top of page

Research

I work on medieval Italian literature, with a focus on history and religion in Dante's Commedia. My interests also include other medieval and early modern writers (Boccaccio, Petrarch, Chaucer, and Cervantes) as well as contemporary poetry. 

The Corruption of the Church and Dante's Philosophy of History

My first book project examines the ways in which Dante tells the parallel histories of religious orders and institutions in the Divine Comedy. At the intersection of poetry, politics, history, and religion, this study is the first comprehensive study of Dante as a historian of the Church. 

Dante, Urban Thinker

I am also working on a project that considers real estate, urban topography, and familial nepotism in the late 13th century. I investigate how Dante’s economic and political concerns about nobility, property, and wealth can be historicized through an analysis of the built environment of Italian cities that the poet references throughout his writing.

Old Texts, New Questions: Critical Approaches to Medieval Italian Literature

With Alberto Gelmi and Akash Kumar, I am the co-organizer and co-editor of an MLA Working Group (New Orleans, 2025) that brings together scholars working on medieval texts in innovative ways. The results of this working group will be published in MLN in 2026.

Boccaccio and Mediterranean Studies

I have worked on the Mediterranean in medieval Italian literature, such as my 2024 presentation at the Renaissance Society of America on Boccaccio and the island of Cyprus.

Global Reception of Medieval Italian Literature

My interests also include the ways the texts and authors of the Italian middle ages show up in other linguistic contexts, ranging from how Miguel de Cervantes is influenced by the Tre Corone, to Petrarch's reappearance in colonial Mexico, to the contemporary poet Shane McCrae's use of Dante.

The Dante Simile Project

With Akash Kumar, I am the co-editor of a collaborative project that seeks to historicize the similes of Dante's Commedia in their multicultural and Mediterranean contexts. 

Research: Projects
bottom of page