EDUCATION
Ph.D., Italian and Comparative Literature & Society
Columbia University, 2023
M.Phil., Italian and Comparative Literature & Society
Columbia University, 2019
M.A., Italian Literature
Columbia University, 2018
M.F.A., Creative Writing (Fiction)
The New School, 2016
B.A., Italian Literature and English (Creative Writing)
Barnard College, Columbia University, 2013
Cum laude, Departmental Honors
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of English, School of Arts and Sciences
Brandeis University
2025–current
Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor
Italian Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Villanova University
2024–2025
Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Premodern Disability Studies
Department of Classical and Early Mediterranean Studies & Department of English
Brandeis University
2023–2024
Part-Time Faculty
Creative Writing Program, Schools of Public Engagement
The New School
2022–2024
Core Preceptor (Instructor of Record)
Columbia College Core Curriculum
Columbia University
2021–2023
Teaching Fellow (Instructor of Record)
Italian Department
Columbia University
2017–2020
PUBLICATIONS
“Blind as the Sparrow Hawk: The Emergence of Dantean Disability Studies.”
Modern Language Notes, Italian issue, January 2026.
“Disabled Bodies and Female Souls: From Dante to Marinella.”
In Dante and the Sciences of the Human (Palgrave), November 2024.
FORTHCOMING
“Dante and the Marks of Human Identity.”
In Routledge Companion to Literature and Identity, 2026.
“Dante and the Suffering Sick: from the hospital beds of Santa Maria Nuova to the fossa of Inferno 29.”
Social History of Medicine (Oxford Academic), 2026.
“Redefining (Dis)Ability as Labor in Dante’s Florence.”
Scrinium Friburgense, Reichert Verlag (Wiesbaden), 2026
IN PROGRESS
Blameless Defect: A Dantean Model of Disability
(Book manuscript)
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS & AWARDS
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Brandeis University (2025–2027)
Lauro de Bosis Lectureship Centennial Bursary, Medieval Academy of America (March 2025)
Florence Levy Kay Fellowship, Brandeis University (2023–2025)
“The Next Generation” Mentorship, Fordham Center for Medieval Studies (March 2024)
Claudia Rattazzi Papka Memorial Grant, Columbia University (2023; 2021–2022)
Graduate Student Representative, Columbia Nominee, Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium Conference (2023)
MLA Travel Grant (2023)
RSA Virtual Registration Grant (2022)
Preceptor Teaching Award, Columbia University (2021–2022)
International Medieval Congress Bursary Grant, University of Leeds (2022)
Arts & Sciences Graduate Council Student Travel Grant, Columbia University (2021–2022)
Institute for Research on Women, Gender, & Sexuality, Graduate Certificate, Columbia University (2020–2021)
Dissertation Fellowship, Columbia University (2020–2021)
Research Visitor, Center for Italian Studies, University of Notre Dame (Fall 2020)
Dissertation Summer Fellowship, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University (Summer 2020)
Advanced Certificate in Comparative Literature, Columbia University (Spring 2020)
Teaching Fellow, Italian Department, Columbia University (Fall 2019–Spring 2020)
Helen and Howard R. Marraro Fellowship, Columbia University (Fall 2018–Spring 2019)
Teaching Fellow, Italian Department, Columbia University (Fall 2017–Spring 2018)
Dean’s Fellow, Columbia University (Fall 2016–Spring 2017)
Dean’s Merit Scholarship, The New School (Fall 2014–Spring 2016)
Lenore Marshall Barnard Prize for Poetry, Barnard College (2013)
Speranza Italian Prize for Excellence in Italian, Barnard College (2013)
INVITED TALKS
Petrarch’s Metaphors of Disabled Love. “Metaphors of the Body” panel, Petrarch in Global Translation annual conference, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria (February 2026)
RVF 18: Corpo, disabilità e traduzione. Led workshop for the “Petrarch in Global Translation” research group (online) (January 2026)
Disabled Love: Laura & Ladies who Kill. Lecture at Ramie Targoff’s Love Poetry seminar, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (October 2025)
Medieval Disability and the Origins of Hospice Care. Grand Rounds, Department of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY (September 2025)
Virtuous Suffering: Punished Souls, Stigmatized Bodies, and Disability in Dante’s Commedia. Notre Dame–Yale Rome Dante Seminar, University of Notre Dame & Yale University, Rome, Italy (May 2025)
Critical Disability Studies: from Lexicon to Legislation. Lecture at disability seminar class, Heller School, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (October 2024)
Digital Dante and Interdisciplinary Courses in Disability Studies. Presenter, Dante and the Digital Humanities: Celebrating Original Research and Ideas (honoring a Decade of Digital Dante), Columbia University, New York, NY (October 2024)
A Discussion of Shakespeare’s Sisters. Discussant with Ramie Targoff, Caitlin Gillespie, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, Mandel Center for the Humanities, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (September 2024)
Sordi e muti e loro simili: A Critical Disability Studies Approach to Dante. Invited Lecture, Yale Diversity in Italian Studies Working Group (with Yale European Studies Council and Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration), Yale University, New Haven, CT (April 2024)
Dante, Disability, and the Ethos of Compassion. Invited Lecture, Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (February 2024)
Dante’s Disability Rhetoric: Blind Drinkers and Deaf Thinkers. Invited Lecture, English Department, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (February 2024)
Blind as the Sparrow Hawk: Dante and the Poetics of Disability. Invited Lecture, Department of Classical and Early Mediterranean Studies & Department of English, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (March 2023)
CONFERENCE PAPERS
Redefining (Dis)Ability as Labor in Dante’s Florence. Fribourg Colloquium, “Disability, poverty and work in the Middle Ages,” Medieval Institute, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland (September 2025)
From Church to Comedy: Disabled Love in Guittone d’Arezzo and Guido Cavalcanti. “Medieval Disability in Theory and Practice” panel, Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (March 2025)
Blind as the Sparrow Hawk: Dante and the Ethics of Compassion. Working Group on Old Texts, New Questions: Critical Approaches to Medieval Italian Literature, Modern Language Association, New Orleans, LA (January 2025)
Disability in the Commedia: Sapìa Salvani and the Blindness of Envy. “(Dis)ability in Medieval Italian Culture” panel, American Association for Italian Studies annual conference, Sorrento, Italy (June 2024)
The Physiognomy of (Dis)embodiment: Dante After Death. “Bodies and Beyond: Exploring Medieval (Dis)embodiment” roundtable, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2024)
To Dress the Body: Disability as Virtuous Marks in Dante’s Commedia. “Earthly, Infernal, Heavenly: Dante’s Bodies” panel, Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN (March 2024)
Signs for Justice: Gestural Language in the Commedia. “Dante Decolonizer: Epistemic Plurality and the Ethical Imagination,” Northeast Modern Language Association conference, Boston, MA (March 2024)
Love Acquisition and Disability Gain in Guittone d’Arezzo. Invited symposium & workshop “The Next Generation,” co-sponsored by the International Courtly Literature Society and Fordham Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University, New York, NY (March 2024)
Dante in the Streets: Poverty, Disabled Beggars, and Franciscan Charity. Dante Society of America sponsored panel “Dante’s Economies,” Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA (January 2024)
“Ciotto”, “Sciancato”, “Zoppo”: A Dantean Hierarchy of Mobility Disabilities. Dante Society of America sponsored panel “Dante I,” International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2023)
Ableism, Presentism, and Teaching Medieval Disability (Roundtable). Discussant, Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2023)
Banishing the Blind: Medieval Florence and Dante’s Convivio. Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium Conference, John Jay College, New York, NY (March 2023)
Ignorance, Speech, and the Disabled: A Dantean Ethos of Epistemology. Northeast Modern Language Association, Niagara Falls, NY (March 2023)
Disability, Disease, and Deafness in the Decameron: Teaching Masetto in 2022. American Boccaccio Association and the LLC Forum on Medieval and Renaissance Italian sponsored panel “Teaching the Decameron during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Modern Language Association, San Francisco, CA (January 2023)
Speaker, “Just in Time: The Future of Dante Studies” panel, Modern Language Association, San Francisco, CA (January 2023)
Disabled Bodies and Female Souls: From Dante to Marinella. Dante Society of America-sponsored panel, Renaissance Society of America Conference, Virtual (December 2022)
Dante’s City—Unjust Exile and Disabled Life Beyond the Border. “The Borders of Disability and Ability, Illhealth and Health” panel, International Medieval Conference, University of Leeds, England (July 2022)
Towards a Dantean Model of Disability. Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages “New Voices, New Directions” panel, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2022)
Disabled Body and Female Soul: From Dante to Marinella. Dante Society of America-sponsored panel, Renaissance Society of America Conference, Dublin, Ireland (presentation canceled due to the pandemic) (March 2022)
CONFERENCES ORGANIZED & CHAIRED
Organizer, “Bad Bodies: Materiality and Performativity in the Medieval Mediterranean” panel (with Anna Dini), International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2025)
Organizer and Presider, “Reimagining Disability through ‘Disability Gain’” panel (with Alani Hicks-Bartlett), Renaissance Society of America Conference, Boston, MA (March 2025)
Organizer and Presider, “Gender and Bodies” panel, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2024)
Organizer and Presider, “Reimagining Premodern Disability: Excess, Surplus, Gain” panel (with Alani Hicks-Bartlett), Northeast Modern Language Association conference, Boston, MA (March 2024)
Organizer and Presider, “WriteOn: How to Begin and Grow a Community-Oriented Writing Fellowship” (with A.E. Osworth), AWP Conference, Portland, OR (March 2019)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Prize Committee Judge, Dante Society of America (2025–2027)
Mandel Steering Committee, Brandeis University (2025–2027)
Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, Research Discussion Group, Brandeis University (2025–2027)
Field Exam Committee Member, Aurora Soriano, Brandeis University (Department of English) (2025–2026)
Villanova Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Department Representative (2025)
Italian Caffè e conversazione, Villanova University (2024–2025)
Villanova Assessments Committee (2024–2025)
Fall Preview Day, Villanova University (2024)
Brandeis Campus Accessibility Committee (CAC) (2024)
Faculty Mentor, Brandeis Graduate Students with Disabilities Support Group (2024)
Graduate Admissions Committee, Classical & Early Mediterranean Studies, Brandeis University (2023–2024)
Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program, Research Discussion Group, Brandeis University (2023–2024)
MA Committee Member, Ben Gould, Brandeis University (2023–2024)
Assistant Editor, Digital Dante (2020–Present)
Mentor Ukraine (Academic mentor for displaced Ukrainian youth) (2023–2024)
Dante Society of America Graduate Group (2022–2023)
Folger Institute, Premodern Disability Graduate Group (2021–2023)
The Decameron Project, Advisor (2020–Present)
Italian Graduate Student Association, Columbia University (2020–2023)
Caffè e conversazione, Columbia University (2016–2020)
Serata al cinema, Columbia University (2016–2020)
LANGUAGES
English — Native Speaker
Italian — Native Fluency
Latin — Reading Proficiency
German — Reading Proficiency
French — Reading Proficiency
Spanish — Reading Proficiency
American Sign Language — Intermediate Proficiency
Lingua dei Segni Italiana — Elementary Proficiency
DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Petrarch in Global Translation (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Digital Dante (Assistant Editor): https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/
WriteOn NYC! (Associate Director; Website Manager): https://writeonnyc.com/
The Decameron Project (Volunteer Advisor): https://decameronproject.org/
eBOIARDO! (Contributor):
https://edblogs.columbia.edu/eboiardo/
https://edblogs.columbia.edu/eboiardo/marfisa/