Faculty

Alessandra Adriani

Laurea in Humanities, University of Florence

Email: aadriani@syr.edu

Alessandra Adriani specialized in the methodology of teaching Italian as a second language at the Koiné School for Foreigners (1994); and in 1996, she held a six-month post-graduate position at the European Community in Brussels, Belgium. Before joining Syracuse Florence in 2006, Adriani taught at the University of Florence, Kent State, l’Accademia Italiana, and Pepperdine University in Florence. In addition to teaching Italian language and culture classes at Syracuse Florence, she teaches at the Società Dante Alighieri (2015) where she received her PLIDA Examiner certification. Adriani has also been a private language tutor in Latin and Italian for Italian high school students since 1990.


Simone Anselmi

MBA, Universita’ Scuola Direzionale Aziendale Bocconi

Email: sanselmi@syr.edu

Laurea in Economics, Università di Firenze; Certificate in Marketing, New York University. Certified trainer with NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). Simone Anselmi has extensive experience training, consulting and teaching Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Human Resource Management, Personal Development and Coaching for organizations like Pirelli, Unicoop Tirreno, McArthurGlen, Intesa San Paolo, Monte dei Paschi , BNL, Electrolux, Whirlpool, Telecom Italia,  BMW, Tod’s, Stefanel,  Ikea, API – IP, ABB, Valtur, and Zegna. He also has executive-level market research and advertising experience with international organizations. He has been a member of the ICF (International Coach Federation) and of the ICF Italian Chapter organizing committee and is the author of numerous training manuals and check-up analyses. Anselmi teaches classes in Global Management, Made in Italy and luxury excellence, and Entrepreneurship at Syracuse Florence.


Wanessa Asfora Nadler

PhD in History, Universidade de São Paulo

Email: wasforan@syr.edu

Wanessa Asfora Nadler is a historian specialized in Medieval and Early Modern Food History. She has published various articles in scholarly journals on the relationship between food and medicine in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and a book on the medieval history of the Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius (2014). Her teaching experience has included courses and workshops for different institutions in Brazil and Portugal.  She is currently a researcher at the Centre for Classical and Humanistic Studies at the University of Coimbra. Since 2018, she has coordinated a research area of the Laboratory of Theory and History of Medieval Media (Lathimm) of the University of São Paulo and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. She is also a correspondent member for Latin America of the journal Food & History, published by the Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation.


Riccardo Avanzinelli

PhD in Earth Sciences, University of Florence

Email: ravanzin@syr.edu

After obtaining his doctorate Riccardo Avanzinelli carried out research in Italy and the UK, including 4 years at the University of Bristol as a Marie Curie Research Fellow and Research Assistant (2006-2010), before returning to the University of Florence in 2010 as a “Rientro dei Cervelli” Fellow. In 2009 he won the “Bianchi” Price, awarded by the Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrology (SIMP) for the best young scientists in the field of mineralogy and petrology and was a member of the Directive Board of the Italian Association of Volcanology (AIV) from 2014 to 2018. He has taught Petrology and Petrography at the Earth Sciences Department of the University of Florence since 2013. He specializes in the geochemical and isotopic study of volcanic rocks to understand the different geological processes explaining the occurrence and eruptive behavior of volcanoes worldwide and the evolution of the earth’s mantle. His recent research also includes the application of petrological, geochemical, and isotopic analyses in other fields such as cosmochemistry and archaeology.


Dorothea Barrett

PhD in English, Cambridge University

Email: llbarret@syr.edu

Dorothea Barrett (PhD Cambridge 1987) has taught at Beijing Normal University (China), Glasgow University (Scotland), and the University of Florence (Italy). She is the author of Vocation and Desire: George Eliot’s Heroines (London: Routledge, 1989) and the editor of the George Eliot’s Romola (London: Penguin Classics, 1996). She has published a variety of essays on nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and American literature and edited volumes of Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, and others. At Syracuse Florence she teaches “Sex, Politics, and Religion in Italian Literature” and “A World of Difference: Literature and Exclusion from 1900 to the Present.” Her research interests are Victorian, modern, and postmodern fiction and the representation of gender, sexuality, politics, religion, and imperialism in literature.


Victoria Bartels

PhD in History, University of Cambridge

Email: vbartels@syr.edu

Victoria Bartels is a cultural historian of early modern Italy. Her research interests include visual culture, weapons, clothing, contemporary notions of gender, the culture of warfare, and the historicization of the Renaissance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She has worked as a Research Fellow on the project “Refashioning the Renaissance: Popular Groups and the Material and Cultural Significance of Clothing in Europe 1550–1650,” funded by the European Research Council and has also held a Kress Fellowship at the Medici Archive Project in Florence. She has presented her research at numerous universities, museums, and institutions across Europe, the UK, and the USA, and her work has been featured on BBC Radio, The Guardian, ABC Radio Australia, and The University of Cambridge. She has written on the connection between dress, weapons, and armor, including a recent article on the Florentine state’s use of convicts in military campaigns.


Antonella Battaglia

Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literature, University of Pisa

Email: abattagl@syr.edu

Antonella Battaglia received her DITALS (Didattica dell’Italiano a Stranieri) certification in the methodology of teaching Italian as a second language from the Università per Stranieri di Siena and studied methodologies in second-language instruction at the Istituto Francese di Firenze and the Università di Siena. Battaglia co-authored the Italian language textbook for beginners Dimmi! (Guerra Edizioni, 1999). She has taught Italian at the University of Santa Barbara in California, the Università per Stranieri di Siena, and the Istituto Universitario Europeo di Firenze. She has been teaching Italian language and culture courses at Syracuse Florence since 1996.


Francesca Bea

Laurea in Modern Languages and Literature, University of Florence

Email: fbea@syr.edu

Francesca Bea specialized in the methodology of teaching Italian as a second language and teaching Italian literature to foreigners at the Koinè School for Foreigners.She has been teaching Italian as a Second Language at Syracuse Florence since 2000 and is a faculty supervisor for the Syracuse Florence internship program. In the past, she has also taught at the Florence centers for the Università per Stranieri, Pepperdine University, the Accademia Italiana, and California State University. In addition to teaching Italian as a Second Language to foreigners, Francesca Bea has been a private language tutor in Greek and Latin for Italian high school students since 1995.


Lorenzo Benini

Laurea in Economics, Università di Firenze

Email: lbenini@syr.edu

Lorenzo Benini is a Florentine entrepreneur who has run his own company, Kostelia srl, since 2005. The company is a leader in the fourth party logistics sector with many sister companies in different sectors of the economy (e.g. boat chartering, agriculture, and trading). After specializing in marketing at university, he worked from 1987 to 2004 in managerial roles within prestigious companies like SAMEC spa (Unilever Group), DECORLINE spa, and ALPI SERVIZIO MODA srl (Albini & Pitigliani Group). Most of his career has been spent in logistics and supply chain management. He has taught Industrial Technique and Supply Chain Management and Logistics at the University of Florence from 2004 to 2011, and Managing Global Supply Chains at CAPA Florence since 2015. Benini is the founder and operations manager of Purpose Trust Sostratos, which finances archaeological excavation, research, and restoration.


Stefania Berutti

PhD in Greek Archaeology, Italian Archaeological School in Athens

Email: sberutti@syr.edu

Stefania Berutti wrote her doctoral dissertation “The Iconographical and Iconological Interpretation of the figurative decoration of the Greek Shield-Bands”. She is specialized in the organization of archaeological tours in Greece and Italy with 10 years of experience collaborating with archaeological museums, including organizing a temporary exhibit for the Uffizi Museums. In addition to teaching for Syracuse, she has also taught Greek and Roman Mythology at the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute in Florence since 2015.


Elisa Biagini

PhD in Literature, Rutgers University

Email: ebiagini@syr.edu

Elisa Biagini has published several poetry collections such as “L’Ospite”, (Einaudi, 2004), “Fiato. parole per musica” (D’If, 2006), “Nel Bosco” (Einaudi, 2007), “The guest in the wood” (Chelsea editions, 2013 – “2014 Best Translated Book Award”), “Da una crepa” (Einaudi, 2014), “The Plant of Dreaming” ( Xenos books, 2017), “Depuis une fissure” (Cadastre8zero, 2018; Prix Nunc 2018), “Filamenti” (Einaudi, 2020), “Filaments” (Le Taillis Pré, 2022) and “TRÅDAR” (Bökforlaget Edda 2023).  Her poems have been translated into fifteen languages and she has translated several contemporary American poets for reviews, anthologies and complete collections (“Nuovi Poeti Americani” Einaudi, 2006) as well as a selection of Paul Celan’s poems. She also teaches at NYU Florence and is the artistic director of the international poetry festival “Voci Lontane, Voci Sorelle.” www.elisabiagini.it


Erika Bianchi

PhD in Ancient History, Università di Firenze and University of Oxford

Email: erbianch@syr.edu

Erika Bianchi is a historian specialized in the ancient Mediterranean cultures and in the historical narrative of ancient and modern sports. Her long teaching experience has included courses, seminars and workshops for both undergraduate and graduate students in several study abroad programs in Florence. In addition to Syracuse University, she is currently teaching Ancient Rome and Archeology courses at ISI Florence. She is also a published novelist and a literary translator.


Luca Bisconti

PhD in Mathematics, Universita’ degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”

Email: lbiscont@syr.edu

Luca Bisconti is an Associate Professor in the “U. Dini” Department of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of Florence. His research concerns Partial Differential Equations in Fluid Dynamics, Dynamical Systems, Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations, and Topological Methods in Mathematical Analysis.


Paulus Blokker

PhD in Social and Political Sciences, European University Institute

Email: pablokke@syr.edu

Website: paulusblokker.wordpress.com.

Paulus Blokker is currently teaching Italian Politics: Laboratory of Populism at Syracuse Florence where he has been teaching since 2007. He is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna and a research fellow at the Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University, Prague. His publications include the volume (co-edited with M. Anselmi), Multiple Populisms: Italy as a Democracy’s Mirror, Routledge, 2019; “Political and Constitutional Imaginaries”, in S. Adams and J. Smith (eds), Social Imaginaries: Critical Interventions in a Paradigm-in-the-Making, Rowman and Littlefield, 2019; “Populism as a constitutional project”, International Journal of Constitutional Law 17/2, 2019;  “Varieties of Populist Constitutionalism: The Transnational Dimension”, in a special issue on “Populist Constitutionalism: Varieties, Complexities, and Contradictions”, co-edited with Bojan Bugaric and Gábor Halmai, German Law Journal, 20/3, 2019; the edited volume (co-edited with M. Anselmi and N. Urbinati), Populismo di Lotta e di Governo, Feltrinelli 2018; “Populist Constitutionalism”, in Carlos de la Torre (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Global Populism, Routledge, pp. 113-127, 2018; and “Constitutional Mobilization and Contestation in the Transnational Sphere”, Journal of Law and Society, 45:S1, 2018.


Molly Bourne

PhD in Art History, Harvard University
Email: mhbourne@syr.edu

A specialist in the cultural history of Renaissance Mantua and the network of princely courts in early modern Italy, Molly Bourne has published numerous articles on artistic patronage, villa design, costume history, the domestic interior, cartography, and the history of sexuality at the Gonzaga court. Her books include Francesco II Gonzaga: The Soldier-Prince as Patron (2008) and, as co-editor, Encountering the Renaissance: Celebrating Gary M. Radke and 50 Years of the Syracuse University Graduate Program in Renaissance Art (2016). Bourne also serves as art history advisor for the open-source digital humanities project, Isabella d’Este Archive (IDEA). She has received fellowships from the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti and from the British Library, as well as the Harvard University Derek Bok Award for Excellence in Teaching. In addition to teaching classes for both graduates and undergraduates at Syracuse Florence, Bourne also coordinates the graduate program in Italian Renaissance art history.


Ezio Buzzegoli

MA, Istituto Statale d’Arte

Email: ebuzzego@syr.edu

Ezio Buzzegoli is Chief Painting Conservator at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure Laboratory in Florence where he has worked since 1969. He is specialized in the conservation of canvas and panel paintings and has been responsible for the restoration of works by artists including Michelangelo, Botticelli, Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and Bronzino, as well as numerous research projects on new methods and materials for conservation. His many presentations and lectures at international conferences include the Fondazione Longhi and Villa I Tatti in Florence, the Courtauld Institute and the National Gallery in London. His research and restoration projects have been published in many catalogues and scientific journals, such as Studies in Conservation, and in technical bulletins including OPD Restauro and the London National Gallery’s Studying Old Master Paintings. Buzzegoli has been teaching courses in easel painting restoration at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure training center since 1978, and painting techniques and history of conservation at Syracuse University Florence since 1988. His artistic activity centers on multimedia objects and the digital elaboration of drawings and paintings. Presented in various exhibitions, his works may be found in private collections in Europe and America.


Cosimo Campani

PhD in Architecture and Urbanism, Roma Tre University and the Architectural Association

Email: ccampani@syr.edu

Cosimo Campani is an Italian architect and researcher. In addition to tutoring Italian modern history of architecture at Syracuse Florence, he is also a research fellow at Autonomy UK. He doctoral work focused on the interaction between labor, architecture, and urbanism, particularly the historical implications of capitalist production. His PhD thesis called “Redneck Urbanism” spans from manufacturing and domestic work to automation and logistics. Throughout his career, he has lectured as a visiting professor at the Yale Architecture Advanced Design Studio (with Pier Vittorio Aureli) and organized courses and seminars on architectural and urban design at RomaTre University, Royal College of Art, and the Architectural Association. He took part in research projects in Russia (Derailed Lab), the Pearl River Delta, and California-Arizona-Nevada (Department of Ontological Theatre). His work has been exhibited at the Architecture and Landscape Biennial (Versailles), the FRAC Center (Orléans), Manifesta (Palermo), the Strelka Institute (Moscow), Saatchi Gallery (London), the Royal College of Art, and the Royal Institute of British Architects (London).


Silvia Cattiti

PhD in Architectural History and Conservation, La Sapienza University of Rome

Email: scatitti@syr.edu

Silvia Cattiti’s approach to research combines her background as an architect and architectural historian. In her research she focuses on the communicational power of architecture at both the ideological and practical level. She works on the analysis and graphic rendering of the dynamic relationship between the physical space and the individual, at three different scales: urban, architectural, and interior design. Her range of interests includes history of (ideas and approaches to) the physical environment in Early Modern and Modern Italy; Italian Renaissance architecture and architectural drawing; circulation of ideas; exchange among the visual arts in Early Modern Italy; history of residential typologies, kitchens, and design of private gardens; original display and viewing conditions of collections of objects; history of museum and exhibition installation design.


Lidia Casado Ledesma

PhD in Psychology, University of Florence

Email: lcasadol@syr.edu

Lidia Casado Ledesma is a postdoctoral researcher in Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Florence. Her research focuses on writing and reading processes, reasoning and learning processes, and instructional methods in scholarly settings. Recent publications include “Learning science through argumentative synthesis writing and deliberative dialogues: A comprehensive and effective methodology in secondary education”, Reading and Writing, co-authored with Cuevas, I. and Martín, E. (2021); “Teaching argumentative synthesis writing through deliberative dialogues: Instructional practices in secondary education”, Instructional Science, co-authored with Cuevas, I., Van den Bergh, H., Rijlaarsdam, G., Mateos, M., Granado- Peinado, M., and Martín, E. (2021).


Tommaso Ciuffoletti

MA in International Wine Marketing, IED – European Institute of Design

3rd level diploma, WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust)

Email: tciuffol@syr.edu

Tommaso Ciuffoletti has worked for the Chamber of Deputies and the Regional Council of Tuscany. He has written about the agricultural market for the economic daily ItaliaOggi and was a columnist for the Tuscan edition of Corriere della Sera. For 8 years he was marketing manager of the Domini Castellare di Castellina group, which includes 4 major Italian wineries. Since 2017 he has been working at Treedom, of which he is now partner and Head of Content. Treedom is a company that plants trees in environmental and social sustainability projects and currently operates in 18 countries around the world, including Asia, Africa, Europe and Central and South America. In 2021, he founded his own winery in southern Tuscany, with which he started a project to reuse glass bottles and organizes a unique tasting event every year in which a panel of professional tasters sample wines by local farmers. He currently writes for Intravino, the most important Italian website dedicated to wine. He teaches the Master in Scientific Disclosure at the University of Siena and the Master in Green economy & sustainability management at Radar Academy. He has published Photos du XXe siècle: Une histoire en images (Eyrolles, 2015) and Giacomo Tachis e la luce di Galileo (Class Editori 2016).


Olivier de Maret

PhD in History, Free University Brussels (V.U.B.)

Email: odemaret@syr.edu

Olivier de Maret holds a doctorate in history from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and specializes in food studies. His academic interests focus on alternative food systems, Italian and Florentine food history and the relationship between food, migration and identity. He has published articles and a book on Italian migrants and food businesses in Brussels just before the first world war. Between 2017 and 2021, he was production co-editor for the journal Food & History. He has been teaching at Syracuse University’s program in Florence since 2016 and currently teaches “Farm to Fork”, “Feeding the City: Urban Food Systems” and “Food, Culture and Identity”.


Giovanni del Giudice

Laurea in Film History and Criticism, University of Florence

Email: gdelgiud@syr.edu

Giovanni del Giudice has taught Italian as a foreign language in various capacities since 2010, including for political refugees. In 2015 he completed a course in the theory and methodology for teaching romance languages at the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since 2007 he has taught U.S. college students both in the U.S. and in Italy, including at Pepperdine University in Florence since 2016. Del Giudice teaches courses in Italian language and culture at Syracuse Florence.


Luisa Demuru

Laurea in Modern Foreign Languages and Literature, University of Florence

Email: ldemuru@syr.edu

Luisa Demuru has been teaching Italian language and culture at all levels at Syracuse Florence since 2002. She has taught for other study abroad programs in Florence including New York University, the British Institute, Richmond College, and CEA Study Abroad Program. She has also collaborated on numerous occasions with the Folkeligt Oplysnings Forbund (Cultural Institution for Adult Education) in Denmark as a visiting teacher of Italian language and culture, and she has been a linguistic support teacher for non-Italophone students in local elementary and middle schools. Her laurea degree from the University of Florence focused on German language and literature and her thesis was entitled “The Jews in Berlin 1933-1939: Aspects of the Jewish Reaction to Nazi Persecution.” She received a DITALS certificate to teach Italian as a foreign language from the University for Foreigners in Siena, Italy. Demuru’s educational background also includes an exchange scholarship with the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German academic exchange service) through which she attended the University of Potsdam for two terms. In addition to teaching, she has translated academic essays from German to Italian for the Giunti publishing house in Florence.


Matteo Duni

PhD in History and Civilization, European University Institute

Email: mduni@syr.edu

Laurea in Early Modern History from the University of Florence. Matteo Duni is the author of Tra religione e magia: Storia del prete modenese Guglielmo Campana (1460?-1541), (Firenze, Olschki, 1999), and Under the Devil’s Spell: Witches, Sorcerers, and the Inquisition in Renaissance Italy, Syracuse University in Florence, 2007 (Villa Rossa Series). Other publications include articles in scholarly journals such as Archivio Storico ItalianoMélanges de l’École française de Rome, and Studies in Church History; as well as entries in reference works such as The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition (Santa Barbara, CA, ABC-Clio, 2006), and Dizionario storico dell’Inquisizione (Pisa, Edizioni della Normale, 2011). With Dinora Corsi, he organized the international conference “Thou Shalt not Suffer a Witch to Live. Witches in Treatises and Trials (XIV-XVII centuries)”. He co-edited the proceedings Non lasciar vivere la malefica: Le streghe nei trattati e nei processi (secc. XIV-XVII), Firenze University Press in 2008 and (with Mario Biagioni and Lucia Felici) Fratelli d’Italia. Riformatori italiani del Cinquecento (Torino, Claudiana, 2011). With Guido Dall’Olio (Università di Urbino), Duni organized the international conference “Prescritto e proscritto: Religione e società nell’Italia moderna” (2013), and co-edited the proceedings (with Andrea Cicerchia and Guido Dall’Olio) Prescritto e proscritto. Religione e società nell’Italia moderna (XVI-XIX secolo (Roma, Carocci, 2015). Duni teaches classes on Italian Renaissance history and the history of witchcraft at Syracuse Florence.


Rossella Falciai

Laurea in Literature and Philosophy, University of Florence

Email: rfalciai@syr.edu

Rossella Falciai has taught in several US programs in Florence as well as technical schools in Belgium and France. She has a level II Master Itals in teaching language and culture to foreigners from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and completed the program at the Nova Terra Coaching School in Brussels to become a Professional Certified Coach. She is a “mental coach” specialized in learning coaching and intercultural coaching. She is particularly interested in finding the best ways to transmit culture.


Marco Klee Fallani

MFA, California College of Arts and Crafts

Email: mkfallan@syr.edu

Marco Klee Fallani attended the Istituto d’Arte di Porta Romana and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence before getting his MFA in 1993. Fallani has participated in numerous shows in painting and sculpture, winning awards such as the Premio della Pittura from the city of Lucca. He worked as a set designer for Luca Ronconi’s production Lo Specchio, collaborated on the making of the monument to Joe Louis for the city of Detroit, and prepared the moulds and plaster casts of the Gugliemo pulpit for the Cathedral Works Museum of Pisa. His private works include a bronze portrait bust for a German government official, a series of paintings for Ron Dennis, and a large-scale painting, The Citation of the Mona Lisa, for the Gherardini Company. In 2005, Syracuse Florence commissioned him to sculpt a life-size figure in terracotta, The Huntress, for the Villa Rossa garden; and in 2006, he designed the set for the Syracuse University – Maggio Musicale operatic co-production of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. His paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in Italy, the U.S. and Netherlands. Fallani teaches sculpture, drawing and ceramics at Syracuse Florence.


Peter Fischer

PhD in History and Civilization, European University Institute

Email: pfischer@syr.edu

‘Magister Artium’ in Philosophy, Sociology and Art History, RWTH Aachen University. Peter Fischer has extensive professional experience with sustainability education having developed and managed several programs, initiatives and courses at American universities in Florence, Bologna, and Perugia. His major research interests are in the areas of sustainability in higher education, Mediterranean food history, and modern Italian politics and history. He is currently writing a textbook on “Food and Culture in the Mediterranean World” for use in sustainability curricula. His earlier published works include “Atomenergie und staatliches Interesse: Die Anfänge der Atompolitik in der Bundes-republik Deutschland 1949-1955,” Baden-Baden: Nomos 1994; “The Origins of the Federal Republic of Germany’s Space Policy 1959-1965 – European and National Dimensions,” Report ESA HSR-4 (Noordwijk: ESA, January 1994);  and “West German Rearmament and the Nuclear Challenge,” in Francis F. Heller, John Gillingham (ed), NATO: The Founding of the Atlantic Alliance and the Integration of Europe, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. He has also published numerous articles on Italian food culture. Fischer teaches a course on the Mediterranean diet at Syracuse Florence.


Carlotta Fonzi Kliemann

MA in History of Drama, University of Bologna

Email: cklieman@syr.edu

Carlotta Fonzi Kliemann has published several essays of criticism (including L’amore inconfessabile: l’incesto nel cinema, Parte prima Psicologia Contemporanea 31. 190 e Parte seconda 31. 191 (2005); “Years of the Bullet on Screen: The Representation of Leftist Terrorism in Italian Films 1980–1996,” Italian History & Culture 4 (1998): 93–111); and numerous articles on Italian film, international political flim, and women’s films. She is also the co-author of the book Abbasso i bulli (Ponte alle Grazie, 2012). She has served on the jury for documentary films in competition at SguardiAltrove Film Festival (Milan, 2009) and for the feature films at the Balkan Florence Express (Florence, 2012). She has also participated in round tables on film in Turin, Florence, Milan, and Rome. She has been a regular collaborator with the Mediateca Regionale Toscana for many years and since 2008 is Vice President of the Associazione Chicca Richelmy, which promotes audio-visual culture and awards a prize at the Torino Film Festival. Kliemann teaches courses in contemporary and Italian film at Syracuse Florence.


Tulia Gattone

PhD in Development Economics, Sapienza University of Rome

Email: tgattone@syr.edu

Tulia Gattone specializes in Development Economics and Applied Econometrics. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Florence, on leave from the Italian public administration. She has worked as a private sector development analyst at the World Bank Group in Washington DC. She also gained professional experience at the Implementation Support Unit of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention in Geneva and the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington DC. Gattone has also worked as a teaching, graduate, and research assistant at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. Before working on her doctorate, Gattone received a M.Sc. in Economics and Commerce from D’Annunzio University in Pescara, an M.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in Syracuse, NY, and a B.Sc. in International Economics, Management, and Finance from Bocconi University in Milan.


Marius Ghincea

Master of Research in Political Science, European University Institute

Email: gmghince@syr.edu

Marius Ghincea specializes in topics related to international relations and foreign policy analysis. He is a Researcher at the European University Institute (Florence) and a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Security at Hertie School (Berlin). He is also a recipient of the well-regarded ‘re:constitution fellowship’. He has taught at the Johns Hopkins’ SAIS, Bologna, and George Washington University. He has been affiliated with several other universities, such as the Freie Universität Berlin, Central European University, and the University of Bucharest. His research focuses on the domestic politics of foreign and security policy, especially in Germany and the United States.


Olivia Gori

Master of Architecture, University of Florence

Email: olgori@syr.edu

Olivia Gori is an Italian architect whose work focuses on public space and urban regeneration. In addition to her post-graduate studies at the University of Florence, she also studied at the ENSA de Paris-Belleville. In 2016 she co-founded the architectural practice ECÒL. Since then, the group has developed several projects on public space and public art in Italy and Europe involving unconventional strategies and aesthetics to address contemporary issues and needs. She has been active in the research and creation of alternative practices in the field of urban design and has worked as a research fellow for the architecture department of the University of Florence.


Kyle Griffith

PhD in Urban Studies, University of New Orleans

Email: kgriff17@syr.edu

Dr. Kyle Griffith earned his doctorate in Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans. Before joining SU Florence, he worked as a scholar and practitioner in England specializing in increased diversity and inclusion in the workplace. He teaches Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises and Production and Operations Management.


Francesco Guazzelli

Photographer, Fortman Studios School of Fine Arts

Email: fguazzel@syr.edu

Francesco Guazzelli is a professional photographer, teacher of photography and graphics technician. His photographic work focuses primarily on Italian fashion. Since 1996 he has been the official press office photographer for Florence’s Pitti Immagine and event photographer for the Stazione Leopolda exhibition center. Over the past 25 years Guazzelli has collaborated with numerous international fashion magazines including the Spanish Divos, the German Textil Wirtschaft and Textil Mitteilungen, the American Robb Report and the French Monsieur. His work has included the editorial page for the Italian magazine Benissimo and stage photography and set design for the theatrical company “Macchine di Bosco.” Guazzelli has also taught photography at Fortman Studios from 1986 to 1990 and the “Art…è” School of Design from 1991 to 1994, both in Florence. In addition to teaching at Syracuse Florence, Guazzelli is also graphics technician for the photo lab.


Diane Kunzelman

MA in Renaissance Art History, Syracuse University

Email: dkunzelm@syr.edu

Diane Kunzelman is a professional easel painting conservator working since 1977 for the Italian Ministry of Cultural Property at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure Laboratory in Florence. After receiving her Masters from the Syracuse University Graduate Program in Renaissance Art in 1970 she completed an internship in the Florence conservation facilities as a Fulbright Fellow. She has restored numerous paintings on panel and canvas including works by Bronzino, Fra’ Bartolomeo and Pontormo. Her special interests involve research on innovative methods of technical and scientific investigation for the treatment and documentation of artworks, and she has been responsible for overseeing conservation requirements for works of art exhibited in Italy and around the world. Kunzelman is the author of numerous conference presentations, lectures and publications. Her work has appeared in scientific journals such as Studies in Conservation and the Journal of the American Society for Conservation, as well as in the catalogues of many major exhibitions held in Florence and elsewhere. Since 1988 Kunzelman has taught a graduate seminar on the history of conservation and undergraduate courses on Renaissance painting techniques at Syracuse Florence.


Leonardo Lastilla

PhD in Italian Literature, University College Dublin

Email: llastill@syr.edu

Before getting his doctorate in Ireland, Leonardo Lastilla received a Laurea in Humanities from the University of Florence, an MA in Teaching Italian Language from the Università per Stranieri of Siena, and an MA in Intercultural Education from Roma 3 University. He has taught Italian language and literature, travel writing, English literature and Humanities, and Food and Wine for over 20 years. He has worked in many schools, institutions, and universities, especially US study abroad programs in Italy. He is also a poet and an author. Many of his essays and works have been published in volumes, magazines, and journals. He is fluent in English and French. Lastilla loves teaching especially in the study abroad sector because he shares with Henry James the importance of first-hand experience: “Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.”


Patricia Lurati

PhD in Art History, University of Zurich

Email: plurati@syr.edu

Patricia Lurati is the recipient of numerous Swiss research grants. In addition to scholarly articles, she has written the books Doni nuziali del Rinascimento nelle collezioni svizzere (2007), La chiesa di sant’Antonio abate a Morcote (2014), and Animali maravigliosi (2021). In 2014 she curated the exhibition Doni d’amore. Donne e rituali nel Rinascimento (Rancate, Switzerland, Pinacoteca Giovannni Züst), and in 2019 the successful exhibition Animalia Fashion (Florence, Uffizi Galleries, Palazzo Pitti, Fashion and Costume Museum). In 2022 she was appointed to set up the new Fashion and Costume Museum at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.


Baret Magarian

PhD in English Literature, University of Durham

Email: bmagaria@syr.edu

Baret Magarian obtained his BA in English literature at the University of London and his PhD on Shelley at the University of Durham, parts of which were published in the Keats-Shelley Review. He was a freelance journalist in London and reviewed and wrote features for The Times, The Observer, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and The Independent. He had poetry published in Italian translation in the Florentine anthology Collectivo R. He has also had fiction published in Panurge magazine in the UK, and he has recorded an EP of rock. In addition to teaching academic and creative writing, Magarian has acted in Italian film trailers and directed fringe theatre in London. He has also completed a collection of 14 short stories which draw on genres as diverse as melodrama, science fiction, the Gothic novel, poetic dreamscape, noir, and social satire. Two of these stories appear in the Darker Times anthology.


Antonio Magliulo

PhD in History of Economic Doctrines, University of Florence

Email: amagliul@syr.edu

Antonio Magliulo is currently a Full Professor in the History of Economic Thought at the University of Florence and a board member of the PhD Programme in Economics at the University of Siena. His research interests include business cycles and the Great Depression of 1929; the reception of Keynesian and Austrian economics in Italy; the political economy of Italy; European economic thought and political history; and the economics of sustainable tourism. In addition to the book History of European Economic Thought published by Routledge in 2022, he has written various articles and chapters in journals and edited collections. 


Isabella Martini

PhD Modern Foreign Literature (University of Pisa)

Email: imartini@syr.edu

Isabella Martini’s experimental doctoral thesis on doctor-patient communication in pediatric surgery became a book (Talking Pediatric Surgery. Towards a deeper understanding of Doctor-Patient discourse). She has taught workshops on doctor-patient communication at the University of Pisa and at the Ospedale Santa Chiara, and worked in the publishing industry as a translator, foreign rights manager, editor, and literary agent. She taught English language and translation courses for the Universities of Cagliari and at the Florentine branch of the Carlo Bo School for Linguistic Mediators, and has designed and taught courses in communication, public relations and social media, academic writing, and literature for various US study abroad programs. She has served as a consultant on soft skills and communication in the business and manufacturing fields (Piaggio, Leroy Merlin) using tools based on conversation analysis and on Theory U, the social technology developed within MIT to renew learning, leadership, and systems management. She currently teaches English at the University of Florence. She has also published on conversational linguistics and medical discourse analysis, translation, and Anglo-Canadian short fiction. Her academic publications focus on historical English, historical pragmatics, and corpus-assisted discourse analysis applied to language in the news. She is a member of The Corpora and Historical English Research Group (CHER) of the University of Florence, and the Italian Association of English Studies (AIA).


Matilde Milanesi

PhD in Economics, University of Florence

Email: mmilanes@syr.edu

Matilde Milanesi is Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Florence where she teaches Marketing and Management. Her research interests include international business and international marketing, industrial marketing, buyer-supplier relationships, and luxury and fashion marketing. She has published in top-ranked academic journals such as International Marketing Review, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Management, and Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. She has also authored chapters in edited books and recently published a book on liabilities and networks in the internationalization of fashion retailing and a book on the internationalization and business models of luxury fashion SMEs.


Jonathan Nelson

PhD in Art History, New York University

Email: jnelso03@syr.edu

Jonathan Nelson has published extensively on Italian painting and sculpture in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries, with specific interests in patronage and the representation of women. His books include The Patron’s Payoff: Economic Frameworks for Conspicuous Commissions in Renaissance Italy (2008), monographic studies on Filippino Lippi (Electa, 2004), Leonardo da Vinci (2007), and Plautilla Nelli (2008, 2000). He also co-curated exhibition catalogs on Robert Mapplethorpe: Perfection in Form (2009), Botticelli and Filippino (2004), and Venus and Cupid: Michelangelo and the New Ideal of Beauty (2002). He is currently writing a monograph on Filippino Lippi: Problem Solving in Renaissance Art for Reaktion Books, and co-organizing a workshop on “Bad Reception: Negative Reactions to Italian Renaissance Art” at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz.


Sean Nelson

PhD in Art History, University of Southern California

Email: sanels02@syr.edu

Sean Nelson’s research and teaching interests focus on cross-cultural dialogue between Early Modern Florence and the Islamic lands, predominantly the Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire. He has received research fellowships and grants from the Kunsthistorisches Institute in Florence; the Max-Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin; the Getty Foundation, Los Angeles as a fellow of “Connecting Art Histories”; the USC-Early Modern Studies Institute at the Huntington Library, San Marino; the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, Istanbul, co-sponsored by the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies, Villa I Tatti, Florence; and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Societies, and Humanities at the University of Cambridge (CRASSH). He has published essays on the collection of Islamic spoils in The Grand Ducal Medici and the Levant: Interlacing Cultures from Florence to the Eastern Mediterranean (1532-1743) (Brepols, 2016) and the forthcoming Pisa: The Eccentric City (ETS Editrice). He is also a contributor to the Marie Curie sponsored project Reading the Inventory: The Possessions of the Portuguese Merchant-Banker Emmanuel Ximenez (1562-1632) in Antwerp to be accompanied by a forthcoming book (University of Chicago Press).


Elia Nichols

Master of Fine Arts in Acting, University of Texas at Austin

Email: etnichol@syr.edu

Elia Nichols is a Public Speaking and Communication coach and professor, a TEDx Speaker Coach, a keynote speaker, as well as a tv, film and stage actress. She has coached 21 TEDx speakers from all over the world into stage and screen success. Elia is the lead public speaking coach for companies and institutes such as Menarini Pharmaceuticals, Confindustria, Syneos Health, Aquarance (Greece), Thomas Cuisine (USA), and Lions + Tigers (USA), and the European University Institute. Elia has taught Public Speaking, Body Language and Communication techniques the European University Institute (Fiesole), the European School of Economics, Istituto Lorenzo de’Medici, and the University of Texas at Austin. As an actress, Elia is best known for her starring role as Professor Tucker in the TV series Maggie & Bianca Fashion Friends that airs nightly on the RAI Gulp channel in Italy and worldwide in 180 countries on Netflix. She is also one of the two co-founders of F.E.S.T.A. Theatre Company and has produced and acted in many of its productions. In addition, she has been the presenter at Italian and English-speaking events throughout the USA and Italy.


Eric Nicholson

PhD in Renaissance Studies, Yale University

Email: eanichol@syr.edu

MA, Warwick University; BA, University of California, Berkeley.  Since 1998 Eric Nicholson has been teaching classes in dramatic literature and theater history at Syracuse Florence. An active member of the international research collaborative “Theater Without Borders,” with Robert Henke he edited the volumes Transnational Exchange in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2008) and Transnational Mobilities in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2014), including his own essay contributionsHis recent publications include the chapter on “Sexuality and Gender” for Volume Three of A Cultural History of Theatre (Bloomsbury Press, 2017), and the article on “Crossing Borders with Satyrs, the Irrepressible Genre-Benders of Pastoral Tragicomedy” for The Italianist (2021). In 2022 his collaborative volume, with Pamela Allen Brown and Julie D. Campbell, entitled Lovers Debates for the Stage, a translation and edition of Isabella Andreini’s Fragmenti di alcune scritture… (first ed. 1617) will be published by The University of Toronto’s ITER Press.  At Syracuse Florence and elsewhere Eric has directed productions of plays by Shakespeare, Molière, Pirandello, and others. He is also a professional actor and voice artist who has appeared several times on stage in Italy, and has worked on several audio guides and animated cartoons. His current research projects focus on women as theatrical performers in early modern Europe.


Roberto Pacciani

PhD in Industrial Engineering, University of Bari

Email: rpaccian@syr.edu

After completing his doctoral degree in 1997, Roberto Pacciani started working at the Research and Development Department of GE Oil & Gas (formerly Nuovo Pignone) as a turbine and compressor aero-design specialist. Since 1999, he has been a member of the mechanical engineering faculty at the University of Florence. He is presently an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering. At the School of Engineering of the University of Florence he teaches courses in Fluid Dynamics and Turbomachinery. His research involves the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methodologies with a special focus on turbomachinery design and analysis. He has contributed to the development of CFD codes which are currently used by several industries and research centers. Pacciani currently teaches a course in thermodynamics at Syracuse Florence (spring semester only).


Francesca Parotti

PhD in Science and Materials Technology, University of Florence

Email: fparotti@syr.edu

Francesca Parotti is a freelance engineer and professor of materials technology at the Florence Institute for the Industrial Arts (ISIA). Her research focuses mainly on material technologies for environmental sustainability, including developments in bamboo as a construction material.


Guglielmo Perfetti

PhD in Italian Studies, University of Glasgow

Email: gperfett@syr.edu

Before completing his doctorate in Scotland, Guglielmo Perfetti received a BA from La Sapienza University in Rome (2008) and an MA from Roma 3 University (2010). His research interests include Italian pop culture, cultural studies, youth culture, and the arts, especially music and cinema. He has taught students at various levels, including pre-teens and teens, undergraduate and postgraduate university students, older learners, and those suffering from life-changing conditions like dementia. In addition to Syracuse, he is teaches Italian Pop Cultures at Dickinson College in Bologna. He also works as a music event organizer and DJ. He hosted Lafropunk Radio Show on Subcity Radio Glasgow for 8 years (2014-2022) and he has been hosting the web radio show Permanent Daylight on Radiostart since 2020.


Sasha Perugini

PhD in Theater History, Tufts University

Email: perugini@syr.edu

A native of Tuscany with Serbian background, Professor Perugini is fluent in Italian, Serbian and English. She earned her Laurea Magistrale (MA comparable) in English and Russian at the University of Siena and her doctorate in History of Performing Arts from Tufts University. She has been the Director of Syracuse Florence since 2011 and acts as the program’s legal representative. She teaches cross-cultural management and communication. Perugini has published five books and many scholarly articles on topics ranging from language to food to AI and bias. Recipient of the Chancellor’s Fellowship in 2023. She is involved in advocacy for women in leadership, and regularly leads dedicated seminars on the subject.


Giulia Pettena

PhD in Classics, Universities of Florence and Pisa

Email: gpettena@syr.edu

As an expert in Etruscan, Greek, and Roman history with a focus on Etruscan maritime activities and links with contemporary Mediterranean civilizations, Giulia Pettena has published numerous articles and books on Etruscans and underwater archaeology including Gli Etruschi e il mare (“The Etruscans and the Sea”), Edizioni Ananke, Torino 2002, and the exhibition catalogue The Etruscans – An Ancient Culture Revealed on the Cambi Collection (Atlanta 2004). Since 2008, she has been teaching courses on ancient art, history, and mythology and conducting tours of archaeological sites for various American study abroad programs in Florence.


Natalia Piombino

PhD in Italian History, University of London

Email: npiombin@syr.edu

MA, Italian Studies, University College London; Laurea, Political Science, University of Florence. Natalia Piombino completed postgraduate studies in modern and contemporary Italy and problems and methods of historical research at the University of Florence. She has received research grants from the Central Research Fund of the University of London and her publications include Focus on the Family: Germi’s Cinema as a Map of a Country in Transition (forthcoming); and Il Sud di Rossellini (forthcoming). She teaches courses in Italian history and society at Syracuse Florence.


Isabella Pistolozzi

Laurea in Modern Languages and Literature, University of Florence

Email: ipistolo@syr.edu

Isabella Pistolozzi received her Master’s degree in Education with honors from the University of Florence specializing in Psycholinguistics and Foreign Language Teaching. Her thesis was entitled “Neurolinguistics in Second-Language Learning in Adults: Teaching Italian Language Acquisition.” She is a recipient of the National Certification in the Methodology of Teaching English as a Second Language and has taught Italian language courses at schools for foreigners throughout Florence. At the Hantarex S.p.A company in Florence, she developed and coordinated the company’s English as a Second Language program for employees at all levels. She has been teaching Italian language and culture courses at Syracuse Florence since 1989.


Luca Miles Ponsi

Master of Science in Architecture, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio (AAM)

Email: lponsi@syr.edu

Luca Miles Ponsi is co-founder of Studio Ponsi – Architettura e Design and has worked in the United States, Switzerland, Portugal and Italy. For his Master of Science in architecture he worked with Elia Zenghelis, founder of OMA, as his thesis advisor. During his studies, he was awarded with a Fondazione Maletti Scholarship and an Erasmus Programme grant to study at the Universidade Luisiada in Lisbon. Ponsi has worked for Mark Mack Architects in Los Angeles and Moretti Costruzioni Spa in Italy to develop a pre-fabricated concrete housing system, now in production by the company. In 2013 his work was selected and exhibited at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, both in Florence and in Lisbon. From 2010 to 2015 Ponsi taught interior design and analytical drawing at the Florence Institute of Design International. Since 2011 he has been teaching courses in architectural design, analysis and representation at the Syracuse Florence School of Architecture, as well as covering the role of Architecture Field Studies Coordinator. He is a licensed architect in Switzerland and Italy.


Daniele Profeta

Master of Architecture, Princeton University

Email: dprofeta@syr.edu

Daniele Profeta is an Italian architect and designer. He is currently the Director of the Architecture Program of Syracuse University in Florence. He has previously taught at the Yale School of Architecture and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Daniele is a partner at A/P Practice, a collaborative partnership with Maya Alam. Their projects combine everyday digital habits, contemporary imaging technologies and traditional craftsmanship to surpass an introverted conversation and open up novel forms of practice. Past work ranges from small scale public installations to sites of speculative re-use. Daniele holds a Master of Architecture from Princeton University and completed his undergraduate studies between La Sapienza University in Rome and KTH School of Architecture in Stockholm, where he graduated with Honors.


Alessandro Ridolfi

PhD in Machine Theory and Robotics, University of Florence

Email: aridolfi@syr.edu

Alessandro Ridolfi is a PhD Researcher and Assistant Professor of Machine Theory and Robotics with the School of Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF) at the University of Florence (UNIFI), Italy. At the beginning of his PhD he worked on railway vehicle localization and wheel-rail adhesion modelling. His current research interests are underwater and industrial robotics, sensor-based navigation of vehicles, mechanical systems modelling, vehicle dynamics and bio-robotics. Ridolfi has worked as a Researcher and Assistant of the Coordinator within the FP7 European project ARROWS (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World’s Seas, 2012-2015). He is Principal Investigator for the University of Florence for two European projects on Marine Robotics. He has co-authored over 100 scientific papers for international journals and conferences on robotics and mechatronic topics, with a focus on underwater robotics.


Luca Salvatori

PhD in Risk Management on the Built Environment, University of Florence and Technical University of Braunschweig

Email: lsalvato@syr.edu

Luca Salvatori is Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation of Structures at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Florence. He is a consultant for structural engineering and computational-software development and is the designer of the computer-code SMARTmasonry. His scientific interests focus on the development and implementation of computational models. He has developed numerical schemes for bridge aerodynamics, dynamics of quasicrystals, concrete cracking, liquid-solid phase-transitions, optimization of shell structures, multiscale models, masonry structures, seismic analysis, cold-formed steel, computational geometry and topology, mesh generation.


Antonella Salvia

Laurea in Classics, University of Pisa

Email: asalvia@syr.edu

Antonella Salvia completed a post-graduate degree at the Università “Ca’ Foscari”, Venice, in Pedagogy and Didactics for teaching Italian language and culture to foreigners (Master in italiano come lingua straniera). Her thesis was entitled “From Television Talk Shows to Cinema: Four Didactic Proposals. The Audio-Visual in Teaching Italian to Foreign Students.” She completed the DITALS (Didattica dell’italiano a stranieri) certification in the methodology of teaching Italian as a second language at the University for Foreigners of Siena. Salvia has been teaching Italian language courses since 2000, when she moved to Belgium to teach at the University of Brussels. After returning to Italy in 2001, she began teaching American students and since then has taught in several study abroad programs in Florence.


Niccolò Sbaraglia

University of Florence Master’s degree in Economics

Email: nsbaragl@syr.edu

Born and raised in Florence, Niccolò Sbaraglia is an economist specialized in statistics and a production manager dedicated to luxury accessories with a niche in product communication strategy. After living in New York City for 8 years and having founded two companies , T-project showroom and PLUMA – ITALIA, Niccolò returned to Florence after accepting a teaching position in the Undergraduate and Master programs at Polimoda fashion school, for the course Craft to Business. He has worked as product manager of leather jackets for Kering Group. Later he was Head of Business & Art Direction Department at Polimoda and in 2020 was appointed Head of Commercial Development at Polimoda. Niccolò believes in the power of art and fashion to bring about dialogue among all cultures of the world.


Marcello Simonetta

Ph.D., Yale University

Email: msimon08@syr.edu

Marcello Simonetta has authored several books including his Medici trilogy, The Montefeltro Conspiracy (Doubleday, New York: 2007, translated into 10 languages), Volpi e Leoni. I Medici, Machiavelli e la rovina d’Italia (Bompiani, Milan: 2014, translated into 4 languages) and Caterina de’ Medici. Storia segreta di una faida famigliare (Rizzoli, Milan: 2018, translated into 4 languages).  He has also published monographs on Petrarch and Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and Pier Luigi Farnese, and many scholarly articles. He has edited sources in Renaissance literary, historical, and diplomatic history. He currently manages the Arte del Negozio Project.


Debora Spini

PhD in History of Political Thought, Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento, University of Pisa

Email: dspini@syr.edu

Debora Spini has published essays in English and Italian on democracy and globalization, human rights, and European identity. Her publications include La Società civile post nazionale, Meltemi ed., Roma, 2006, and Le parole del mondo globale (co-editor with Andrea Giuntini and Piero Meucci). Numerous essays and book chapters include: “Of Leviathan and other animals: Notes on European Identity,” in L. Leonardi, ed.; “Sociology of Europe,” Firenze University Press, 2008; “Lobbying for Values. La società civile e la governance europea,” in Imago Europae, Dec 2007; “European Civil Society, Identity and Legitimacy” in F. Cerutti, S.Lucarelli, eds.; “European Union: Identity and Legitimacy,” London: Routledge, 2008; and “Fra Valori e Interessi: la società civile in un mondo post nazionale,” in Iride, 2008, n. 1. Her early research interests focused on the history of Protestant theology and early contractualist political thought. On these topics she has published the monograph “Diritti di Dio, diritti dei popoli: Perre Jurieu e il problema della sovranita 1681-1691“, Torino: Claudiana, 1997. Her more recent research focuses on political and social philosophy. At Syracuse Florence she teaches courses on European politics, citizenship, and identity.


Kirsten Stromberg

MFA in Arts and Consciousness Studies, John F. Kennedy University

Email: kstrombe@syr.edu

Website: www.kirstenstromberg.net

Kirsten Stromberg graduated a Senior Fellow from Dartmouth College in electro-acoustic music and studio art concentrating in sound sculpture, sound installation and painting. Her MFA thesis explored the intersections of post-structural feminism and Buddhist concepts of non-duality and inter-subjectivity in contemporary art practice. She has lectured and taught at several universities and art institutes throughout Italy, including Washington University in St Louis-Florence Campus and Florence University in the Arts. She has also studied for over 20 years with the artists Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky (also known as ‘rosenclaire’) attending numerous workshops and residencies with them in both Italy and South Africa. Currently Stromberg teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced painting at Syracuse Florence and is supervisor for the Studio Art department in charge of exhibitions and the visiting artist lecture series.


Stefania Talini

Professional Photographer

Email: stalini@syr.edu

Since 1980, Stefania Talini’s work has mainly focused on the music and fashion industries. From 1985 to 2000, she was the official photographer for Florence’s Pitti Immagine. She has made record covers for companies such as RCA, EMI, Cramps, and Indies, has collaborated with the RAI Italian television network and has worked on stage installations and video clips. Her photographs have been published in leading national and international magazines, her independent projects have been exhibited internationally and her work is included in several public and private photographic collections. In 2003, Talini co-authored Foto Parlanti (Bonacci Ed.), a photographic collaboration with American students on Italian culture. Her personal research in photography concerns the use of diverse techniques and supports in black & white, Polaroid and digital photography. In addition to Syracuse Florence, Talini’s teaching experience has included courses and workshops for the American Institute for Foreign Studies, Blith & Co., Nasson College and several private schools in Florence. Her intense didactic activity concentrates primarily on the expressive and cultural content of photography together with an accurate technical preparation. Since 1989 Talini has been teaching photography at Syracuse Florence, where she was also coordinator of the art department from 2006 to 2009


Christian Tarchi

PhD in Psychology, University of Florence

Email: ctarchi@syr.edu

Christian Tarchi is a Researcher and Lecturer in Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Florence. He has also taught several courses in psychology for study abroad programs in Italy, including cross-cultural psychology, human development in culture, and diversity in education. His research focuses on reasoning, learning, and intercultural competence. He has published extensively in prestigious academic journals and presented his work at several international conferences. Recent publications include “The influence of thinking dispositions on integration and recall of multiple texts,” British Journal of Educational Psychology, co-authored with Villalon, R. (2021); “Promoting intercultural competence in study abroad students,” European Journal of Psychology of Education (2021); “Effects of think‐aloud on students’ multiple‐documents comprehension,” Applied Cognitive Psychology (2021); “Learning from text, video, or subtitles: A comparative analysis,” Computers & Education, co-authored with Zaccoletti, S. and Mason, L. (2020).


Loredana Tarini

Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literature, University of Pisa

Email: ltarini@syr.edu

Loredana Tarini has been coordinator of the Italian Language & Culture Department at Syracuse University in Florence since 1994 where she also teaches. She has been the recipient of the National Certification in the Methodology of Teaching English as a Second Language and has been a Visiting Professor at Syracuse University, New York. In addition to a career in teaching and department administration, Tarini has co-authored several language and culture books, including: Dimmi!, an Italian language textbook for beginners (Guerra Edizioni, 1999); Nuovo Dimmi…, an Italian language textbook for A1/A2 level language students (Guerra Edizioni, 2008); Praticamente Dimmi, a workbook with grammar notes for beginners for the acquisition of Italian language skills through functional and communicative activities (Guerra Edizioni, 2009); and Praticamente Dimmi: Grammar Notes and Glossary (Guerra Edizioni, 2009). Tarini’s research interests include cross-cultural studies as well as the integration and incorporation of Italian life and culture into the process of language acquisition.


Vittoria Tettamanti

Laurea in Modern Languages and Literature, University of Florence

Email: vtettama@syr.edu

Vittoria Tettamanti has been teaching Italian language and culture from beginner’s to advanced levels since 1986. Alongside teaching, Tettamanti is a faculty supervisor for the internship program with local elementary schools and has been the coordinator of the volunteer program organizing and supervising activities that range from storytelling in primary schools, rehabilitation through creativity, soup kitchen and food for thought. She received the National Certification in the Methodology of Teaching English as a Second Language for public schools. Tettamanti co-authored Foto Parlanti (Bonacci, 2003), a textbook which aims to enhance Italian vocabulary through the use of photos taken by Syracuse University students, and Parliamo con la pubblicità (Soleil, 2004), a textbook which uses popular Italian commercials to help students from beginner to advanced levels develop language skills. She is also the author of Margherita va in pensione e… inizia una nuova missione (2011) a book which illustrates Milano 25 Onlus activities. She is particularly interested in developing innovative audio-visual materials for teaching Italian as a second language and in integrating Italian life and culture into the process of language acquisition. She volunteers for Milano 25 Onlus as a coordinator of didactic activities in schools, Make A Wish Italia and she teaches Italian to refugees.


Martino Traxler

PhD in Philosophy, Cornell University

Email: mtraxler@syr.edu

Martino Traxler has taught university students in both the US and Italy, including for several study abroad programs in Florence, since 1996. In addition to publishing essays in various academic journals, he has also served on the Atlanta Children’s Hospital Bioethics Committee and Agnes Scott College’s Institutional Review Board. His research focuses on migration and morals, global moral problems and international affairs, and preservation ethics. He has been a licensed tour guide for Florence and its province since 2018.


Lorenza Tromboni

PhD in Medieval Literature and Philology, University of Salento

Email: ltrombon@syr.edu

Laurea in Philosophy, University of Florence. Lorenza Tromboni has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Florence, the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg and the University of Strasbourg with a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship, funded by the EU (project title INSPIrE). She has broad experience with digital tools for the arts and humanities and is actively involved sharing academic research with the general public (through blogs, websites, videos and articles). Tromboni is the author of Inter omnes Plato et Aristoteles. Gli appunti filosofici di Girolamo Savonarola (Porto, FIDEM, 2012) and co-edited Lenten Sermons: Fast of the Body, Banquet of the Soul (Firenze, Nerbini, 2017) with P. Delcorno and E. Lombardo. Other publications include articles in journals such as Rinascimento, Studi Danteschi, Bulletin de philosophie médiévale, Medieval Sermon Studies, as well as entries in reference works such as Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. by M. Sgarbi (Springer International publishing Switzerland, 2014-) and Encyclopedia of Medieval Chronicles, ed. by C. Bratu and G. Dunphy (Brill’s Medieval Reference Library online, 2016). Tromboni recently organized the international conference The Making of Political Thought: Ruptures, Trends and Patterns between Henry VII and Louis the Bavarian (Strasbourg, 2018) and Inspire4Children “What is politics?” with an Italian primary school. Tromboni teaches a course on fake news and online communication at Syracuse Florence.


Margherita Velucchi

PhD in Economics, University of Siena

Email: mvelucch@syr.edu

Margherita Velucchi is Full Professor of Business Statistics at the European University of Rome and has taught Economics at New York University in Florence. She also teaches International Economics and Statistics at Corce Master (Italian Trade Agency), CEIDIM Master (Università Tor Vergata, Roma) and many others. Her research interests include business demography models, financial econometrics and models for international trade. She works on Survival Models for business demography, Multilevel models for Panel Data, and volatility models for financial markets. She has published in several academic journals, including the Review of Economics and Statistics and Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, as well as in international collections. At Syracuse Florence she teaches a course on healthcare in Europe.


Jane Zaloga

MA in Art History, Syracuse University

Email: jlzaloga@syr.edu

Jane Zaloga is a Fulbright Fellow and teaches art and architectural history courses for Syracuse University Florence.