I am a Ph.D. candidate in Italian and Comparative Literature with a focus on medieval literature and the linguistic and cultural negotiations between Italian, Latin, and Arabic from the 12th to the 14th century.
I am currently working on my dissertation, which deals with the appropriation of philosophical and visionary language from the earliest moments of the Italian lyric tradition to the poetry of Guinizzelli, Cavalcanti, and Dante. I am working, in particular, on incorporating the Arabic philosophical tradition and its filtering of Aristotle into this literary history.

Degrees

M.Phil in Italian and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, October 2009M.A. in Italian Literature, Columbia University, February 2008
B.A., magna cum laude, in Comparative Literature, New York University, May 2006

Interests

I am interested in medieval Italian literature and its rapport with the classical past both through direct transmission as well as mediation through Arabic culture. I am particularly interested in the medieval lyric, especially the production of the Scuola Siciliana and Dante's Rime. Other interests include medieval rhetoric, the novella and its antecedents, and material culture.