Established in 2021 by RnB4Culture, this award recognizes the vibrancy of research in Italian culture and its evolving nature expressed in a variety of ways such as innovative uses of technology, or originality of approach, or contribution to wider questions and trends in the Humanities at large.
We are thrilled to celebrate the remarkable finalists of the 2024 edition:
Laura Ingallinella
Pantalea Mazzitello
Giancarlo Tursi
To learn more about their fascinating work, you can attend the Symposium on October 22, 11:45am PST, when the three finalists will present their research to a jury led by Prof. Franco Pierno, University of Toronto. Register here!
The winner will be announced at ISSNAF 2024 Annual Event in Washington D.C. on November 14.
LAURA INGALLINELLA
Laura Ingallinella is an Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, with a cross-appointment in the Renaissance Studies Program at Victoria College. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, she taught at Wellesley College and earned her Ph.D. from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. Her research and teaching explore the intersection of literature, identity, and difference in premodern Italy (1300-1600).
Her scholarship has appeared in prestigious journals such as I Tatti Studies in the Renaissance, Forum Italicum, Bibliotheca Dantesca, Medioevo Romanzo, Revue Mabillon, and The Sundial by ACMRS. She is currently completing her first monograph, The Fraudulent Muse: Gender and Literary Forgery in Early Modern Italy.
Prof. Ingallinella is also co-Principal Investigator of the NEH-funded "La Sfera Project," with her translation of Goro Dati’s 15th-century La sfera (The Globe) set for publication by Italica Press in 2025. Additionally, she is co-editing a forthcoming volume on race in Renaissance Italy with Prof. Robert J. Clines, titled A Crossroads of Difference: Race and the Making of Premodern Italy.
Research Focus
Prof. Ingallinella's research delves into identity formation through literature, focusing on three key areas: the representation and performance of gender in literary texts, cross-regional interactions reflected in vernacular literature and manuscript culture, and the portrayal of racial difference and superiority in early modern fiction and theater.
In her forthcoming monograph, The Fraudulent Muse: Gender and Literary Forgery in Early Modern Italy, she examines a unique phenomenon she calls "gendered forgeries"—works falsely attributed to women but written by men. This book offers the first comprehensive study of how gendered performance, antiquarian forgery, and canon formation intersected in the early modern period. While such texts have often been dismissed as inauthentic or scholarly exercises, Prof. Ingallinella argues that they were deeply connected to the anxieties and power dynamics of the time. Her research sheds new light on how these forgeries were not just literary curiosities but played a crucial role in broader conversations about gender and power, especially as women writers gained unprecedented authority in Renaissance Italy.
About me
Prof. Ingallinella’s research often starts in the quiet corners of a library, poring over centuries-old manuscripts that have long gone untouched. Yet her work is deeply connected to the present, shaped by the questions her students ask about today’s world. One of her favorite classroom activities is introducing commedia dell'arte masks and teaching students to "perform" with them. By embodying different characters—whether a servant, a nobleman, a young lady, or a doctor—students explore how identity is constructed through specific body postures and the exaggerated expressions of the mask, revealing the powerful link between physicality and social roles.
PANTALEA MAZZITELLO
Pantalea Mazzitello is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at the University of California, Irvine, where she directs the Italian Language Program. Her academic expertise lies in the Italian medieval and early modern periods. She earned her first Ph.D. in Romance Philology from the University of Parma in 2016, focusing on Italian vulgarizations and Crusade chronicles. She later obtained a second Ph.D. in Italian Studies from Indiana University in 2024, where her research centered on blasphemy in Italian Renaissance literature.
Prof. Mazzitello is the author of the monograph Il Bacio Spudorato: Storia dell’Osculum Infame (Medusa, 2015) and the article “Eating the Enemy, Eating Sins: Anthropophagy in the Eracles Italian Vulgarization.” Currently, she is working on her second monograph, which explores themes of blasphemy, humor, and laughter in Renaissance Italy. At UC Irvine, she is developing a new Italian language curriculum and creating content courses for the Italian Minor, as well as medieval and Renaissance literature courses for the College of Humanities.
Research Focus
My research focuses on parodic forms, with particular emphasis on the parody and subversion of the sacred, the relationship between parody and satire, and the broader dynamics of laughter and humor in medieval and early modern Italian culture. My current project explores the contentious subject of publicly cursing God—whether on stage or in social interactions. By examining the literary depiction of blasphemy and blasphemers across various genres of Renaissance Italian literature, the project highlights the humoristic and secular aspects of blasphemous speech, often overlooked by traditional scholarship, which tends to emphasize historical records.
Through a close analysis of literary texts, this study provides a more nuanced understanding of the value systems that shaped social interactions and cultural-religious sensitivities in 16th-century Italy. Ultimately, it seeks to reinterpret the role of blasphemy during the Renaissance, with the belief that exploring its historical use and condemnation offers valuable insights into contemporary debates on religious tolerance and freedom of expression in today's global society.
About me
As the new director of the Italian Language Program at UCI, my primary goal is to ignite students' passion for Italian culture and to further advance Italian Studies programs across the U.S. I am committed to integrating my research into my teaching, and my work on blasphemy plays a central role in the development of courses on Italian literature and culture for undergraduate students. Building on this research, I am developing a broader pedagogical project that explores comedy as a defining feature of Italian culture, spanning from the Middle Ages to contemporary trends in pop culture, media, and social media.
By examining a wide range of parodic and satirical texts and artifacts across different time periods and socio-cultural contexts, my research aims to contribute to the conversation on how to develop innovative approaches to studying the past, enriching our understanding of the present. The Award will provide me with the opportunity to organize a research trip, supporting this interdisciplinary project, which incorporates cultural and media studies to bridge historical and modern Italian society.
GIANCARLO TURSI
Giancarlo Tursi is an Assistant Professor of Translation Studies in the Department of French and Italian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also serves as co-director of the Translation Studies program. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University and an MA in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne, Paris. His doctoral dissertation, Dialectal Dante: The Politics of Translation in Risorgimento Italy, examines dialectal translations of Dante’s works during Italy's 19th-century unification. Currently, he is a recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, where he is developing his dissertation into a book.
Tursi’s research interests span translation studies, language politics, and the role of minoritized languages. He is fluent in English, Italian, and French, with advanced proficiency in Spanish, and also speaks the local dialect of his hometown, Martina Franca in Puglia. Recently, he has begun learning Kaqchikel, an indigenous Mayan language spoken in Guatemala. His scholarly work has been published in journals such as La Fusta, King's Review, and Società Editrice Fiorentina. Additionally, he is co-editing a forthcoming special issue on sound and translation for the journal Sound Studies.
Focus Research
My academic work lies at the intersection of translation studies and language politics, with a focus on the literary activity of minority languages within and beyond national borders. I aim to challenge the harmful assumptions of nationalist monolingualism, often tied to ethnic discrimination. As a comparatist, I work across the languages I grew up with or have since acquired—Italian, French, and Spanish. I also speak Martinese, my native Italian dialect, and have recently begun learning Kaqchikel, an indigenous Mayan language spoken in Guatemala.
My doctoral dissertation, which I defended with distinction in September 2023 at New York University, centers on Italian dialects during the 19th-century Risorgimento, Italy's unification period. While this work focuses on the Italian context, my broader research engages with a wide range of languages. The study of Italian dialects has opened up broader political questions for me, just as examining minor languages globally has deepened my understanding of the Italian case. I believe the most innovative aspect of my research is its comparative approach, where the local and national, as well as the national and global, dynamically influence one another at a fundamental level.
About me
I didn’t speak a word of English until I moved from Italy to the U.S. at age 8, where English soon became my dominant language. Although I maintained my Italian through annual trips back to Italy, I’ve also had to grapple with the gradual loss of this so-called “mother tongue” (which was actually my father's). Over time, I’ve had to reconcile my identity as a hyphenated Italian-American, feeling more at home in my second language, which is technically my mother’s. These reflections on what it means to be a foreigner—on who is considered foreign and in what contexts—have profoundly shaped my academic work.
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