Welcome Dr. Marina Montesano
Dr. Montesano joined us this semester as the Visiting Cornerstone Chair. Her area of expertise is the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, particularly gender in the Middle Ages, East-West mobility in the Middle Ages, magic and witchcraft in Medieval and Renaissance Times, and cultural history. She has published many works, most notably Classical Culture and Witchcraft in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, Folklore, Magic, and Witchcraft: Cultural Exchanges from the Twelfth to Eighteenth Century, and Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages. She has presented her scholarship at academic conferences and institutions across the world, including the Italian Cultural Institutes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cairo, Egypt, Hamburg, Germany, and Istanbul, Turkey.
Dr. Montesano graduated from the University of Bari and earned her Ph.D. in Medieval History from the University of Florence. During the final year of her four-year doctoral program, she spent a semester at Brown University. Upon returning to Italy, she was a fellow for one year at Villa I Tatti – The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Following this, she began her academic career as an adjunct professor in Genoa and Milan and now holds a tenured position at the University of Messina.
For spring semester 2025, Dr. Montesano is co-teaching HIST 298: Medieval Travel & Travelers: A Global Middle Ages with Dr. Joanna Drell.