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BIO

Just as I teach courses on a wide range of topics, including European Fairy Tales, Italian Travel Literature, and Food Culture, I have research interests that also span a variety of times and subjects. My most recent book just came out with University of Toronto Press and is titled, Golden Fruit: A Cultural History of Oranges in Italy. My past work includes books on hysteria and madness in turn-of-the-century Europe (Saint Hysteria, Cornell UP 1996), pregnancy and childbirth in literature and theory (Maternal Impressions, Cornell UP, 2002), a late nineteenth-century Tuscan saint (The Voices of Gemma Galgani, Chicago UP, 2003, co-authored with Rudolph Bell), women mystics and food (The Women in God's Kitchen, Continuum, 2005), the Roman wolf (She-Wolf: The Story of a Roman Icon, Cambridge UP 2010), as well as an Italian language book (Italian Made Simple, Broadway Books, 2003), an edition of a medieval mystic's autobiography (Angela of Foligno's Memorial, Boydell and Brewer, 1999), and an edited volume on Rome since 1870 (Capital City, Annali d'Italianistica, 2010). I am currently working on a long-term project on European fairy tales.

Languages spoken:
Italian: native knowledge
English: near-native knowledge
French: excellent reading knowledge, rusty speaking knowledge
Latin: reading knowledge
Spanish: reading knowledge

Courses

• ITAL 1100: Elementary I
• ITAL 2100: Intermediate I
• ITAL 2200: Intermediate II
• ITAL 3110: Reading and Writing Workshop
• ITAL 3550: Issues in Italian Culture
• ITAL 3500: Italian Literature and Film
• ITAL 3580: Italian Food Culture
• ITAL 3565: Italian Fairy Tales
• ITAL 3555: Modern Italian Fictions
• ITAL 3560: Cultures of Women in Italy
• ITAL 2990: Intermediate Special Topics: Capital City Rome, 1870-2009
• ITAL 2990: Intermediate Special Topics: Children's Literature
• ITAL 2990: Intermediate Special Topics: Italian Fairy Tales
• ITAL 2990: Intermediate Special Topics: Italian Food Culture
• ITAL 4990: Advanced Special Topics: Modern Rome
• WLIT 2450: Italian Literature in Translation: Women and Rome in Literature and Film

Publications

Publications (DOCX)

Awards and Achievements

• 2018: AAIS Book Prize for Golden Fruit: A Cultural History of Oranges in Italy (Category: Renaissance, 18th, and 19th centuries)
• 2012-2013: University Scholar Award for Sustained Excellence in Research & Scholarly Activities (¶¶Òõ̽̽)
• 2010: Faculty Research Grant, Children’s Literature Association
• 2008: Publication Subvention for Capital City: Rome since 1870, Humanities Center (¶¶Òõ̽̽)
• 2004: Dean’s Lecture Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Teaching (¶¶Òõ̽̽)
• 2003, 2001: Dean’s Fund for Faculty Development (¶¶Òõ̽̽)
• 2002, 1999: Instructional Incentives Grant (¶¶Òõ̽̽)
• 2001: Center for Teaching and Learning Grant (¶¶Òõ̽̽)
• 1999, 1997: Summer Stipend, U.C.R.S. (¶¶Òõ̽̽)
• 1990-1991: Mellon Dissertation Fellowship (Woodrow Wilson Foundation)
• 1987-1990: Yale University Fellowship (Yale University)
• 1986-1988: Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities (Woodrow Wilson Foundation)
• 1985: Burckhardt Prize for Best Undergraduate Essay (UCSD)
• 1984-1985: John Muir College Caledonian Society (UCSD)

Area(s) of expertise

European Fairy Tales, Literature and Spirituality, Food Culture