Pieter Vanhove was born in Leuven, Belgium and is currently living and working in New York. He holds a Master's in Romance Philology and a second Master's in Literary Theory from Leuven University, and spent one year of his studies at Université Paris IV - La Sorbonne. In 2009 he obtained his MA in Italian from Columbia with a Francqui Fellowship of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. Before returning to Columbia's Italian Department in 2011, Pieter worked on his own research project on Pier Paolo Pasolini's theater with funding from the Research Foundation Flanders. He also covered the Amanda Knox case with acclaimed writer and journalist Nina Burleigh (The Fatal Gift of Beauty. The Trials of Amanda Knox, Broadway Books, 2011), and worked with contemporary artists at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn. Pieter's ongoing research interests include the works of Pier Paolo Pasolini, cultural studies, art history, and theory. He has published a number of articles and essays on diverse subjects: his essay on Pasolini and the Living Theatre made the 2011 issue of Studi Pasoliniani. He is currently laying the groundwork for a book project on the global intellectual China-mania of the Seventies and Eighties. On the weekends he enjoys poets, artists, bikes, and new pens.