Italian Studies

Stefano Selenu's research at Brown included the role of language and political thought in medieval-Renaissance Italian literature and culture, as well as Mediterranean inter-culturality in Dante and Boccaccio. His dissertation, written under the direction of Ron Martinez, was entitled “The Linguistic Problem in Dante: A Gramscian Pathway Toward the Modern Vernacular World.” He has published essays on Dante and Antonio Gramsci including the book Ideas: Dante, Gramsci e il sardo comune, awarded the Antonio Gramsci Prize in 2005. Before leaving academia, Stefano taught at Cornell University, the University of Oklahoma, and Syracuse University where he was Assistant Teaching Professor and Coordinator of the Italian language program until 2020.