Anthony Nussmeier Ph.D.

• Dante 
• medieval and Renaissance Italian literature
• Medieval Studies
• Italian history and politics
• the history of Italians in Texas

• Ph.D., Italian Language and Literature, Indiana University
• M.A., Italian Language and Literature, Indiana University
• B.A., History and Italian, University of Minnesota
• Exchange Student, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, Italy 

• Chairman, Department of Modern Languages (2024-present)
• Director of Italian (2016-present)
• Faculty Senator (2021-present)
• Associate Professor of Italian (2020-present)
• Assistant Professor of Italian (2016-2020)

• MIT 1301: First-Year Italian I 
• MIT 1302: First-Year Italian II 
• MIT 2311: Second-Year Italian I 
• MIT 2312: Second-Year Italian II 
• MIT 3311: Italian Literary Tradition I 
• MIT 3322: Italian Literary Tradition II 
• MIT 3343: Italian Literary Tradition III 
• MIT 3323: Advanced Communication in Italian 
• MIT 4311: The Italian City: Naples 
• MIT 4311: The Italian City: Rome 
• MIT 4311: The Italian City: Florence 
• MIT 4311: The Italian City: Bologna 
• MIT 3350: Introduction to Italian Cinema 
• MIT 5301: Italian for Reading Knowledge I (Foundations) 
• MIT 5302: Italian for Reading Knowledge II (Classics) 
• MIT 4V50: (Italian) Lives of Saints 
• MIT 4V50: La vita e le opere di Niccolò Machiavelli 
• MIT 4V50: L’Italia e la Chiesa nell’età moderna 
• MIT 4V50: Santi e peccatori nell’agiografia medievale italiana 
• ENG 1301: Literary Tradition II: Dante, Milton, Lyric 

Books

• European-Language Accounts of the Republic of Texas (1836-1845) (in-progress, Texas Tech University Press)
• Dante and the Politics of Literary Script: the «De vulgari eloquentia» and the Fortunes of Medieval Italian Lyric (in-progress, University of Toronto Press)

Refereed Journals and Edited Book Chapters

• “Surprising Encounters: Manzoni’s Dantean rhetorical palimpsest (PS VII-VIII and XXXIII-XXXIV)”, in Bibliotheca Dantesca: Journal of Italian Studies, vol. 4, Dec. 2021, pp. 139-169.
• “Jacopo Corbinelli’s De vulgari eloquentia (1577) and the Retorica di Ser Brunetto Latini in volgar fiorentino (1546),” in Studi in onore di H. Wayne Storey, edited by Beatrice Arduini, Isabella Magni, and Jelena Tudorovic, Brill, 2021, pp. 304-317.
• “Gilles Ménage, Dante, and the Invention of Italian Medieval Literature”, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes (‘Journal of Medieval and Humanistic Studies’), pp. 205-222. edited by Yann Dahhaoui and Barbara Wahlen.
• “Ut exinde potionare possimus dolcissimum ydromellum” (Dve I I 1): ‘Dante satiro’ and the De vulgari eloquentia, in «Dante Satiro», Lexington Press, edited by F. Alfie and N. Applauso, 2020, pp. 93-116.
• “Annibale Ranuzzi, Il Texas, della sua condizione presente e del suo avvenire politico e commerciale (1842)”, Catholic Southwest: a Journal of History and Culture, vol. 30, 2019, pp. 33-45.
• “Boccaccio e il Dve fra il codice Toledano e il codice Chigiano”, in Boccaccio 1313-2013, edited by F. Ciabattoni and K. Olson, Ravenna: Longo (October 2015).
• “‘Padre’ e ‘Donna del cielo’: Petrarca in Guittone della ‘Giuntina di rime antiche’”, Medioevo letterario d’Italia 9 (2012 [2013]), pp. 89-103.
• “Dante, Guittone, Guinizzelli, and the Politics of Literary Debate”, Textual Cultures 7.2 (2012 [2013]), pp. 43-72.

Scholarly Reviews

• “Duecento and Trecento I (Dante)”, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (83), Brill, pp. 1-32, April 12, 2023. 
• “Duecento and Trecento I (Dante)”, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (82), Brill, pp. 135-163, April 20, 2022. 
• “Duecento and Trecento I (Dante)”, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (81), Brill, pp. 351-377, 2021. 
• “Duecento and Trecento I (Dante)”, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (80), Brill, pp. 484-503, June 17, 2020.  
• “Duecento and Trecento I (Dante)”, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (79), Brill, pp. 352-368, June 2019. 
• “Duecento and Trecento I (Dante)”, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (78), Brill, pp. 249-257, 2018. 
• “Duecento and Trecento I (Dante)”, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (77), Brill, pp. 161-168, 2017.
• “Review of La biblioteca di Pietro Crinito: Manoscritti e libri a stampa della raccolta libraria di un umanista fiorentino. Series: Textes et Études du Moyen Âge (Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal: Porto, 2013)”, The Medieval Review (April 2014).

Other Published Materials

• “Dante and the Journey to God”, Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture, University of Dallas, 2019, pp. 43-52.
• “Wrong-Answer Feedback for Online Student Activities Manual”, in Caleidoscopio, D. Bartalesi-Graf and C. Ryan, Pearson (2014).
• “Test Bank”, in Caleidoscopio, D. Bartalesi-Graf and C. Ryan, Pearson (2014). 

• 2024 Haggar Fellow. Presented annually to one junior faculty member at the University of Dallas (2024)
• Haggar Scholar Award Winner for AAIS 2022 Conference in Bologna, Italy (2022)
• Haggar Scholar Award Winner for book project “Dante and the Politics of Script” (2018)
• Andrea McRobbie Fellowship, Medieval Studies, Indiana University (2011)
• Lander MacClintock Award for Outstanding Academic Work in Italian, Indiana University (2010)
• Most Outstanding Associate Instructor of Italian, Indiana University (2008)
• Nominated for Dissertation Completion Fellowship, FRIT, Indiana University (2008-2010)

 

• “Aristocracy, Democracy, and the Church in Lampedusa’s The Leopard” (upcoming; October-November 2024). Invited Seminars for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
• “‘Qual è colui ch’adocchia e s’argomenta / di vedere eclissar lo sole un poco’ (Par. 25.118-119): The Eclipse and the Sun in Dante’s Commedia.” Invited Presentation for “Out of the Darkness and Into the Light: On-Campus Eclipse Experience,” University of Dallas, April 8, 2024.
• “Justice, Mercy, Conversion: Alessandro Manzoni’s Promessi sposi (‘The Betrothed’)” (November-December 2023). Invited Seminars for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
• “Virgil,” “Dante, Virgilio, and [Giovanni del] Virgilio,” University of Dallas Classics Club, October 14, 2023. Invited panelist.
• “Italy’s Literary Unification,” Texas Woman’s University, October 1, 2023. Invited talk.
• “Italian Lyric from its Origins to Petrarca”, for “Great Works of the Renaissance and Baroque,” University of Dallas, September 11, 2023. Invited lecture.
• “Italy and Texas, Italian Texans: An (Almost) 500-Year-Old Story?”, March 24, 2023. Invited Presentation for the DFW Italians' Gala Dinner.
• “(I)talia o Talia?: The Italian Program and Second-Year II,” Department of Modern Languages, University of Dallas, February 17, 2023.
• “The New Italian Right? Reflections on the Revolution in Italy”, Young Conservatives of Texas, University of Dallas, October 19, 2022. Invited speaker.
• “‘Improper and ‘Proper’ Poetics in Dante”, Catholic Imagination Conference, October 1, 2022. Invited panelist.
• “Sinners and Saints in Dante’s Comedy," (July-August 2022). Invited Seminars for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
• “‘Improper’ Poetics and the Silence of Hell,” American Association of Italian Studies Conference, Bologna, Italy, May 29, 2022.
• “Reading Dante’s Paradiso,” invited discussant, special panel, 100 Days of Dante, April 28, 2022. Invited panelist.
• “Manuscripts, Poetic Debates: Twitter and the Medieval Italian Sonnet,” Modern Languages Symposium “El/Il Sone(t)to,” April 26, 2022.
• “’Sì che dal dir il fatto non sia diverso’ (Inf. 32.10): Metapoesis and Lexical Weight in Dante’s Commedia,” University of North Georgia, April 8, 2022. Invited lecture.
• “Dante and The Quest, Episode 4.” Discussion with alumni. March 31, 2022.
• “Reading Dante’s Inferno: Descent into Hell II,” 100 Days of Dante, December 22, 2021. Invited panelist.
• “Reading Dante’s Inferno: Descent into Hell,” 100 Days of Dante, December 2, 2021. Invited panelist.
• “Teaching Dante: 100 Days of Dante,” Roundtable, SMU Bridwell Library Dante Festival and Conference, September 2, 2021. Invited discussant.
• “Homo biologicus Isn’t Enough,” SMU Bridwell Library Dante Festival and Conference, September 2, 2021.
• “100 Days of Dante at 700,” University of Dallas EnCore Lecture Series to alumni and community. An invited EnCore Lecture Series presentation and live Q-and-A sponsored by the University of Dallas Office of Alumni Relations. August 10, 2021.
• “Surprising encounters: Dante and Promessi sposi.” Presented at the American Association of Italian Studies Conference, May 28-June 6, 2021.
• “Parallels and Pandemics: Manzoni’s Promessi sposi.” Presented at “Crisis and Consolation: Liberal Education in the Time of COVID-19,”Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, April 12-18, 2021.
• Dante, the Church, and Italy’s Literary Unification,” St. Anthony Academy’s Little Lay Oratory, January 15, 2021. Invited speaker.
• “Dante and the Journey to God,” University of Dallas EnCore Lecture Series to alumni and community. An invited EnCore Lecture Series presentation and live Q-and-A sponsored by the University of Dallas Office of Alumni Relations. August 11, 2020.
• “Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron,” March 30, 2020., Center for Medieval Studies, “Decameron Tales of the Coronavirus”, University of Minnesota. A video-lesson and introduction on Boccaccio’s Decameron for a project of the University of Minnesota Center for Medieval Studies. 
• “The Art of Teaching”, University of Dallas Department of Art “Intersections” Lecture Series, November 20, 2019. Invited lecture.
• “The Republic of Texas and the Risorgimento: the Case of Annibale Ranuzzi.” Presented at the Italian American Studies Association Conference, Houston, TX, October 31, 2019.
• “Dante, the Commedia, and Sacred Space,” University of North Texas, Department of Art, October 30, 2019. Invited lecture.
• “Modern Italy’s Literary Unification”, in “The Modern World” (graduate course), Braniff Graduate School, University of Dallas (November 14, 2018). Invited lecture in Braniff graduate course.
• “Integrating Dante across the Curriculum at a Mission-Oriented University.” Presented at the Third Biennial Teaching the Christian Intellectual Tradition Conference: “Teaching Dante”, Samford University, Birmingham, AL, October 25-27, 2018.
• “‘[L]ectos iuvenes, fortissima corda, / defer in Italian’: Italian and the trivium in the Twenty-First Century,” Italian Pedagogy. Presented at South Central Modern Language Association, San Antonio, TX, October 11-14, 2018.
• “Research in Library and Information Science: an Italian Perspective,” “Research in Library and Information Science”, Invited Presentation to Emporia State University, Kansas City, KS (Sept. 22, 2018).
• “Contemporary Medieval Receptions of Dante’s Embryonic Theory in Purgatory 25.” Presented at University Faculty for Life Conference, Irving, TX (June 8-9, 2018).
• “‘If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change’: Italy as Nation-State”, Wingren Study Center, April 6, 2018, Irving, TX. Invited lecture.
• “The First Italian Edition of More’s Utopia (1519) and the Aldine-Giunti Rivalry.” Presented at Early Modern Thomas More(s), Irving, TX (November 3-4, 2017).
• “What is a Citizen? Ius sanguinis and ius soli in Contemporary Italy”, for University of Dallas symposium, “Immigration in Europe: a Modern Languages Perspective.” October 25, 2017. Organizer and convener.
• “The Parts and the Whole of Dante’s Comedy”, for University of Dallas Faculty Book Discussion Day, University of Dallas (August 16, 2017). Invited lecture.
• “Stupor mundi? Sicily, Frederick II, and Medieval Italian Poetry, in “Medieval Worlds” (graduate course), Braniff Graduate School, University of Dallas (April 2017). Invited lecture.
• “«Guidonem, Lapum [sic?], et unum alium, Florentinos, et Cynum ­­Pistoriensem»: How Dante Became Dante in the De vulgari eloquentia.” Presented at the Modern Language Association Conference 2017, Philadelphia, PA (January 7-10, 2017).
• “The Business of the Italian Program at American Land-Grant Universities.” Presented at the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference, Pasadena, CA (November 11-13, 2016).
• “Medieval Italian Poetry and the Archaeological Paratext of the 1527 Giuntina.” Presented at the Inventing Medieval Literature (16th-17th centuries) Conference, University of Lausanne, Switzerland (October 5-6, 2016).
• “Dante and the Foundations of Italian Literature: the Vita nova and the De vulgari eloquentia, in “Dante and Milton: the Christian Epic”, Braniff Graduate School, University of Dallas, Irving, TX (August 30, 2016). Invited lecture.
• “Politics and Satire in Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia,” University of Dallas, Irving, TX (April 18, 2016). Invited lecture.
• “‘Who is Dante? What is the Comedy?’ Infernal Auschwitz, Primo Levi, and Dante,” “Honors English II: Holocaust Literature,” Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS (February 5, 2016). Invited lecture.
• “The History of the Italian Language,” in “Italian for Travelers”, Invited lecture at Washburn University, Topeka, KS (February 4, 2016). Invited lecture.
• “Idiosyncratic Italy and the Proverbial Paese,” “Architecture, Planning, and Design 701”, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS (October 20, 2015). Invited lecture.
• “Forma tractatus and forma tractandi in Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia.” Presented at the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan (May 8-11, 2014).
• “Sotto il segno di Dante: la politica della lingua e la nascita della cultura letteraria,” Invited lecture at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (January 28, 2014).
• “Boccaccio e il De vulgari eloquentia.” Presented at the Second Triennial International Boccaccio Conference, ABA, “Boccaccio in Washington, DC”, Washington, DC (Oct. 4-6 2013)
• “‘L’arte del dire in rima’: Boccaccio and the questione della lingua.” Presented at the Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio (October 2012).
• “‘Accipiendo vel compilando ab aliis’: the Anthological De vulgari eloquentia.” Presented at the Student-Faculty Forum, Dept. of French and Italian, Indiana University (March 2011).
• “Soft Censorship: The Politics of Exclusion and Medieval Italian Literature.” Presented at the UCLA conference Forbidden Ideas: Controversial Modes of Engagement in the Italian Intellectual Tradition, Los Angeles, California (October 2010).
• “Hierarchies and the Vanishing Point in Medieval Literary Culture.” Presented at the Student-Faculty Forum, Department of French and Italian, Indiana University (April 2010).
• “Dante and Guittone: Hierarchies and the Vanishing Point in Medieval Literary Politics.” Presented at Chiasmi, Brown-Harvard Conference, Providence, RI (March 2010).

• Seminar Leader for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Office of Pastoral Ministry (Dante, Alessandro Manzoni, Giuseppe Lampedusa, 2022-2024)
• Member, National Screening Committee for Fulbright U.S. Student English Language Teaching Assistantships in Italy (three-year term, 2023-2025)
• Co-Editor and Book-Review Editor (Medieval, English-Language), Annali d'Italianistica, 2019-present
• Contributing Editor (Dante Studies), The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies, 2016-present
• Advisory Board Member, 100 Days of Dante, 2021-present
• Co-Founder, Co-Organizer, Director of Italian Heritage, Dallas-Fort Worth Italian Festival, 2022-present.
• Italian Interpreter, Masterword Services (medical, educational), 
• Italian Interpreter, Translator and Interpreter Network [TIN], Catholic Charities
• Italian-Language Ad-Content Reviewer, Zerochaos/Google