Held in Ravenna and Verona from August 22–27, 2026, the program offers an intensive and multidisciplinary exploration of Dante’s life, works, thought, and reception. This special twentieth-anniversary edition features lectures by leading international scholars and addresses topics ranging from Dante and Franciscan culture to manuscript studies, cartography, paleography, literary reception, and contemporary Dante scholarship.

The Summer School is open to undergraduate and graduate students, doctoral candidates, teachers, researchers, and all those with a serious interest in Dante and medieval Italian culture. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with current research, develop critical skills, and explore the cultural landscapes of the cities most closely associated with Dante’s life and legacy.

Applications are open through July 19, 2026.

For full program details, faculty, fees, and registration information, click here.

“Don’t be intimidated. All of the resources are there for students — take advantage of them.”

As the first-place winner of the 2026 Library Research Award in the Capstone or Thesis Research category, Sierocka says she remembers her own trepidation as a freshman, particularly when it came to Rare Books & Special Collections (RBSC).

But after the computer science major added an Italian minor, emboldened by her semester abroad, she found her class visiting RBSC. There, she discovered the Zahm Dante Collection, which inspired her thesis, “Visions of Judgment: Reimagining Dante’s Inferno in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art,” advised by Theodore Cachey, the Pizzo Family Chair in Dante Studies and Ravarino Family Director of Italian and Dante Studies Center for Italian Studies/ Devers Family Program in Dante Studies.

“My senior honors thesis began with a question about seeing,” she said. “How do four artists across two centuries look at the same poem and find something entirely different in it?”

To answer that question, Sierocka began her research in RBSC. There, she explored depictions of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy using the Zahm Dante Collection and medieval manuscript facsimiles.

When Sierocka couldn’t find what she needed in RBSC about a particular artist, she turned to the library’s catalog. The resource pointed her toward an oversized volume of the artist’s work located in the library’s stacks. The book’s size revealed illustration details that proved essential for Sierocka’s research.

“I needed not just books but objects: the kind of primary materials that ask you to slow down, that resist the speed of digital research and that insist on being read with attention,” she said. “The Hesburgh Libraries provided that, repeatedly and generously, in ways I could not have anticipated when I began.”

Sierocka also embraced the Libraries’ digital resources, such as JSTOR Image Search and Marble — a cross-institutional research tool that allows users to discover materials from the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, RBSC, and the University Archives – to supplement her research.

“What I learned through this process is that library resources do not merely support an argument — at their best, they change one,” Sierocka said. “The Hesburgh Libraries did not provide a backdrop for this thesis. They were the condition that made it possible.”

Going forward, the research skills Sierocka developed at the Hesburgh Libraries will guide her as she pursues a master’s degree in applied digital health at Oxford University.

“The master’s program is very focused on writing papers and interacting with scientific research,” she said. “I will definitely take my experiences here at the Libraries and in the computer science department and apply them in the future.”

Sierocka was not the only student recognized in this year’s Capstone or Thesis Research category.

Senior Kate Rafford, who placed second in the Capstone or Thesis Research category, also credits the Hesburgh Libraries for inspiring her project, “Magic in the Sound of Her Name: Remembering the Female Faculty at Notre Dame 1970–1981,” advised by professor Kathleen Cummings.

For her thesis, Rafford examined the coeducational experience of women who served as Notre Dame faculty members between 1970 and 1981 — a topic she discovered in the Archives while seeking resources for her original research idea.

“Those resources piqued my interest,” she said. “Without the help of library staff and resources, I would not have discovered this fascinating research topic, nor would I have been able to learn so much about Notre Dame’s history.”

“I definitely could not have even started my project without the Library,” she said. “I took a thesis class in the fall that required us to attend some of the Library’s workshops. One of them introduced us to the University Archives. That is where the most important sources for my research came from.”

Like Sierocka in RBSC, Rafford, an American studies and economics major, initially felt intimidated by the University Archives.

“There’s so much there. I initially felt overwhelmed, but I worked with experts in the Archives, and they helped guide me to the resources that I needed,” she said.

In addition to the Archives, Rafford utilized Zotero, a program she was introduced to in a library workshop, to organize and manage all of her citations. She also took advantage of the Libraries’ search tools, print materials and databases. Through one of those databases — the South Bend Tribune archive — she found news stories from outside the University that helped her gain insight for her thesis.

“My thesis would not have been possible without the sources I found in the University Archives collection, further supported by library workshops, databases, search tools, print and digital resources and study spaces,” she said. “I am very thankful to the library staff for guiding me through this journey and consistently supporting the resources that enable student success.”

Before starting the process, Rafford was intimidated by the prospect of writing a 40-page thesis. In the end, she wrote more than double that. But finishing her nearly 100-page thesis doesn’t mean the end of the graduating senior’s research journey.

“The research skills that I have developed this year will be helpful in my future pursuits, as I will be pursuing a master’s in education with the Alliance for Catholic Education,” she said. “I’ll be teaching third grade in Northern California, and also taking master’s in education classes here at Notre Dame. So I’ll certainly be spending more time in the Library for at least the next two summers.”

And like Sierocka, she has advice for incoming students who may feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the Libraries or just research in general.

“Seek out the librarians’ help and take workshops,” she said. “There’s so much to discover in the Library, and it is fun exploring all of the possibilities.”

Gabriela’s thesis examines how four major artists—William Blake, Gustave Doré, Alberto Martini, and Salvador Dalí—reinterpret Dante’s Inferno in ways that reflect the evolving philosophical, cultural, and psychological concerns of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

In addition to the written thesis, Gabriela created an accompanying interactive digital project that allows viewers to explore the artworks alongside Dante’s text and engage directly with her argument. Her work combines literary study, visual analysis, archival research, and digital humanities methodologies.

The award recognizes not only the quality of the thesis itself but also Gabriela’s extensive and sophisticated use of Hesburgh Libraries resources, especially the renowned Zahm Dante Collection in Rare Books and Special Collections. In her submission essay for the award, Gabriela reflects on how access to early printed editions of the Divine Comedy, medieval manuscript facsimiles, rare illustrated editions, and digital image databases fundamentally shaped the direction of her research. She writes that “the Hesburgh Libraries did not provide a backdrop for this thesis. They were the condition that made it possible.”

Her essay highlights the importance of the Zahm Dante Collection—one of the foremost Dante collections in North America—which includes a nearly complete sequence of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century editions of the Commedia. Working directly with these materials allowed Gabriela to trace how visual interpretations of Dante evolved across centuries and informed the later artistic traditions explored in her thesis.

In addition to her thesis work, Gabriela has also published a compelling essay on Counter-Reformation art and visual experience. In her essay, she explores how Baroque artists such as Andrea Pozzo, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Caravaggio used illusion, space, and embodiment to shape belief and guide the viewer’s experience of the sacred, arguing that art functioned as a powerful theological and persuasive medium.

Both Gabriela’s submission essay and accompanying website, as well as her essay on Counter-Reformation art, are available below:

• Visions of Judgment: Reimagining Dante’s Inferno in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art (hard copy available for consultation at the Center for Italian Studies, 377 Decio Faculty Hall); Capstone or Thesis Research Award submission essay
• Visions of Judgment
• When Seeing became Believing

Congratulations to Gabriela on her upcoming graduation and on these remarkable scholarly achievements!

Elsewhere, the month reflected both quiet moments and vibrant community life—from quiet scenes in Jerusalem to shared traditions in Santiago and creative work at Kylemore. Notre Dame Mexico joined the Harper Cancer Research Institute to celebrate global advances in collaborative cancer research, while the Global Engagement and Study Abroad teams connected international students with those preparing for experiences abroad. Taken together, these moments offer a snapshot of Notre Dame’s global mission in action.

This photo gallery highlights some of the valuable interactions and experiences Notre Dame faculty, staff, and students have taken part in over the past month.

The selection was curated by Notre Dame Global staff working on campus and in the University's 12 global locations.

MUMBAI

Dhiraj Mehra, director of Notre Dame Mumbai, and colleagues from the Notre Dame Global on-campus team led the 2026 Fulbright-Nehru International Education administrator grantees through their journey in the United States, with immersive engagements at the University of Notre Dame and seven other US universities. The group gained insight into the US higher education system and its commitment to excellence in teaching and research, explored the evolving landscape of US–India institutional partnerships, and engaged with the values that shape impactful teaching, learning, and global collaboration.

JERUSALEM

Two Notre Dame Jerusalem staff members captured quiet moments in the Old City of Jerusalem, as the country slowed down and the streets fell silent.

LONDON

Notre Dame London hosted the Nanovic Institute for European Studies’ fifth Barrett Family Lecture, delivered this year by Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies and Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow Emeritus at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Ash, also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, led Notre Dame London students in conversation before the lecture to discuss his talk "The European Crisis" and their London-local study of Europe.

SÃO PAULO

Thaïs Burmeister Pires, director of Notre Dame São Paulo, represented Brazil at the 2026 Notre Dame Alumni Leadership Conference and received both the Global Spirit Award and the Program of Excellence Award on behalf of the Notre Dame Club of Brazil. These recognitions highlight the ongoing collaboration between Notre Dame São Paulo and the Notre Dame Club of Brazil, working together to connect alumni, students, faculty, and partners, while strengthening the relationship between the University and Brazil.

BEIJING

“Get Ready to Study in the US Today” brought together visa experts to share recent updates, discuss trends, and offer practical guidance for students preparing to study in the United States. The event began with a presentation by Perry Landesberg, vice consul at the US Embassy in Beijing, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Notre Dame Beijing executive director Jingyu Wang.

KYLEMORE

Notre Dame Kylemore hosted its Instructor-led Writing Residency, featuring Professor Dionne Irving Bremyer. The residents had time and space to explore the grounds of Kylemore and engage in collaborative discussions regarding their varied bodies of work. The week culminated in a group reading, where shared stories marked a powerful close to the residency.

ROME

Notre Dame Rome hosted "The Sounds of I-Tal-Yah: The Musical Cultures of the Jews in Italy" with a lecture from Professor Francesco Spagnolo and music interludes by Enrico Fink, Gabriele Coen, and the Solisti dell’Orchestra Multietnica di Arezzo. Combining musical sources, including manuscripts and archival recordings, with visual and literary testimonies, the program explored the hyper-local, regional, national, and global dimensions of the Italian Jewish musical experience. Through lecture and live performance, the evening created a compelling dialogue between history, music, and culture.

DUBLIN

As part of the Dynamic Translation Lab, Notre Dame Professor Clíona Ní Ríordáin and University of Galway professor Patrick Lonergan co-organized a symposium marking the 30th anniversary of the publication of the influential book Translating Ireland by Michael Cronin. The collaborative project involved the Keough-Naughton Institute, Notre Dame Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, Literature Ireland, and the University of Galway. The event featured a 40-person seminar with an international cohort of academics, including participants from the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland.

SANTIAGO

Notre Dame Santiago organized its annual barbecue with friends and supporters who make the work of the academic center possible. This diverse group included study abroad students, their Chilean host families, Chilean students newly admitted to Notre Dame along with their parents, the Notre Dame Club of Chile, and the Brothers of the Holy Cross, who hosted the event at their residence.

MEXICO

Notre Dame Mexico joined the Harper Cancer Research Institute on campus to celebrate global advances in collaborative cancer research. Through a partnership with Centro de Investigación Oncológica (CIO), Una Nueva Esperanza (UNE), and Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), as well as the Puebla Study Abroad Program, pre-med students gain hands-on oncology research experience in Mexico. Students showcased their work through research posters, reflecting the impact of this collaboration since 2017.

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS & STUDY ABROAD

The Global Engagement and Study Abroad teams hosted a series of events to connect visiting international students and Notre Dame students planning to study abroad. In this photo, visiting Chinese students mingle with future participants of the Beijing, China – Summer: Philosophy of Culture, Art & Science program.

Originally published by Cory Hankins at global.nd.edu on May 01, 2026.

Together with the Newberry’s Instruction and Outreach Librarian, Dr Nora Epstein, students from the graduate programs in Italian Studies and the Medieval Institute examined a series of incunables and early printed editions containing texts in terza rima (the rhyme scheme popularized by Dante’s Divine Comedy). Often neglected by the critical tradition, these texts are at the center of Bowen’s Romance Literatures and Languages course, “After Dante: Poetic Imitation and Innovation in the Fourteenth Century” (ROIT 63020).

Drawing on their coursework, the group analyzed rare early editions of Petrarch’s Trionfi alongside imprints of Federico Frezzi’s Quadrireggio and Fazio degli Uberti’s Dittamondo. They discussed the role of page design in the presentation and transmission of the text and catalogued marks of ownership, binding histories, professional illuminations and other additions to the printed page carried out by readers from the fifteenth century to the present day.

The participants were particularly impressed by the curator’s deep knowledge about the collection, the chance to examine up close some of the rare early modern books studied in their coursework, and the possibility to interact directly with the historical editions discussed in class. Overall, the visit highlighted the outstanding cultural and scholarly resources available in the Notre Dame area and opened up avenues for future research, introducing participants to specific opportunities for further study and deepening students’ engagement with the textual and material culture of early modern Italy, with a particular focus on terza rima in early print, an area neglected in current scholarship.

This visit would not have been possible without the support of the Center for Italian Studies and the Newberry Consortium. Thank you for supporting our research!

Cover picture (from front left): Prof. Rebecca Bowen (Romance Literatures and Languages), Elsie Lou (Medieval Institute), Salvatore Riolo (Italian Studies), Maddi Grossman (Italian Studies), Alessandro Matone (Italian Studies), Camilla Canonico (Italian Studies), Elisa Bisson (Italian Studies), Giorgia Buscema (Italian Studies), Dillon Hughes (Italian Studies), Roberto Luraschi (Italian Studies).

Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., president of the Pontifical Commission and Governorate of Vatican City State, will be the principal speaker and receive an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame’s 181st University Commencement Ceremony on May 17, Notre Dame President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., announced today.

In February 2025, the late Pope Francis appointed Sister Petrini, a member of the religious congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, to the dual roles of president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and president of the Governorate of Vatican City State. She is the first woman to hold these top leadership positions in the Vatican. Prior to these appointments, Sister Petrini served as secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

“Sister Raffaella is an extraordinary leader who works tirelessly for the common good and radiates the peace, love and hope of Christ. As the highest-ranking woman in the Vatican, she embodies the future of women’s leadership in the Church, having served Pope Francis and now Pope Leo with deep wisdom, unfailing dedication and true humility,” Father Dowd said. “It is a privilege to have her address the members of the Class of 2026 and their loved ones who are sure to be inspired by her words and prophetic witness.”

As president of the governorate, Sister Petrini is responsible for the administrative operations of Vatican City State, which has approximately 600 inhabitants and nearly 2,000 employees. Her responsibilities include managing public services; overseeing security, health care and the Vatican Museums; chairing the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State; and ensuring that all operations align with the pope’s mission.

Sister Petrini is also a member of the Dicastery for Bishops, which assists the pope in the selection and appointment of bishops, and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the body responsible for managing Vatican finances.

On Feb. 3, Pope Leo XIV appointed Sister Petrini to the Commission for Reserved Matters, the entity responsible for awarding financial contracts in confidential areas of the Vatican.

Born in Rome, Sister Petrini is a distinguished scholar and economist. She holds a degree in political science from Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (LUISS) in Rome, a master’s degree in organizational behavior from the University of Hartford and a doctorate in social sciences from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. In addition to her responsibilities in the Vatican City State, Sister Petrini is a professor of welfare economics and sociology of economic processes in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Angelicum.

Sister Petrini visited the Notre Dame campus in November 2023 to present the Keeley Vatican Lecture at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, focusing on integral human development and organizational management rooted in a “leadership of care.”

The 2026 University Commencement Ceremony will be held in Notre Dame Stadium on May 17 beginning at 9 a.m. with the academic procession.

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-993-9220

Originally published by Notre Dame News at news.nd.edu on March 19, 2026.

The grant—intended to enhance the research value of the Hesburgh Libraries’ holdings across a wide range of fields associated with Italian studies—invites members of the Notre Dame community to submit proposals for materials of rare, unique, or exceptional value that advance research and teaching at the University.

Proposed acquisitions may include: entire collections or other substantial multi-item purchases that address critical needs, unique or rare materials of scholarly or research value, or opportunities not supported by existing departmental or library funds.

“We are so grateful to the Center for Italian Studies for sponsoring this grant,” said Margaret Meserve, Edward H. Arnold Dean of the Hesburgh Libraries. “The Hesburgh Libraries has a long history of collecting in Italian studies, and we are especially proud of our longstanding partnership with the Devers Program in Dante Studies and the Center for Italian Studies. With the help of this new grant program, we will further strengthen our collections while inviting new opportunities for collaborations with faculty and students in all areas of Italian studies.”

Premier Italian Collections

Materials acquired with the grant will be housed and stewarded by the Hesburgh Libraries and the department of Rare Books & Special Collections (RBSC).

RBSC is home to one of the premier collections of Italian literature in the United States. The department currently serves as one of the foremost centers in North America for the study of Dante Alighieri, with more than 3,500 volumes in the Zahm Dante Collection.

Its holdings encompass works of major medieval and Renaissance Italian authors, such as Petrarch, Boccaccio, Baldassare Castiglione, Ludovico Ariosto, Pietro Bembo and Torquato Tasso; an expansive collection of early Italian printed books, including numerous incunabula and sixteenth-century books; and growing collections of modern literature, including the writings of Primo Levi.

“The Center for Italian Studies is proud to partner with the Hesburgh Libraries in advancing a long-term vision for Italian studies at Notre Dame,” said Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., the Pizzo Family Chair in Dante Studies and Ravarino Family Director of Italian and Dante Studies. “Targeted acquisitions—whether rare books, archival materials, or digital initiatives—strengthen the intellectual infrastructure that sustains interdisciplinary research and teaching. This initiative ensures that our collections continue to grow organically, coherently, and ambitiously.”

Global Research Destination

The Notre Dame Center for Italian Studies organizes and supports research, education, and outreach initiatives in Italian studies, including those of the Devers Family Program in Dante Studies, together with partners on campus, in Rome, and around the world.

The mission of the center is to support research and education in the languages, cultures, and peoples of Italy’s past, present, and future from a broad array of disciplinary perspectives.

The center supports Notre Dame faculty and students in Italian studies with its annual program of seminars and lectures; the research grants and fellowships it offers; its publications, library resources, and digital humanities initiatives; and through its internal research projects and international collaborations. The center also organizes, sponsors, and co-sponsors outreach activities to celebrate and promote the study of Italy’s languages, cultures, and peoples to Notre Dame faculty and students as well as global communities of scholars.

Call for Proposals

The grant application is now open for any member of the University of Notre Dame community whose work supports research or teaching in Italian studies. For more information, download the call for proposals and submission guidelines.

Interested applicants should submit their proposal using the designated submission form by Wednesday, April 15.

For more information, view the detailed call for proposals or contact Demetrio Yocum, Senior Research Associate, Center for Italian Studies, at dyocum@nd.edu; or Ruben Celani, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Italian Studies and Zahm Dante Collection Curatorial Fellow, at rcelani@nd.edu.

What is the focus of your current research?

Within Italian literature, I focus specifically on Holocaust testimonies—a field that is usually dominated by survivor and chemist Primo Levi. It often feels as though Italian women didn’t experience the concentration camps or have anything to say. Sadly, this kind of erasure of women’s voices is relatable to societies beyond post–World War II Italy. It is a nearly universal experience.

To address this erasure, my research focuses on the early editorial reception of female Holocaust memoirs in Italy between 1945 and 1955. This is the decade before the Eichmann trial, which eventually sparked a boom in testimonies. I am trying to understand why some voices were neglected while others were promoted to the public during that short window. Ultimately, my goal is to reopen the Italian literary canon to integrate more female voices not simply to be more inclusive but in order to bring to life erased stories and uncover what might have been hidden. I focus on the reception of these books—not just who was listened to but also why others were not.

How did you get interested in this topic?

Though I began my career as a medievalist working with manuscripts, I felt a pull toward Holocaust history, an interest sparked first by visiting Auschwitz at the age of twelve. While that was a young age to be exposed to such a story, I have never forgotten it. My interest was further kindled by taking classes with my advisor, Charles Leavitt. During a period of discernment at Notre Dame, I realized that I wanted to develop that interest into a research project that motivates me and gives me a sense of purpose as a scholar responsible to future generations. This project allows me to merge my passion for archival research with modern questions of identity and history.

How do you view your research as contributing to the common good?

My research shows that if female survivors’ accounts mentioned being arrested by an Italian officer or being betrayed by an Italian neighbor, those accounts often disappeared or were published by tiny houses and never reached a broad public. Accounts that focused strictly on the experience within the camps—the in media res of the Holocaust—tended to have better fortune, though even these got lost in the Italian Holocaust literary canon over time.

My research advances the common good by restoring ownership to these survivors whose voices were mitigated by editors and historical narratives. In an era of rising nationalism, it is vital to challenge comfortable myths. By teaching students to look beyond the official version of history and engage with marginalized perspectives, I hope to foster a more critical, empathetic society that recognizes our shared humanity and resists repeating past injustices.

Imported from the Notre Dame Institute for Social Concerns

Alessia is the director of the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures. She has also served as Italian language course coordinator in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and has been teaching undergraduate Italian language courses since 1999. In addition to her work with undergraduates, she leads the Foreign Language Teaching Methodology & Second Language Acquisition course, where she trains graduate students to become effective and compassionate instructors.

In her decades of teaching and leading, she has shaped not only a program but generations of students and instructors who see language as a bridge to empathy, curiosity, and connection, and I couldn’t miss the chance to sit down with her to reflect on her teaching journey, her impact, and the lessons she leaves behind.

Beatrice Maria Rosso: Looking back on your 26 years of teaching and coordinating in Italian Studies here, what are you most proud of building or leaving behind in the program?

Alessia Blad-Miller: I am most proud of helping build a culture where students feel both challenged and supported, where learning Italian is not just about grammar and vocabulary but about curiosity, discovery, connection, and embracing a new culture with an open mind. The strongest legacy, I hope, is the community of learners and teachers who see language study as a gateway to empathy and intercultural understanding.

BMR: You started by teaching undergraduates, and later also trained graduate students in Teaching Methods. What differences did you notice between those two experiences?

ABM: Teaching undergraduates is about opening doors and helping them discover a new world through Italian language and culture. Training graduate students to be successful instructors is more about mentorship: giving them tools, confidence, and perspective so they can, in turn, open doors for others. With undergraduate students, the reward is seeing their first spark of discovery; with graduates, it is seeing them grow into thoughtful, independent educators.

BMR: What are the most important skills or values you tried to pass on to your students–both undergraduates learning Italian and graduates learning how to teach?

ABM: To undergraduates: persistence, curiosity, and the joy of expressing themselves in another language. And also the rewards of discovering a new culture, understanding a different way of living, thinking, and behaving. To graduates: I hope I have modeled empathy and shown that teaching is not about perfection but about connection, about meeting students where they are and helping them move forward.

BMR: How do you teach “how” to teach?

ABM: You model it. You demonstrate that preparation is essential, but so is flexibility. You cultivate a safe space for experimentation, reflection, and even mistakes. The core of the practice is helping future teachers analyze their own learning journey, translating that understanding into strategies that honor diverse student needs.

To me teaching is not about perfection; it’s about progress. We must model understanding, compassion, and grace, showing that to be a teacher is to be—first and foremost—a learner.

BMR: What do you think are the biggest challenges facing language programs today?

ABM: Facing funding and enrollment pressures, and competing with other fields, language programs must combat the misconception that English is enough, especially since demanding student schedules limit the sustained engagement required to prove languages are essential for global citizenship.

A key challenge for language programs is the essential integration of intercultural competence, which moves beyond simple fluency to equip students with the ability to understand cultural nuances and mediate communication for effective global collaboration.

BMR: What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to teach?

ABM: We must see ourselves not just as instructors, but as the primary model for lifelong learning and human excellence. One cannot teach effectively without passion—it is the fuel for our work. But that passion must be paired with patience for the process, with humility to learn from our students, and with respect for our students as learners, as human beings. The greatest educators in my personal experience have been those who understand they are modeling behavior, not just transferring knowledge.

It was an honor for me to hear Alessia’s point of view on teaching and directing. By leading a program, she did not simply create excellent curricula and syllabi; she created a strong community of passionate students and passionate educators. Alessia’s core teaching philosophy, that “teaching is not about perfection; it's about progress,” made it possible for first-time teachers like me to approach the profession knowing that it is okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them.

Knowing that she is leaving the program in great hands makes it a little easier to say goodbye as she moves onto her next chapter, but I will be forever grateful for the role she played in my journey as a teacher.

Beatrice Maria Rosso is a graduate associate at Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Italian studies at the University.

Originally published by Beatrice Maria Rosso at learning.nd.edu on February 03, 2026.

Building on earlier interests in manuscript circulation and literary reception, Francesco focused in particular on Dante’s Monarchia, examining its manuscript transmission, paratexts, marginalia, and changing political and philosophical interpretations from the fourteenth through the sixteenth century. Thanks to research funding provided by Notre Dame, Francesco was able to travel to multiple libraries worldwide, where he conducted firsthand study of manuscript copies of the Monarchia and its Tuscan translations. A distinctive feature of his research during the fellowship was its attention to the manuscripts’ materiality and the historical contexts of the manuscripts’ production and fruition. By studying how the Monarchia circulated alongside other texts and how it was annotated, translated, and excerpted, Francesco showed how Dante’s authority as a political thinker, philosopher, or theologian was continually redefined in response to new intellectual and political contexts. This work resulted in a major article on Trecento readers of the Monarchia, featured in the latest issue of Le tre corone. The article is included in the thematic section of the volume Poetry, Politics, and Philology: Reading Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio Across the Centuries, co-edited with Laura Banella. Francesco’s contribution, together with the other essays in the thematic section, is freely available online through the support of a generous grant from Notre Dame’s Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good.

Alongside his individual research, Francesco played an active role in shaping collaborative scholarly initiatives. The thematic section of Le tre corone grew out of a series of international conference panels on Dante’s reception that Francesco organized or co-organized, including sessions at the Renaissance Society of America and the Society for Italian Studies, as well as a recurring major workshop at Notre Dame Rome. These activities not only disseminated his own work but also helped build an international network of scholars working on Dante, manuscript studies, and premodern literary circulation.

Francesco’s postdoctoral years were also marked by sustained engagement with teaching and graduate education. He taught the undergraduate Italian-language survey course in Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature and Culture; led multiple graduate seminars and delivered guest lectures on manuscripts, Dante’s Monarchia, troubadour poetry, and the history of vernacular authority; mentored doctoral students; and served as a discussant in research presentations at Notre Dame Rome. Throughout his teaching and service, he consistently brought students into direct engagement with primary materials and with the methodological questions central to premodern literary studies. In addition, he co-taught Notre Dame Rome’s flagship course, All Roads Lead to Rome, with Prof. Chiara Sbordoni for one semester.

Taken together, Francesco’s postdoctoral work at Notre Dame reflects a scholar who combines academic rigor with conceptual ambition, and individual research excellence with a strong sense of institutional and collaborative engagement. In parallel with this new line of research on the Monarchia, the postdoctoral fellowship allowed Francesco to develop his doctoral dissertation into a monograph on the reception of troubadour poetry in Italy, now under revision for publication by Oxford University Press. Throughout both research strands, he consistently relied on the advice and supervision of Prof. Theodore Cachey and Prof. Laura Banella.

This body of work now continues in Francesco’s new role as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts at the University of Hamburg. In this position, he will further his research on the reception of the Monarchia within a strongly interdisciplinary environment, building on the research and skills developed at Notre Dame while also engaging with the Cluster’s interdisciplinary methods, which bring together scholars from the humanities alongside computer scientists and natural scientists in the study of manuscripts.

Despite his move to the University of Hamburg, Francesco’s ties with Notre Dame remain strong. In March, he will return as a presenter in the OVI-Notre Dame seminar series, where his talk will focus on the reception of Dante’s Monarchia, continuing lines of inquiry developed during his postdoctoral fellowship. The seminar offers an opportunity to engage with his ongoing research while also underscoring the enduring scholarly connections between his current work and the projects and conversations fostered during his time at Notre Dame. Francesco also remains an active member of the committee for Notre Dame’s hybrid Tre corone book presentation series and is organizing a Dante Canon panel for the upcoming Notre Dame–Yale Conference at Notre Dame Rome (May 2026).

The Notre Dame fellowship proved to be a pivotal step in Francesco’s career, supporting his transition from doctoral student to independent researcher and enabling him to expand his scholarly network. We wish Francesco all the best as he continues his scholarly research and academic career and we very much look forward to continued collaboration and future joint projects.

Across three meetings, participants will read and discuss key Ovidian passages together with invited guests, with particular attention to how these myths are reworked, transformed, and reimagined in Dante’s poetry and in later literary traditions.

Schedule

• Wednesday, March 9 at 3:00 pm (EDT)

with Prof. Julie Van Peteghem (CUNY).

Click here for more details and the Zoom link.

• Friday, March 27 at 2:00 pm (EDT)

with Prof. Rebecca Bowen (University of Notre Dame)

Click here for more details and the Zoom link.  

• Monday, April 20 at 1:00 pm (EDT)

with Prof. Elena Lombardi (University of Oxford)

Click here for more details and the Zoom link.  

All meetings will take place on Zoom. Prior to each session, participants will receive a short list of primary passages and a small selection of secondary readings or pre-circulated papers.

The reading group is open to graduate students from all fields. No prior specialization in Ovid is required, and participation is warmly encouraged from anyone interested in Dante, classical reception, myth, and poetics.

Further details will be shared closer to each session.

The annual seminar dedicated to Francesco Petrarca, organized by the Department of Humanities at Roma Tre University, the Notre Dame Center for Italian Studies, Notre Dame Rome, the Centro Pio Rajna, and Boston College, will again take place in 2026.

The aim of Laureatus in Urbe is to create a recurring forum dedicated to Petrarch studies and reserved for young scholars in the field. Graduates, doctoral candidates, and recent PhDs (within five years of completion) will have the opportunity to present the results of their research and to discuss them with established experts invited to guide and animate the conversation. Laureatus in Urbe has become a well-established event and serves as a meeting place and research workshop that, for several years now, has brought together young Italian and international researchers, offering a recognized platform for their work. To date, more than two hundred young scholars from around the world have participated. Alongside their presentations, introductory and concluding lectures have been delivered by renowned specialists such as Marco Ariani, Rossend Arqués Corominas, Ted Cachey, Loredana Chines, Marco Cursi, Enrico Fenzi, Philippe Guérin, Bernhard Huss, Carlo Pulsoni, Francisco Rico, Luca Carlo Rossi, Sabrina Stroppa, Franco Suitner, and Natascia Tonelli. Sessions, seminars, and presentations have been led by experts from various Italian and international universities.

The tenth edition of the seminar will be held in Rome on 16–17 June 2026.

Participants may present on various areas of research, including (but not limited to):

• Latin and/or vernacular works: themes, contexts, and style

• Petrarch’s relationship to the classics and the vernacular tradition

• The reception of Petrarch: from Petrarchism to the 2000s

• Petrarch’s language: Latin and vernacular

• Petrarch and history

• Petrarchan philology

• Petrarch and philosophy

• The canon and the Three Crowns: Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio

• Petrarch, the arts, and other media

• Biography and historical context

• Petrarch and translation

During the 2026 seminar there will also be a lecture by Luca Marcozzi and a roundtable with several specialists.

Submission of Proposals

Proposals should include a title, an abstract (max. 800 characters), and a short biobibliographical profile (approx. 500 characters). Proposals must be submitted by 1 March 2026 in a single Word document titled “Cfp LiU Surname” to: paolo.rigo@uniroma3.it

(subject line: Cfp Laureatus in Urbe). The file should also include a valid email address for contact purposes. Notification of acceptance will be sent within 30 days after the deadline.

Applications will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee, composed of:
Marco Ariani (Roma Tre), Rossend Arqués Corominas (UAB), Laurent Baggioni (Sorbonne Nouvelle), Johannes Bartuschat (Zurich), Theodore J. Cachey Jr. (Notre Dame), Mathilde Cazeaux (ENS Lyon), Maria Sole Costanzo (Boston), Marco Cursi (Naples), Sabrina Ferrara (Tours), Enrico Fenzi (Genoa), Maurizio Fiorilla (Roma Tre), Judith Frömmer (Vienna), Philippe Guérin (Sorbonne Nouvelle), Bernhard Huss (Freie–Berlin), Luca Marcozzi (Roma Tre, coordinator), Daniele Piccini (Stranieri di Perugia), Carlo Pulsoni (Perugia), Paolo Rigo (Roma Tre, organizing director), Luca Carlo Rossi (Bergamo), Jiří Špička (Olomouc), Sabrina Stroppa (Stranieri di Perugia), Franco Suitner (Roma Tre), Natascia Tonelli (Siena), Eduard Vilella Morato (UAB).

Secretariat:
Silvia Argurio, Giulia Maria Cipriani, Rita Di Pasquale, Giulia Lanciotti, Serena Mauriello, Carlotta Mazzoncini, Matteo Petriccione, Valentina Rovere, Priscilla Santoro, Chiara Sbordoni, Nicole Volta.

A group of University of Notre Dame students discovered that to be true last semester by participating in the centuries-old literary tradition of "The Journey to Italy."

Students in the Italian studies course, The Literature of the Journey to Italy: From the Renaissance to the Present,  participated in a fully funded, week-long trip to Italy — including visits to Rome, Florence, and Naples — through a College of Arts & Letters Teaching Beyond the Classroom grant, which is designed to advance learning through real-life encounters.

In the course, students were challenged to understand Italy’s role in shaping European and American literary imagination; develop skills in close reading, textual analysis, and cultural interpretation; and critically reflect on their own travel experiences in relation to literary models.

“There's a difference between reading about something and seeing and experiencing it,” said senior Gracie Speicher, who majors in environmental science with a supplementary major in Italian studies. “Whenever you’re able to take something from the classroom and see it in real life, it means a lot more.”

Led by Ted Cachey, the Pizzo Family Chair in Dante Studies and Ravarino Family Director of Italian and Dante Studies, and Italian studies Ph.D. candidate Alessandro Matone, eight undergraduate students spent the first portion of the fall 2025 semester reading and discussing the accounts of notable creatives who traveled to, and were influenced by, Italy — books such as Michel de Montaigne's Journal of Travels in Italy, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Italian Journey, Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad, and Mary McCarthy’s The Stones of Florence.

Then, in mid-October, students followed in the footsteps of those famous authors.

“You're putting yourself into this tradition by going one level deeper in terms of what Italy has to offer,” said senior Matthew Fishburne.

Encountering Italy through travel literature

Cachey knew he wanted to offer a course that intertwined the history of the journey to Italy and explored travel narratives of some of the best 17th-to-20th-century writers.

“You really get to know these authors and see how travel to Italy changes them,” Speicher said.

The trip built upon the students’ already deep understanding of Italian history, art, and culture. Most of the students had studied Italian and traveled abroad through Notre Dame Global programs in Rome and Bologna, as well as through other internships and teaching experiences, such as a year in Rome as part of the School of Architecture program.

But this experience, they said, was completely different.

“This trip was a continuation of a journey that students had started years before, when they began studying Italian at Notre Dame,” Matone said. “This was a culmination of their language and culture studies at Notre Dame.”

During their time in Italy, the students retraced the routes once taken by high-status aristocrats on the Grand Tour, a traditional early modern practice of traveling across Europe for cultural education and refinement.

“Our first day in Rome, we entered the city like Montaigne and Goethe through the Porta Flaminia, starting our whole trip at Piazza del Popolo,” said fifth-year architecture student Rylan Chromy. “From there, we went to the Spanish Steps, and just followed the path that a Grand Tourist would have taken through the city.”

“Sometimes when you’re traveling, you can get caught up in worrying about what things you should be seeing and just trying to pack it all in. And when you're doing it in an academic way, it forces you to stop and reflect on the things that you're seeing much more.”

-senior Gracie Speicher, who majors in environmental science with a supplementary major in Italian studies.

Once a marquee destination for Grand Tour travelers, the Villa Albani is now typically accessible only to scholars and specialists. During their visit, however, the Notre Dame students were granted a private tour of the estate, which has remained virtually unchanged since the mid-eighteenth century.

“You get more time to see some of the more culturally significant things, as opposed to what’s just the most popular,” Fishburne said.

The itinerary intentionally highlighted the authors that students encountered in class, allowing their works to come vividly to life. In Rome, students visited Goethe’s apartment, and in Florence they took in the breathtaking cityscape that Mary McCarthy memorably described from the vantage point of San Miniato al Monte.

“There was a connection between the syllabus, the readings we did, the work we did in class, and the work we did on place in Italy,” Matone said.

Although the week was full of site visits and excursions, the trip offered a more intentional and thoughtfully curated experience for the students.

“Sometimes when you’re traveling, you can get caught up in worrying about what things you should be seeing and just trying to pack it all in,” Speicher said. “And when you're doing it in an academic way, it forces you to stop and reflect on the things that you're seeing much more.”

Fostering a global community

The trip allowed students to connect more deeply with their classmates, Cachey and Matone, and faculty at Notre Dame Rome.

Students met with a variety of Notre Dame faculty while in Italy, including Charles Leavitt, the William Payden Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, who met the students at the American Academy in Rome — where he is currently a Rome Prize Fellow — and Chiara Sbordoni, an associate teaching professor of Italian at Notre Dame Rome. Faculty back in South Bend, including associate professor of film studies Olivier Morel, and art history professor Heather Hyde Minor, also helped students prepare to understand the city and art they would encounter on the trip.

During their travels, students also enjoyed more personalized experiences, such as dinner with Sbordoni and her family and an outing to an AS Roma football game. Students said these moments become some of their most cherished memories from the week.

“It was going beyond the classroom in not necessarily just a geographical sense, but also going beyond the classroom with people that we had only really interfaced with in a classroom,” said senior Beau Steller, who majors in economics and Italian.

A lifelong appreciation

As students work on their capstone project for the course — in which they will create their own travel narratives — many reflect on their experiences in the context of the authors who came before them.

“The reasons why someone would travel to Rome centuries ago, you still see that transformation and those motivations still today,” Speicher said.

For Chromy, drawing is a unique way to connect with the Grand Tourist travelers.

“They're taking sketches of everything they see,” he said. “I made sure that I got a sketchbook specifically for the trip.”

The trip showed students that not only are they part of this long line of travelers to Italy, but also that their own connection to the country is a dynamic, lifelong affair.

“Every time I visit Italy, I always wonder, ‘Is this the last time?’” Fishburne said. “I've just been really grateful and surprised that the next time came pretty quickly.”

For Cachey and Matone, who hope to offer the course again, the class’s impact only deepens once students are back home.

“We’ve tried to model a meaningful, elevated conversation about Italian culture and history,” Cachey said. “My hope is that students continue to nurture that conversation with others throughout their careers and their lives.”

Originally published by Hailey Oppenlander at al.nd.edu on January 12, 2026.

Meserve, who has served as interim library dean since August 2024, now begins a five-year term.

“The Hesburgh Libraries are vital to Notre Dame’s aspirations to be the leading global Catholic research university,” Father Dowd said. “Over her 20-year career at the University, Margaret has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication to Notre Dame’s mission, including most recently as interim dean, earning the respect and admiration of her colleagues. I am confident that under her guidance, the libraries will continue to advance the University’s research, teaching and learning goals while fostering Notre Dame’s engagement with the global scholarly community.”

John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, said Meserve was well-suited to her new role. “Margaret is an unusually gifted administrator,” he said. “She possesses vision, superb communications skills and a deep commitment to Notre Dame. All of this has been in evidence in her multiple roles at Notre Dame.”

Meserve was appointed vice president and associate provost for academic space and support in 2023. Prior to that, she served as associate dean for the humanities and faculty affairs and director of space planning in the College of Arts and Letters and co-director of the Glynn Family Honors Program.

“A professor of history, Margaret is passionate about rare books and special collections, sophisticated in her use of data and a leading scholar of the history of the book,” McGreevy noted. “The search committee praised her work as interim dean, her compelling vision for the library and her commitment to deepening the engagement of the libraries with all of Notre Dame’s colleges and schools.”

In her continued capacity as vice president and associate provost, Meserve will maintain oversight of the University of Notre Dame Press, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art and the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. She will be handing off her current duties related to academic space and support to Vice President and Associate Provost David Go by the end of the academic year.

As dean, Meserve will lead a team of nearly 140 faculty and staff members at the flagship Hesburgh Library — which houses the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship, the Medieval Institute Library, the University Archives and Rare Books & Special Collections — and three specialty libraries located across the Notre Dame campus (architecture, business and music).

“I’m honored and excited to continue working with our expert library faculty and staff to strengthen support for research, teaching and the preservation of knowledge at Notre Dame for generations to come,” Meserve said. “And I look forward to advancing new initiatives in information literacy, digital collections and scholarly communication that will advance the Hesburgh Libraries as a leader among university research libraries.”

Meserve received her bachelor’s degree in classics from Harvard and her master’s and doctorate in Renaissance history from the University of London. She taught at Princeton for two years before coming to Notre Dame in 2003. She has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies, and she is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

In her research and teaching, Meserve focuses on the Italian Renaissance and the histories of printing and book production, history writing, humanist culture and the papacy in the 15th and 16th centuries. Both her undergraduate and graduate courses often make use of the Hesburgh Libraries’ rare books and manuscripts as a way to introduce students to the material evidence of history. Her most recent book, “Papal Bull: Print, Politics, and Propaganda in Renaissance Rome,” won the American Catholic Historical Association’s Helen & Howard Marraro Prize for the most distinguished work in Italian history published in 2021.

She is currently working on a translation of the “Commentaries” of Pope Pius II, a Renaissance pope known for his scholarship and the only pope ever to compose an autobiography while in office.

The Postdoctoral Program jointly administered by Notre Dame Rome and Università Roma Tre concluded its first cycle with the organization of the international conference "Women Writers and Rhetoric in Early Modern Italy".

Co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Letters, the Center for Italian Studies, and Notre Dame Rome, the program offers early-career scholars the opportunity to pursue advanced research while promoting sustained collaboration between the two institutions.

In 2024, Dr. Katie Sparrow, who earned her Ph.D. in Italian Studies at Notre Dame in 2023, served as the inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow. Based in the Department of Humanistic Studies at Università Roma Tre under the supervision of Prof. Luca Marcozzi, Sparrow conducted research on early modern literature and rhetoric while strengthening scholarly ties between the two institutions through collaborative initiatives.

As part of her fellowship, she co-organized—together with Dr. Serena Mauriello of Roma Tre—the international conference Voice of Persuasion: Women Writers and Rhetoric in Early Modern Italy. The two-day event, held on September 25, 2025 at Università Roma Tre and September 26, 2025 at Notre Dame Rome, brought together scholars from across disciplines to explore the intellectual contributions and rhetorical strategies of women authors during a pivotal era in European cultural and literary history.

“This year working on the PoetRi project has offered me a unique opportunity to collaborate with deeply engaged scholars at Roma Tre and to explore the works and lives of early modern women writers in Italy, which was an exciting shift from my previous research on medieval Italian literature,” Sparrow noted. “I’m especially grateful to have been part of the team that brought this conference on women and rhetoric to life: I learned a lot in the process of organizing the conference and it was great to see the engaging exchange of research and ideas as the final result.”

Sparrow’s leadership in organizing the conference exemplifies the program’s mission to advance both scholarly research and cross-cultural exchange. Through her work, she seeks to foster dialogue between Italian and international scholars and to illuminate the enduring influence of women’s voices in shaping literary and cultural traditions. The event also strengthened the longstanding academic partnership between the University of Notre Dame and the Department of Humanistic Studies at Università Roma Tre, building upon years of fruitful collaboration.

Learn more about the Post-doctoral fellowship at Notre Dame Rome in partnership with Università Roma Tre.

Originally published by Costanza Montanari at rome.nd.edu on October 17, 2025.

Our award-winning faculty are considered leaders in their respective fields. Theodore J. Cachey Jr. (Pizzo Family Chair in Dante Studies, and Ravarino Family Director of the Center for Italian Studies and the Devers Program in Dante Studies) researches and teaches Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, history of the Italian language, travel literature, and literature and cartography. Charles L. Leavitt IV (William Payden Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures) researches and teaches modern and contemporary Italian literature, Italian screen studies, fascism and resistance, and the representation of minoritized communities in Italian culture. Laura Banella (Fabiano Assistant Professor of Italian) researches and teaches Dante, Boccaccio, lyric poetry, manuscript studies and the history of the book, and Renaissance literature. Sara Boezio (Assistant Professor of Italian) researches and teaches nineteenth-century Italian literature and cultural history, with an interdisciplinary focus on art, history, and philosophy. Rebecca Bowen (Assistant Professor of Italian) researches and teaches the lyric tradition and the works of Dante with a focus on classical reception, text-image-object relations, and the culture of early printing.

Graduate students in Italian also have the opportunity to work with Affiliate Faculty including Maurizio Albahari(Associate Professor of Anthropology), who researches and teaches on migration and refugee mobility in the Euro-Mediterranean region, the Mediterranean Sea, and Italy; Marius Hauknes (Assistant Professor of Art History), who studies medieval art with a focus on the intersections of art, science, and theology; Barry McCrea (Donald R. Keough Family Professor of Irish Studies and Professor of English), a novelist and scholar of comparative literature who teaches comparative courses on broad themes dealing with literature in Italian among many other languages; Margaret Meserve(Professor of History), who studies the Italian Renaissance; Heather Minor (Professor of Art History), whose scholarly interests include the city of Rome, the intellectual history of art history, and prints and print culture; and Denis Robichaud(John and Patrice Kelly Associate Professor of Liberal Studies), who researches and teaches the history of philosophy, intellectual history, philology, Platonism, ancient, medieval, and renaissance philosophy, and Italian Renaissance humanism.

The Italian Studies program is greatly enriched by the presence of accomplished postdoctoral fellows. These scholars make significant contributions to the field and to our community: Valentina Mele (Marie Curie Fellowship) researches the reception of Dante in 1945-2001 US avant-garde poetic communities. Italian Postdoctoral Fellow Peerawat Chiaranunt's scholarly interests include Dante, the history of medieval philosophy, the history of nature, and medieval/Renaissance humanism.

The Italian Graduate Program provides unique opportunities for funded research and specialized graduate experiences, in collaboration with the Center for Italian Studies, the Devers Program in Dante Studies, Notre Dame Rome, and other research centers and institutes at Notre Dame, such as the Center for the Study of Languages & Cultures, the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, the Medieval Institute, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. The University’s Hesburgh Libraries offer rich and growing collectionsin all areas of Italian Studies, especially Dante Studies, early modern Italian literature, and modern and contemporary Italian literature and film.

Italian Studies at Notre Dame offers a flexible curriculum tailored to your interests and background. Individual attention, small classes, and a dynamic academic environment will prepare you for a promising future in academic research and teaching as well as in many other fields of endeavor beyond the academy. While focusing mainly on Italian topics, you will enrich your area of specialization by taking courses in fields close to your primary research interests, which may include history, film studies, cultural anthropology, medieval studies, philosophy, theology, critical theory, art history, as well as many other allied fields. Throughout the program, graduate students receive pedagogical training in the latest methodologies in second language acquisition and have the opportunity to teach in one of the most vibrant and respected undergraduate Italian programs in the country.

The Ph.D. in Italian is a fully-funded five-year program. Our dissertation-oriented course of study is designed to enable all students to achieve both a high degree of specialization and a broad understanding of Italian literature and culture. Ph.D. students in Italian who finish their degree within 5 years are guaranteed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in the College of Arts and Letters’ innovative 5+1 Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. This provides you with the time and resources to publish your research, develop and teach literature and culture courses, as well as to undertake further professional development that will enhance your competitiveness for jobs both inside and outside the academy.

The M.A. in Italian is a fully-funded two-year program that is especially well-suited to those who are considering further study in doctoral programs in Italian, but also excellent preparation for advanced study in many allied disciplines, as well as for professional opportunities and careers beyond the university. Students who complete the M.A. in Italian at Notre Dame and earn admission to the Ph.D. can complete the program in four years.

Italian Studies at Notre Dame offers competitive financial support packages, with all admitted graduate students receiving a monthly stipend, full-tuition scholarships that include all fees except for a small student activity fee, as well as health insurance coverage and additional benefits. The Center for Italian Studies offers substantial additional funding for travel and research by subsidizing a number of grants and fellowships for graduate students.

Please visit our website to learn more about our academic program. For additional resources, including information about the requirements for application, please visit the pages for our Ph.D. and our M.A. programs.

The fall admissions application deadline for both the M.A. and the Ph.D. is January 7, 2026. To apply, please follow the link on our website. For questions, please contact Professor Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., Director of Graduate Studies in Italian.

The University of Notre Dame holds one of the premier collections of Italian literature in the United States. Of particular note are the Zahm Dante Collection, which ranks among the most significant collections relating to Dante Alighieri in North America, the Primo Levi Collection, which includes first editions and translations of Levi’s works as well as first editions of Levi’s own efforts as a translator of both literary and non-literary works, and the Christopher G. Wagstaff Italian Film collection, which encompasses more than two thousand Italian films and television programs. The Hesburgh Libraries’ collections are also rich in Medieval and Renaissance Italian literature, represented through early imprints and translations, historical publications of textual criticism, and significant illustrated editions. Copies of many of the manuscripts and drawings of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan may also be accessed via photographs and microfilm through the Notre Dame library.

Grants are awarded on a competitive basis to help defray the cost of travel and accommodation for a research visit of 1-3 weeks. The amount of the award (between $1,500 and $4,000) will be based on the length of the research visit and specific travel and accommodation expenses. The anticipated time-frame for visits to the Library within the award cycle is between April 2026 and June 2027. Applications can be submitted by January 31, 2026.

More information is available here.

The Center for Italian Studies is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the 2025 Rome Archive Seminar.