art History... more
Author, translator, and interpreter Michael F. Moore, Ph.D., will be visiting the University of Dallas Monday, November 14 and Tuesday, November 15.

Moore will give a public lecture Tuesday, November 15 at 4 p.m. in Haggerty Art History Auditorium (“Hidden in Plain Sight: Rediscovering an Italian Classic”), in which he will talk about his new translation of Alessandro Manzoni's Promessi sposi ("The Betrothed”) and how this 1840 novel addresses the moral crises of our time, from social injustice to pandemic awareness.

Among other works, Moore is the translator, most recently, of Alessandro Manzoni’s above-mentioned classic nineteenth-century novel Promessi sposi (“The Betrothed”) (Modern Library, September 2022). He is also an interpreter at the United Nations and a full-time staff member of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations, as well as the chair of the Advisory Board for the PEN-Heim Translation Fund.

These events are sponsored by the Office of Personal Career Development, the Constantin Dean’s Office, the Office of the Provost, and Modern Languages.

Please contact Anthony Nussmeier at anussmeier@udallas.edu for more information.
Research Interests:
Join the Italian Program for the bi-annual Italian-language Mass at the Church of the Incarnation on the University of Dallas campus. We are excited to present this "send-off" Mass of Blessing for those students who will be heading to... more
Join the Italian Program for the bi-annual Italian-language Mass at the Church of the Incarnation on the University of Dallas campus. We are excited to present this "send-off" Mass of Blessing for those students who will be heading to Rome in Summer and Fall 2022. All students, staff, faculty, parents, alumni, and community members are welcome. Students of Italian will participate in the liturgy as readers. Fr. Rafael Ramirez, S.S.D., a native of Spain who is an Italian citizen and has lived in Italy for over two decades, will be our celebrant. The entire liturgy will be in Italian, and there will be worship aids with the parts of the mass in both English and Italian. For more information, contact organizer Anthony Nussmeier at anussmeier@udallas.edu.
Research Interests:
In this lecture, novelist and professor Randy Boyagoda (University of Toronto) will make a case for why who and what we read can be life or death decisions. He will do so by exploring signal moments in Dante’s Divine Comedy where the life... more
In this lecture, novelist and professor Randy Boyagoda (University of Toronto) will make a case for why who and what we read can be life or death decisions. He will do so by exploring signal moments in Dante’s Divine Comedy where the life of faith, life of the mind, and life of action all depend, with the highest possible stakes, on the decisions individuals make about who and what they read, how, and why. In turn, having read a canto a day of the Divine Comedy for the past five years while writing a Dante-inspired novel, he will read from his latest book, Dante’s Indiana, about ordinary people whose lives have been radically changed by the books they took up and read at high and low points in their lives.

Biography: Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he also serves as Vice-Dean, Undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He also teaches the Gilson Seminar in Faith and Ideas at the university, through St. Michael’s College. He is the author of six books, including four novels, most recently Dante’s Indiana (2021). He writes essays and reviews for the New York Times, the Atlantic, First Things, Commonweal, and the Financial Times (UK). He lives in Toronto with his wife and four daughters.

Event sponsored by Modern Languages, English, the Office of the Provost, the Dean of Constantin College, Liberal Learning for Life, and the Cowan Archive.
Research Interests:
2021 marks the 700th anniversary of Dante's death. March 25 of this year happens to be the first official "Dantedì", a celebration of the poet that is tied to the date on which Dante-character began his fictional journey in the... more
2021 marks the 700th anniversary of Dante's death. March 25 of this year happens to be the first official "Dantedì", a celebration of the poet that is tied to the date on which Dante-character began his fictional journey in the "Commedia".

To celebrate Dantedì and to anticipate the 700th necroversary, the Italian Program is hosting marathon reading of the entire "Divine Comedy". We will start at 8 a.m., March 25 and finish around 1 a.m., March 26. The reading will be outdoors on the Mall. In addition to the continuous reading of all 100 cantos by UD students, faculty, and staff, the day will include:

-introductory remarks by Anthony Nussmeier (University of Dallas)
-concluding remarks by Dr. Valeria Forte (University of Dallas)
-Kristin Van Cleve and/or her students playing Liszt's Paradiso or perhaps Rachmaninoff's music from the opera Francesca da Rimini
-a display of editions of the "Commedia" curated by the Cowan-Blakely Library (either in Haggar or in the Fishbowl)
-the possibility of a small art exhibit featuring Dante-inspired pieces created by UD students

To sign up to read a canto, contact Italian Program Director Anthony Nussmeier at anussmeier@udallas.edu, or visit http://bit.ly/30fV6Vd.

Event sponsored by Modern Languages, English, the Cowan-Blakley Library, and the Office of the President.
Research Interests:
(NB: This is now postponed!) The Italian Program's NOTAI Lecture Series 2019-2020, sponsored by Lamberti's Ristorante & Wine Bar, presents a talk by UT Southwestern Cardiologist and Researcher Gabriele G. Schiattarella, M.D., Ph.D. Dr.... more
(NB: This is now postponed!) The Italian Program's NOTAI Lecture Series 2019-2020, sponsored by Lamberti's Ristorante & Wine Bar, presents a talk by UT Southwestern Cardiologist and Researcher Gabriele G. Schiattarella, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Schiattarella will discuss his experiences as a doctor and researcher in Italy, Europe, and the United States. Join us Thursday, April 2, at 4 p.m. in Gorman Faculty Lounge on the campus of the University of Dallas.
Research Interests:
The Italian Program, the Gupta College of Business, and the Office of Career and Personal Development at the University of Dallas present a panel discussion and networking reception for students on the following topics:... more
The Italian Program, the Gupta College of Business, and the Office of Career and Personal Development at the University of Dallas present a panel discussion and networking reception for students on the following topics:

--Italian-related careers
--Italian business culture
--working in Italy
--working with Italian companies in Texas

"Italian Business and Culture: a Texas Perspective" panelists will consider topics such as:

--the contrast between European/Italian and American business philosophies;
--the cultural challenges of operating in different foreign contexts, especially Italy;
--career opportunities for UD students with Italian companies;
--and the utility of the Italian language.

Panelists:

Antonietta Baccanari (Director, Italian Trade Agency, Houston) is the Director of the Italian Trade Agency in Houston. Prior to coming to Texas, she was Trade Commissioner in Australia.

Maurizio Gamberucci (Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Texas), is Deputy Director of the IACC-Texas, based in Houston.

Andrew Farley (Farley Consulting; UD '98; President, National Alumni Board; Member, Board of Trustees), is an independent consultant and owner of Farley Consulting. He recently completed a three-year contract for Panini and has done business for years in Italy.

Luca Filippone (UD MBA '16, founder of Grapevine-based Italian startup CAPSA) is a native of Italy. He was an analyst at the Grapevine-based Italian logistics firm Savino del Bene, and is now an analyst at PepsiCo. He earned an MBA from the University of Dallas in 2016 and in 2019 founded the Italian import startup CAPSA.

Corrado Palmieri (Owner/Proprietor, Palmieri Coffee), a Southern Italian from Galatina in the province of Lecce (the "Florence of the South" and capital of Italian baroque architecture), came to Dallas to work in finance. After business school and a stint in investment banking, he opened Palmieri Cafe in the Dallas Farmers Market. Palmieri roasts all of his own coffee and makes all pastries from scratch.

Panini America (speaker TBD) is a susidiary of Panini Group, an Italian company headquartered in Modena, Italy, named after the Panini brothers who founded it in 1961.The company produces books, comics, magazines, stickers, trading cards and other items through its collectibles and publishing subsidiaries.

Don Poston (Datalogic) is Inside Sales Manager (N. America) and Site Leader at the Las Colinas office of Datalogic, an Italian company credited with making the first barcode scanner. In 2018, Datalogic opened an office in Irving, TX.
Research Interests:
We most often associate Texas with Mexico, and for good reason. However, Europeans–from the Spanish and the Germans to the French and the Italians, and even to the Wendish and the Danes–have also influenced what we now call Texas from... more
We most often associate Texas with Mexico, and for good reason. However, Europeans–from the Spanish and the Germans to the French and the Italians, and even to the Wendish and the Danes–have also influenced what we now call Texas from pre-revolutionary times to today. Did you know that Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas is named for the old Reunion section of the city, itself named for La Réunion, a mid-nineteenth-century French Socialist settlement? That a German dialect is still spoken today in Texas? Or that the oldest known document in the history of Texas is a map of the Gulf of Mexico created by Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519?

The Department of Modern Languages presents a symposium exploring some of the first, and most unique, interactions between Texas and the Spanish, the French, the Germans, and the Italians. Join us Wednesday, March 4 at 3 p.m. in Gorman Faculty Lounge.

Speakers:

A 19th-century French Socialist Utopia in Dallas?   
(Dr. Jason Lewallen, French)

Cabeza de Vaca: Early Explorer of Texas and Travel Writer           
(Prof. Irina Rodriguez, Spanish)

From German Texans to Texas German: German Immigration to Texas and Texasdeutsch 
(Dr. Ivan Eidt, German)

Italy’s Unification and the Republic of Texas
(Dr. Anthony Nussmeier, Italian)
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Italian Enlightenment—and, in particular, the writings of an Italian thinker, Cesare Beccaria—had a major influence on the American Revolution. Beccaria’s book, Dei delitti e delle pene (1764), quickly translated into French and then... more
The Italian Enlightenment—and, in particular, the writings of an Italian thinker, Cesare Beccaria—had a major influence on the American Revolution.  Beccaria’s book, Dei delitti e delle pene (1764), quickly translated into French and then into English as An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1767), shaped the views of countless American revolutionaries and lawmakers on topics ranging from liberty and tyranny, to the rule of law, to capital punishment and torture.  America’s foundational legal documents—the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the U.S. Bill of Rights—were all shaped by Beccaria's ideas, and those ideas continue to shape modern-day debates over abuse of power and the criminal justice system.

John Bessler teaches law at the University of Baltimore School of Law and at the Georgetown University Law Center. He has previously taught at the University of Minnesota Law School, The George Washington University Law School, Rutgers School of Law, and the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He has written several books on capital punishment and the origins of American law. His 2014 book, The Birth of American Law: An Italian Philosopher and the American Revolution, was the recipient of the Scribes Book Award, a national award given out since 1961 for “the best work of legal scholarship published during the previous year.” That book, about the influence of the Italian Enlightenment on the American Revolution, also won the American Association for Italian Studies Book Award. He is also the author of The Death Penalty as Torture: From the Dark Ages to Abolition (2017); The Celebrated Marquis: An Italian Noble and the Making of the Modern World (2018), a biography of the Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria; and The Baron and the Marquis: Liberty, Tyranny, and the Enlightenment Maxim that Can Remake American Criminal Justice (2019), which traces the history and modern-day implications of a criminal justice maxim articulated by Montesquieu and later publicized by Beccaria. He has a B.A. in political science from the University of Minnesota, a law degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, an M.F.A. degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, and a master’s degree in international human rights law from Oxford University.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Join the Italian Program for the inaugural Italian-language Mass at the Church of the Incarnation on the University of Dallas campus. We are excited to present this "send-off" Mass of Blessing for those students who will be heading to... more
Join the Italian Program for the inaugural Italian-language Mass at the Church of the Incarnation on the University of Dallas campus. We are excited to present this "send-off" Mass of Blessing for those students who will be heading to Rome in Spring 2019. All students, staff, faculty, parents, alumni, and community members are welcome. Students of Italian will participate in the liturgy as readers, altar servers, and gift-bearers. Fr. Rafael Ramirez, S.S.D., a native of Spain who is an Italian citizen and has lived in Italy for over two decades, will be our celebrant. The entire liturgy will be in Italian, and there will be worship aids with the parts of the mass in both English and Italian. For more information, contact organizer Anthony Nussmeier at anussmeier@udallas.edu.
This jobs panel and networking event was organized for November 2016. Panelists will consider the contrast between Italian and American business philosophies; the cultural challenges of operating in foreign markets, especially Italy;... more
This jobs panel and networking event was organized for November 2016. Panelists will consider the contrast between Italian and American business philosophies; the cultural challenges of operating in foreign markets, especially Italy; careers for K-State students with Italian companies; and Kansas companies in international markets. Representatives range from an international law firm, the Kansas Department of Commerce, and an engineering firm, to a manufacturing company and the Wichita Grand Opera. Participants, almost all confirmed and with whom I have been in extensive contact about project developments, include: Gino Serra, Honorary Vice-Consul to Italy and Partner, Bryan Cave Law (Kansas City, KS); Mike Warner, President, Selex ES (Overland Park, KS); Secretary Antonio Soave, Secretary of Commerce, Kansas; Barilla America (Ames, Iowa); ENEL Green Power, Italian multinational power company; Parvan Bakardiev, President/CEO, Wichita Grand Opera; Clifton Keefer Brown, Associate Professor of Dance; Principal Dancer, “L’Ensemble Da Micha Van Hoecke”, Rosignano, Italy; and Ryan Durst, VP of Sales and Marketing, Bradbury Group (Moundridge, KS; Tribano Italy).
Research Interests:
Organized a visit by the Sicilian director and expert on non-verbal communication Luca Vullo. The day included the screening of the documentary La voce del corpo (“The Voice of the Body”) and an interactive workshop on the art of the... more
Organized a visit by the Sicilian director and expert on non-verbal communication Luca Vullo. The day included the screening of the documentary La voce del corpo (“The Voice of the Body”) and an interactive workshop on the art of the Italian gesture. I worked with seven different departments and academic units (Modern Languages, APDEsign, Office of International Programs, Anthropology, Communications, Dance, and Art) to secure funding for the visit. The screening and workshop were attended by over 200 people comprised of faculty, students, staff, and interested parties.
Research Interests:
Organized a public, interdisciplinary marathon reading of Dante’s Divine comedy on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of his birth (23 October 2015). The event was the first of its kind in Kansas State University history, and brought... more
Organized a public, interdisciplinary marathon reading of Dante’s Divine comedy on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of his birth (23 October 2015). The event was the first of its kind in Kansas State University history, and brought together an interdisciplinary group that included a medieval-inspired printmaking exhibition. More than 75 readers from over 25 different departments and academic units, including undergraduates, graduates, faculty, staff, and community members, took part. We read the entire Divine Comedy over a period of 18 hours in six different languages (Italian, English, German, French, Arabic, and Spanish.) The reading received front-page coverage in the Manhattan Mercury newspaper.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
I was quoted in an article by Joy Pullman about our project 100daysofdante.com.
Research Interests:
I was interviewed about Dante and our project 100daysofdante.com.
Research Interests:
I was interviewed by author Jonathan Malesic for his essay on post-pandemic learning, published in the New York Times.
I explore a medieval Italian analog of modern-day cancel culture in Boccaccio's Decameron: "By the time Giovanni Boccaccio began writing the “Decameron” in 1350 following the plague of 1348 that killed nearly two-thirds of his fellow... more
I explore a medieval Italian analog of modern-day cancel culture in Boccaccio's Decameron:

"By the time Giovanni Boccaccio began writing the “Decameron” in 1350 following the plague of 1348 that killed nearly two-thirds of his fellow Florentines, he had already gained a measure of fame as the author of numerous works in the Italian vernacular. The “Decameron” — a collection of 100 generally ribald tales told over the course of ten days by seven young women and three young men who decamped for the hills outside Florence to escape the plague — would become his most celebrated. However, his prior success did not prevent detractors from decrying the “Decameron” and so, in an extraordinary literary moment, Boccaccio interrupted his narration between the third and fourth days of his work to defend himself from those who would, to adopt the modern expression, cancel him — 'mettere a fondo,' or 'to sink.'"
Research Interests:
I reflect on Dante and our new collaboration "100 Days of Dante" (100daysofDante.com).
Research Interests:
A recently recorded podcast in which I discuss Dante and the upcoming initiative "100 Days of Dante."

Apple: https://apple.co/2YBmy27
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2YAWwfq
Google: https://bit.ly/3noNdd1
Research Interests:
(Interview runs from 0:00-25:00) "100 Days of Dante" is a multimedia project featuring 100 short, accessible videos by which we will guide you through the poem. Starting this September, tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to hear... more
(Interview runs from 0:00-25:00)

"100 Days of Dante" is a multimedia project featuring 100 short, accessible videos by which we will guide you through the poem. Starting this September, tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to hear from a great teacher who shares their love of Dante with us, and then share your insights with all of us through conversations on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #100daysofdante.

A presentation of Baylor University Honors College, with support from the Torrey Honors College at Biola University, the University of Dallas, the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University, the Gonzaga in Florence Program at Gonzaga University, and Whitworth University.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this piece, I consider the parallels between our own reaction to the coronavirus and the responses to the Black Death that struck Milan in 1629, as recounted in Alessandro Manzoni’s classic novel Promessi Sposi.
Research Interests:
A couple of months back, I gave a lesson on Dante as part of the UD Alumni Office's EnCore lecture series. The full lecture and some of the introduction and Q-and-A are now up on UD's YouTube channel. The lecture traces the progression... more
A couple of months back, I gave a lesson on Dante as part of the UD Alumni Office's EnCore lecture series. The full lecture and some of the introduction and Q-and-A are now up on UD's YouTube channel.

The lecture traces the progression of Dante the pilgrim's journey via some representative canti in each of the canticles (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise), and places a particular emphasis on the importance of reading the whole poem.
Research Interests:
A recent profile of University of Dallas Italian Program Director Anthony Nussmeier.
Research Interests:
Looking for something to read? How about the ultimate text in "self-quarantining/social-distancing"? Italian Program Director Anthony Nussmeier recently took part in the University of Minnesota Center for Medieval Studies project... more
Looking for something to read? How about the ultimate text in "self-quarantining/social-distancing"? Italian Program Director Anthony Nussmeier recently took part in the University of Minnesota Center for Medieval Studies project "Decameron Tales in the Time of Coronavirus". In the attached video-lesson, Professor Nussmeier provides a brief introduction to the project's titular work, Giovanni Boccaccio's "Decameron", as well as an introduction to the first novella. If you would like to read the texts, copies in both English and Italian are available in the Center's shared Google Drive. All the videos in the series can be found on the Center's YouTube playlist.
Research Interests:
Audio of an invited radio interview on Dante and Italian for the program "The Good News”, KATH Radio 910 AM (The Guadalupe Radio Network”, October 28, 2019.
Research Interests:
Ugo Foscolo was an Italian poet, writer, and critic. His birth anniversary was just the other day (February 6). I marked it with an essay, published in The University News, in which I reflect on the life of my late grandfather, as well as... more
Ugo Foscolo was an Italian poet, writer, and critic. His birth anniversary was just the other day (February 6). I marked it with an essay, published in The University News, in which I reflect on the life of my late grandfather, as well as Foscolo, Roger Scruton, oikophobia, and love of place.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Italian Program's NOTAI Lecture Series 2019-2020, sponsored by Lamberti's Ristorante & Wine Bar, presents a talk by UT Southwestern Cardiologist and Researcher Gabriele G. Schiattarella, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Schiattarella will discuss his... more
The Italian Program's NOTAI Lecture Series 2019-2020, sponsored by Lamberti's Ristorante & Wine Bar, presents a talk by UT Southwestern Cardiologist and Researcher Gabriele G. Schiattarella, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Schiattarella will discuss his experiences as a doctor and researcher in Italy, Europe, and the United States. Join us Thursday, April 2, at 4 p.m. in Gorman Faculty Lounge on the campus of the University of Dallas.
Research Interests:
The Italian Program is proud to announce the first of its NOTAI Lecture Series events for 2019-2020. Leonardo Da Vinci is the creative mind of the Italian Renaissance, hugely influential as an artist and sculptor, but also immensely... more
The Italian Program is proud to announce the first of its NOTAI Lecture Series events for 2019-2020. Leonardo Da Vinci is the creative mind of the Italian Renaissance, hugely influential as an artist and sculptor, but also immensely talented as an engineer, scientist, and inventor. To commemorate the fifth centenary of Leonardo’s death (1519-2019), the Italian Program presents a lecture by Luigi Colombo, Ph.D. that explores Leonardo’s scientific inventions and their modern Italian legacies. Through the modern Italian heirs of “Leonardo’s Way”, a project first promoted by the Italian scientific community of Miami, the aim is to talk to new generations about the research world, its values, and the opportunities it offers, to learn directly through the scientists about its history and objectives and to see from up close how the profession is carried out.

Dr. Luigi Colombo is Adjunct Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, a longtime researcher at Texas Instruments, and an inventor and holder of more than 100 US and international patents.

NOTAI is sponsored by Lamberti’s Ristorante & Wine Bar, and this talk is sponsored additionally by Confederazione Siciliani Nord America, Associazione Siciliani Texas, Comitato Tricolore Italiani nel Mondo, Com.it.es, the Miami Scientific Italian Community, and the Italian Consulate in Houston.

About NOTAI: The University of Dallas NOTAI (NOrth Texas Area Italian) Lecture Series brings to campus scholars, artists, and others from north Texas for conversations on Italian culture. Founded in 2017, the series pays homage to the Italian“notaio” (notary), the central figure in the initial development and dissemination of Italian vernacular culture and literature in the Medieval period. Please contact Dr. Anthony Nussmeier (anussmeier@udallas.edu) for more information.
Research Interests:
Join us for our final NOTAI Lecture Series event of 2018-2019 as we host a talk and (brief!) documentary screening by Dr. Victoria Surliuga (Texas Tech University). NOTAI is sponsored by Lamberti's Ristorante & Wine Bar, and this lecture... more
Join us for our final NOTAI Lecture Series event of 2018-2019 as we host a talk and (brief!) documentary screening by Dr. Victoria Surliuga (Texas Tech University). NOTAI is sponsored by Lamberti's Ristorante & Wine Bar, and this lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages and the Department of Art.
Dr. Surliuga will present "Ezio Gribaudo: A Lifetime in Art", a lecture on the contemporary Italian artist Ezio Gribaudo, a printmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and art publisher. Gribaudo’s award-winning production has been recognized with many international prizes, among which the IX Rome Quadriennale (1965), the XXXIII Venice Biennale Prize for graphic arts (1966), and the São Paulo Biennale (1967). His work has been linked closely to literature, and he has produced many works based on Pinocchio and even on the Renaissance epic poem Orlando Furioso. A screening of the (brief - 32 mins!) documentary "The White Magic of Ezio Gribaudo" (2015, M. Agostinelli and A. Liuzza) will follow the presentation.
Research Interests:
How did so much of Italy’s magnificent artistic and cultural heritage survive the destructiveness of World War II? Who saved it? In September 1939, Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland unleashed forces that lead to the most destructive war... more
How did so much of Italy’s magnificent artistic and cultural heritage survive the destructiveness of World War II? Who saved it? In September 1939, Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland unleashed forces that lead to the most destructive war in history. For six years, the Nazi looting machine stole millions of works of art and other cultural treasures–paintings, drawings, sculpture, stained glass, church bells, and entire libraries–worth tens of billions of dollars. It was the greatest theft in history. By late 1944, with the tide of war turning, Hitler and his henchmen began hiding their loot in salt mines, caves, and mountain-top castles. Amidst raging battles, a small group of volunteers from the United States and Great Britain known as the “Monuments Men”–accomplished museum curators, art historians, architects, teachers and librarians–attempted to find it. In a race against time to save paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and sculptures by Michelangelo, their mission turned into the greatest treasure hunt in history.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A special event and screening for the University of Dallas community. In 2015 UD alumnus Dr. Dave Atkinson fell in love with Prizzi (Palermo), Sicily. Determined to uplift a town and a people he found worthy of dignity and respect, he... more
A special event and screening for the University of Dallas community. In 2015 UD alumnus Dr. Dave Atkinson fell in love with Prizzi (Palermo), Sicily. Determined to uplift a town and a people he found worthy of dignity and respect, he financed an artistic exchange whereby he brought three Dallas-based artists to Prizzi in order to paint public murals. After a fortuitous encounter with Sicilian Director Luca Vullo at the University of Dallas in January 2017, the project and documentary "Dallas in Prizzi" was born. Join us for this invite-only screening of the documentary "Dallas in Prizzi", followed by a conversation with Producer and UD alumnus Atkinson and director Vullo. Also featuring an art and photography exhibit by "Dallas in Prizzi" artists in the Thompson Loggia. Since it is invite-only, please RSVP to www.udallas.edu/prizzi.
Research Interests: