Cultural and Intellectual History

Faculty research at the intersections of cultural and intellectual history spans time periods, societies, genres, media, and languages. It includes the study of philosophical, religious, social, political, and scientific thought, of literature, arts, visual culture, beliefs, and ideas – in their complexity, interconnectedness, and dynamics. We explore the links between idea systems and social contexts, individuals and groups, and modes and forms of intellectual and artistic expression. The issues of cultural transmission, adoption, adjustment, change, and innovation are in the foreground of our research interests.

early modern European culture; translation studies; history of Italian theatre and performance; the relationship between fact and fiction

Fabio Battista

Assistant Professor of Italian

Early modern European culture; translation studies; history of Italian theatre and performance; the relationship between fact and fiction

Literature and Culture, Film, Visual Arts, Memory and Trauma, Spanish Civil War, Women Writers, Cultural Studies, Transatlantic Studies, and Gender Studies

Ana Corbalán

Professor of Spanish

Literature and Culture, film, visual Arts, memory and trauma, Spanish Civil War, women writers, cultural studies, Transatlantic studies, and gender studies

Safa Elnaili

Associate Professor of Arabic, Director of Arabic Program

Libyan literature, literary translation, folktales, the Arabian Nights, stylistics analysis, critical discourse analysis

Medieval and early modern literature and theater; gender and women’s writing; literary representations of military-historical events; spectacle and performance; print and manuscript history; prophecy and eschatology; rhetoric; intersections of Italian, Spanish, and French cultural production

Yunuen Gómez-Ocampo

Instructor of Spanish

Latin American, Latinx & Caribbean Studies, migration and Border Studies, gender studies, women writers, testimonial genres, translation studies, literary publishing

Gender Studies, Women Writers, Early Modernity, Social Justice, Hegemony and Power, Queer Theory

Xabier Granja

Associate Professor of Spanish, Spanish Undergraduate Director

Gender studies, women writers, Early Modernity, social justice, hegemony and power, queer theory

Alessandro Martina

Instructor of Italian

Annemarie Lisko

Instructor of Italian

20th Century Italian history and literature, political history, memory studies, translation and translation theory, representations of Italian language and history in international media

Colin MacCormack

Instructor of Classics

Ancient Greek and Latin poetics, animal studies and posthumanism, mythology and folklore, Hellenistic and Roman epic and didactic, Classical reception

Yuliya Minets

Associate Professor of Classics

Late Antiquity; Early Christianity; Byzantine Studies; Syriac Studies; Coptic Studies; Languages and identities in the ancient Mediterranean

modern and contemporary Italian literature, culture, philosophy, and history, literary criticism, aesthetics, phenomenology, and gender and trauma studies

Alessandra Montalbano

Associate Professor of Italian

Modern and contemporary Italian literature, culture, philosophy, and history, literary criticism, aesthetics, phenomenology, and gender and trauma studies

Francesc Morales

Instructor of Spanish

Jean Luc Robin

Associate Professor of French, Director of French Undergraduate Studies

17th-Century Literature & Thought: Descartes, French classical literature and scientific revolution, Molière

Ignacio F. Rodeño

Professor of Spanish

US Latina/o, Caribbean, and Mexican literatures and cultures; Hispanic autobiography and narratives of the self; literary theory, and transatlantic studies

Claudia Romanelli

Associate Professor of Italian, Italian Program Director, Italian Undergraduate Advisor

Italian cinema in a transnational context, film history and theory, screenwriting practices, international co-productions, collaborative authorship, contemporary Italian literature, postcolonial studies, mixed- and intermedia

April Stevens

Assistant Professor of French; Faculty Advisor, Cercle Français; French Language Program Director

Kirk M. Summers

Professor of Classics; Director, Classics Program

Reformation (especially the Reformed/Calvinist movement), Neo-Latin, Roman religion, Lucretius, and Cicero

Homeric epics; women in Classical Antiquity, women’s social & political status in Antiquity, women in Greek democracy; archetypal literary criticism & myth criticism; ancient civilization & history

Tatiana Tsakiropoulou-Summers

Associate Professor of Classics

Women and democracy, women and antiquity, gender studies, epic poetry, Greek tragedy

Cheryl Toman

Department Chair, Professor of French

African women’s writing (Central Africa and Mali), Arab women writers, feminisms, cultural studies, sociolinguistics, immigration

Linguistics, Francophone studies, international trade, geopolitics, second language acquisition

K. Maxime Vignon

Assistant Professor of French, Coordinator of Affairs for African and International Graduate Students in French

Linguistics, Francophone studies, international trade, geopolitics, second language acquisition