- Dante
- Studies of medieval Italian literature
- Italian pedagogy
- Ph.D., Italian Language and Literature, Indiana University
- M.A., Italian Language and Literature, Indiana University
- B.A., History and Italian Studies, University of Minnesota
Associate Professor of Italian
- Italian Program Director
Advisory Board Member, 100 Days of Dante, 2021-present
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
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 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: Introduction to Italian Cinema
MIT 3343: Italian Literary Tradition III
MIT 5301: Italian for Reading Knowledge I (Foundations)
MIT 5302: Italian for Reading Knowledge II (Classics)
MIT 4902 (Independent Study): (Italian) Lives of Saints
Dr. Nussmeier focuses on medieval and Renaissance literature, specifically Dante, medieval poetry, manuscript culture, and early-book culture.
Selected Publications
Books
European-Language Accounts of the Republic of Texas (1836-1845) (under contract with Texas Tech University Press)
Dante and the Politics of Literary Script: the «De vulgari eloquentia» and the Fortunes of Medieval Italian Lyric (under contract with University of Toronto Press)
Articles in Refereed Journals and Edited Book Collections:
“Surprising Encounters: Manzoni’s Dantean rhetorical palimpsest (Promessi Sposi 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’), edited by Yann Dahhaoui and Barbara Wahlen, vol. 37, 2021, pp. 205-222.
“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.
Published Recent Scholarly Reviews
“Duecento and Trecento I (Dante) in 2020”, The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies (82), Brill, 2021. (forthcoming)
“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.
“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 Material
Author, “How a fourteenth-century Italian beat medieval cancel culture”, The University News, University of Dallas, November 3, 2021.
Radio Interview, “Hugh Hewitt Radio Show,” October 8, 2021.
Author, “Lift high the cross – and Dante – in 2021”, The University News, University of Dallas, September 15, 2021.
Podcast Interview, “Dante,” Liberal Learning for Life, September 9, 2021.
Interviewed for “Take a journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise with 100 Days of Dante”, Aleteia, 11 August 2021.
Radio Interview, “LA Catholic Morning,” 1410 AM/94.5 FM (Archangel Radio), Interview on 100 Days of Dante, Todd Sylvester and Ellen Taylor, July 19, 2021.
Author, “Ecclesiastes and pandemics, then and now. An Italian reflection”, The University News, University of Dallas, November 4, 2020.
Interviewed for “Humans of UD: Dr. Anthony Nussmeier”, The University News, University of Dallas, April 13, 2020.
Author, “Didattica a distanza, ma non distante”, Griselda Online. Portale di letteratura, April 7, 2020. Invited contribution on teaching online during the pandemic.
Author, “Oikophiliaand a Christian life well-lived”, The University News, University of Dallas, February 12, 2020.
Radio Interview, “The Good News”, KATH Radio 910 AM (The Guadalupe Radio Network”, Interview on Dante and Italian with Dr. Jonathan Sanford. October 28, 2019.
“Dante and the Journey to God”, Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture, University of Dallas, 2019, pp. 43-52.
Interviewed for “Italian Club of Dallas awards UD a new scholarship fund,” The University News, University of Dallas, November 14, 2018.
Interviewed for “Library adopts Dante the groundhog as mascot,” The University News, University of Dallas, April 11, 2018.
Interviewed for “Italian B.A. Added to List of Undergraduate Degrees,” The University News, University of Dallas, March 21, 2018.
Author, “Streaming of Italy”, The University News February 21, 2018.
Author, “Jhumpa Lahiri’s In altre parole”, University of Dallas Office of Alumni Relations “Faculty Good Reads”, January 2017.
Interview with Department of French and Italian, University of Minnesota (25 May 2016).
Interview with Bologna Consortial Studies Program, Indiana University (November 2015).
“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).
Presentations:
“Reading Dante’s Inferno: Descent into Hell,” 100 Days of Dante, December 2, 2021.
“Teaching Dante: 100 Days of Dante”, SMU Bridwell Library Dante Festival and Conference, September 2, 2021.
“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.
“Dante and the Journey to God”, University of Dallas EnCore Lecture Series to alumni and community. August 11, 2020.
“A Dantephile Bookseller in Texas”. Presented at the 15th annual Italian Researchers in the World Conference, sponsored by the Italian Scientific Community and the Italian Consulate of Houston, Rice University, Houston, TX, April 25, 2020. (conference postponed due to COVID-19)
“Decameron Tales of the Coronvirus”, University of Minnesota, “Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron”, March 30, 2020.
“The Art of Teaching”, University of Dallas Department of Art “Intersections” Lecture Series, November 20, 2019.
“Dante, the Commedia, and Sacred Space”, University of North Texas, Department of Art, October 30, 2019.
“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.
“Italian in Texas: Present and Future Conditions”, for “The State of Italian in the State of Texas”. Presented at the 13th annual Italian Researchers in the World Conference, Sponsored by the Italian Consulate of Houston, Richland College, Dallas, TX, Dec. 1, 2018.
“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 Italiam’: 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).
“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).
“Research in Library and Information Science: an Italian Perspective”, “Research in Library and Information Science”, Invited Presentation to Emporia State University, Denver, CO (Feb. 11, 2017).
“«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).
“A Medieval Italian Perspective”, “Research in Library and Information Science” (graduate course), Invited Presentation to Emporia State University, Emporia, KS (September 24, 2016).
“Politics and Satire in Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia”, University of Dallas, Irving, TX (April 18, 2016). Invited lecture.
“The History of the Italian Language”, in “Italian for Travelers”, Invited lecture at Washburn University, Topeka, KS (February 4, 2016).
“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).
Awards and Honors
QEP Award, Italian Business and Culture: a Texas Perspective, March 24, 2020 (event postponed due to COVID-19)
Collaborated with the Italian Club of Dallas to award an annual scholarship to University of Dallas students of Italian. (2018-present)
Helped to enroll the Italian Program in the Departmental Scholarship Program. These scholarships are available for high-school seniors and transfer students. (2018-present)
Recruited Lamberti’s Ristorante & Wine Bar (Irving, TX) to sponsor bi-annual NOTAI Lecture Series.
King-Haggar Scholar Award Winner for book manuscript project “Dante and the Politics of Script” and related research, January 16, 2018. ($2,000)
QEP Award, Tiramisu for Two, November 9, 2017.
QEP Award for the Vullo Event, January 23, 2017.