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Education

B.A., Columbia University
M.A. and Ph.D., Harvard University
S.T.L. and M.Div., Jesuit School of Theology,
     Berkeley
Biennio di Filosofia, Gregorian University, Rome

How long have you been at Boston College?

I joined the department faculty in the fall of 1994.

What courses do you teach?

• The Culture of Rome in the Age of Bernini (RL 830) Love, Sexuality and Gender in the European Literary Tradition (RL 373)
• Dante's Divine Comedy (RL 526)The Plague in Italy: From Boccaccio to Manzoni (RL 850)
• Italian for Business and Travel (RL 389)
• The Art, Literature and History of Rome (RL 370)
• Manzoni's Promessi Sposi (RL 511)

What are your research interests?

My research interests include the history of preaching and popular religious literature from the 15th to 17th Centuries; the social and religious contexts of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art; the popular Franciscan preacher, Bernardino of Siena; and the great Roman Baroque artist, Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

What do you like about teaching at Boston College?

Boston College is a dynamic, ambitious university that is consciously striving to grow more mature and cosmopolitan. In the process, it appreciates new, innovative programs, courses, and research, especially of the interdisciplinary type in which I engage. It is a global community; it seeks to connect the university to the real world in direct ways, especially through university service.