UPCOMING
“Transcendence, Immanence, and the Early Modern Italian Lyric.” Department of Italian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Mar. 14, 2024.
“Representing and Engaging Divine Wisdom in Early Modern Italy.” Toronto Renaissance and Reformation Colloquium and the Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Jan. 18, 2024:
RECENT
“Michelangelo’s Phenomenology of Love”
Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (CMEMS), June 7, 2023
“Poetry of Sacred Enchantment in Early Modern Italy”
Workshop in Poetics, Stanford Humanities Center, Feb. 18, 2022
Commencement Address, 12 June 2022, Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, Stanford University
“Love, Beauty, and Salvation: The Poetry of Michelangelo,” a documentary podcast I participated in that Tony Luppino and Nicola Luksic brilliantly produced for CBC Ideas.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/michelangelo-s-poetry-reveals-his-divided-soul-1.6051938
“The Poet, the Artist, and the Word: Michelangelo in the Age of Religious Reform.” Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, virtual, May 3-5, 2021:
ACADEMIC TALKS AND PUBLIC LECTURES (a selection)
“Women and the Word: Devotional Poetics, Identity, and the Self in Early Modern Italy”
Renaissance Worldmaking Workshop, Stanford Humanities Center, May 21, 2021
“Michelangelo: Poetics of Possibility”
Getty Museum, Los Angeles, May 31, 2020 (cancelled – Covid)
“Dante’s Commedia: The Afterlife and its Afterlives in Art and Literature” (a lecture series comprised of three hour-long public talks):
“Inferno: A Guided Descent to the Depths”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, May 14, 2019
“Purgatorio: An Orchestrated Climb to the Summit”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, May 21, 2019
“Paradiso: Approaching God”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, May 28, 2019
“Women of the Italian Renaissance” (a lecture series comprised of three hour-long public talks):
“Isabella D’Este, Marchioness of Mantua (1475-1539): Patron and Political Figure”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, Jan. 15, 2019
“Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara (1490/92-1547): Writer and Religious Reformer”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, Jan. 22, 2019
“Veronica Franco (1546-1591): Poet and Courtesan; Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532-1625): Painter
Columbus Centre, Toronto, Feb. 5, 2019
“Michelangelo: Gateway to the Renaissance” (a lecture series comprised of four hour-long public talks):
“Michelangelo: From Apprenticeship to Early Acclaim (1475-1505)”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, Sept. 11, 2018
“Michelangelo: From the David to the Sistine Ceiling (1505-1513)”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, Sept. 18, 2018
“Michelangelo: From the Sistine Ceiling to the Last Judgement (1513-1541)”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, Sept. 25, 2018
“Michelangelo: His Life in Rome, His Late Works (1541-1564), and His Legacy”
Columbus Centre, Toronto, Oct. 2, 2018
“Michelangelo and the Bible: Religious Reading and Writing in Sixteenth-Century Italy”
Lauro de Bosis Fellowship Lecture, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, Apr. 27, 2017
“Religious Desire in the Poetry of Vittoria Colonna: Insights into Early Modern Piety and Poetics”
Villa Sassetti – NYU, Florence, Italy, Apr. 20-21, 2017
“Vittoria Colonna, Spiritual Patron, and ‘Living Instrument’”
Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT, Mar. 9, 2015
“Michelangelo: His Poetry and His World”
Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Toronto, Nov. 19, 2014
“Michelangelo: Quest for Freedom”
Toronto Renaissance and Reference Colloquium, University of Toronto, Oct. 7, 2014
“Michelangelo and the Bible: A Digital Edition with Social Media Functionality”
Celebration of Early Modern Studies Day, Victoria University, Toronto, Mar. 7, 2014
“Dante’s Homage to Arnaut Daniel”
School of Languages and Literatures, University of Guelph, Nov. 15, 2010
MEDIA APPEARANCES
“Michelangelo,” a documentary podcast for CBC Ideas. Personal interview recorded on Nov. 4, 2020.
First aired by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation in June 2021
Personal interview with Kate Wheeler and Sharon Caddy on the radio release of the title track to my 2015 album, Dark Angel. Aired on What She Said, Sirius XM, Canada Talks, Channel 167 on Mar. 11, 2016
Speech. Book Launch: Friulians in Canada. JD Carrier Gallery, Columbus Centre. Feb. 25, 2015
“20 Moves” (TV documentary on Rubik’s cube reproductions of Michelangelo)
Aired on ROGERS (Toronto) July 1, 2015; personal interview filmed on Mar. 14, 2014
“Italian Renaissance”
OMNI NEWS FOCUS (TV): Italian Edition, Jan. 17, 2011
CONFERENCE PAPERS (a selection)
Paper: “Eroticizing the Spiritual: Sensual Piety in Early Modern Devotional Verse by Women”
Renaissance Society of America (RSA), Virtual, Apr. 13-15, 2021 (originally for Philadelphia, Apr. 2-4, 2020)
Paper: “Experiments in Historical Imagination: Playing at the Intersection of Scholarly Research and Creative Writing”; Conference Title: “Italian Experiments” California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies (CICIS), UC Davis, Mar. 26-27, 2021
Paper: “Hosting the Enemy: Accommodating the French King and his Troops in Florence, 1494”
Conference Title: “Early Modern Cultures of Hospitality.” Toronto Renaissance and Reformation Colloquium, Toronto, Oct. 26-27, 2018
Paper: “Female Exemplarity, Identity, and Devotion in Lucrezia Marinella’s Sacre Rime (1603)”
Canadian Society for Italian Studies (CSIS), Ottawa, May 11-13, 2018
Respondent: “Idealizing Women in the Italian Renaissance”
Canadian Society for Italian Studies (CSIS), Ottawa, May 11-13, 2018
Paper: “Michelangelo, the Brucioli Bible (1532) and the Language of Reform Spirituality”
Renaissance Society of America (RSA), Chicago, Mar. 30-Apr. 1, 2017
Paper: “Lover’s Eye Meets Pilgrim’s Gaze: Vision and Visuality in Michelangelo’s Rime”
Society of Italian Studies (SIS), Trinity College, Dublin, Apr. 29- 30, 2016
Paper: “Bridging Boundaries, Human and Divine: Material Culture and Religious Experience in Early Modern Italy”; Conference Title: “(Un)human Relations/Relazioni (dis)umane.” University of Toronto, Toronto, May 5-6, 2015
Paper: “The Creation of Adam: Michelangelo’s Hidden Allegory of Mystical Ascent”
Renaissance Society of America (RSA), New York, Mar. 27-29, 2014
Paper: “Vat. Lat. 3211: Michelangelo’s spiritual aesthetics?”
Sixteenth Century Society Conference (SCSC), Cincinnati, Oct. 25-28, 2012
Paper: “The Ecclesia viterbiensis, or The Church as Inspired Instrumentality”
Conference Title: Italian Literature and Religion
University of Toronto, Toronto, Oct. 11-13, 2012
Paper: “Goldoni’s Metatheatrical Masterpiece”
Canadian Society for Italian Studies (CSIS), Waterloo, May 26-28, 2012
Paper: “Intersubjectivity and Historical Imagination in the Late Poetry of Alda Merini (1947-2009)”
American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS), Charleston, May 3-5, 2012
Paper: “Michelangelo, Dante and the Augustinian Intellectual Tradition”
Conference Title: “Dante and the Christian Imagination”
St. Michael’s College (SMS), Toronto, Mar. 9-11, 2012
Paper: “Friendship as Accessory to Grace: Vittoria Colonna, Michelangelo and the amicus sponsi”
Conference Title: “Friendship in Premodern Europe” Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (CRRS), Toronto, Oct. 14-15, 2011
Paper: “‘Conveniva partorirlo in qualche opera per amore’: Michelangelo’s G151-154 in light of Vittoria
Colonna’s Letters to Marguerite de Navarre”
Canadian Society for Italian Studies (CSIS), Venice, June 24-26, 2011
Paper: “‘Il mare e ’l monte e ’l foco colla spada’: Michelangelo’s Augustinian Soteriology?”
American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS), Pittsburgh, Apr. 7-9, 2011
Paper: “Michelangelo and the Italian Mystical Tradition”
Renaissance Society of America (RSA), Venice, Apr. 8-10, 2010
Paper: “Dante’s Homage to Arnaut Daniel”
American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS), Manhattan, May 7-10, 2009
Paper: “The ‘Devil’ in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment”
Conference Title: “The Devil in Society in the Pre-Modern World.” Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (CRRS), Toronto, Oct. 17-18, 2008
Paper: “Heresy and Confraternal Associations in Cinquecento Italy”
Conference Title: “Brotherhood and Boundaries/Fraternità e barriere.” Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (SNS), Pisa, Sept. 24-26, 2008