Leonardo Giorgetti

Research Interests

• Curriculum and Instruction
• Gender Issues
• History
• Immigrants and Immigration
• Literacy and Language
• Philosophy
• Race and Ethnicity
• Religion

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

I study the ways religious and secular knowledge intersect in late medieval and early modern Italy and Europe; focusing on female spiritual literature and the reception of the three Italian “Crowns” (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio), I investigate how gender bears an ideological and social relevance in the construction of the national literary canons. I have published on the intellectual history of fifteenth-century Florence and seventeenth-century Venice with a focus on the eclectic nature of the so-called “religious humanism,” the representation of otherness in early modern women’s spiritual experience, and the philosophical foundations of the European querelle des femmes. My research on female religious literature in early modern Italy proves civically engaged as it explores issues of gender within the contemporary debate on women’s dignity and critiques the very foundations of Western misogyny. My other research interest investigates the stereotypical perception of the indigenous populations of the New Indies within early modern European travel literature, which informs our understanding of the complex formation of Italian cultural identity, as being historically both the perpetrator and recipient of racial stereotyping.
My doctoral project focused on rediscovering the lyric voice of the Venetian writer Lucrezia Marinella (1571/9–1653), one of the most notable intellectual women of early modern Italy. Her varied corpus of spiritual and secular lyric poetry has been thus far largely neglected, yet it is foundational to understanding her renowned defense of women’s moral and intellectual excellence. My book project consists of the first modern edition, English translation, and commentary of Marinella’s Rime sacre (Sacred Verses, Venice, 1603), a collection of spiritual poetry that uniquely employs the Counter-Reformation’s model of heroic sainthood to support the author’s proto-feminist stance. A remarkable expression of late Petrarchism, Marinella’s lyric poetry harmonizes pro-woman discourse, affective writing, and personal devotion in an interdisciplinary dialogue among literature, fine arts, and theology. Thus, her work fully reflects the complex and syncretic nature of post-Tridentine culture, while also promoting a progressive and dynamic image of Marinella’s authorial persona within the male-dominated intellectual milieu of her time.
For the past twelve years, I have taught many courses at all levels, in both English and Italian, in Italian language and culture, as well as in world literature, serving a diverse student population. My teaching is rooted in learner-based instruction methods and embraces a transnational critical perspective that reflects my multidisciplinary and rigorous scholarly undertakings in medieval and early modern Italian and European culture, reception theory, gender and women’s studies, spiritual literature, translation, and Second Language Acquisition. In each of my classes, my primary goal is to foster transcultural awareness by challenging students to critically rethink their own cultural perspectives through student-directed investigation into Italy and Europe’s cultural landscapes.

2023-24 Courses

• Innovation and Transformation of the Counter-Reformation: Religion and Culture in Early Modern Italy
  ITALIAN 303 (Spr)
• Inventing Italian Literature: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca
  ITALIAN 127 (Aut)
• The Italian Renaissance and the Path to Modernity
  ITALIAN 128 (Win)
• Women's Voices in the Italian Literary Tradition: From Catherine of Siena to Elena Ferrante
  ITALIAN 203 (Win)