il dipartimento
Last term, the Italian department held an event on the 3rd March in Royal Fort House to celebrate the publication of four Italian professors’ work over this academic year. This number of publications in the same year is impressive because of not only the time and work put into each one but also the great variety of subjects covered. The wide range of interests and expertise on show included medieval culture and the work Dante, right up to modern day matters such as Islam in Italy.
The event consisted of a drinks party for staff and faculty members, with speeches by the head of modern foreign languages Professor Susan Harrow and Dean Michael Basker. This unique event warranted celebrating, as it is unlikely that there will be another moment where so many academic works were published so close to one another. It resembled a kind of book launch. In fact, it was a book launch! The only thing missing were tween fans dressed up as their favourite Harry Potter character clamouring for an autograph with J.K. Rowling.
The University of Bristol Italian department is praised for its high-esteem and should be justly proud of the range of interests of those who work within it, which span genres from politics to history, to film.
Catherine and John have both had their books published in Italian, resulting in an increased number of reviews by native speakers. Recounting how Italians are often surprised that foreign academics have written about niche topics of Italian culture, Catherine notes that distance can be helpful. Italians may be more willing to accept judgements based on Italian society from an outsiders’ perspective, which is perhaps a surprising attitude.
Research celebrations such as these are important, given the relative scarcity of academic book launches. They also allow time to acknowledge the successes of the professors in their own time, which is important within a University framework where most of our time spent with tutors is concentrated so heavily on work, essays, how to write the perfect introduction and the proper use of the semi-colon; it is no easy feat.
Antonia Longrigg reports below on the wonderful evening that was held last term to mark the publication of a handful of Italian teaching staff's monographs.
Tristan Kay | Dante’s Lyric Redemption
This is Tristan’s first published monograph and is based on the research he conducted for his PhD; it was published by the Oxford University Press. Examining Dante’s relationship to his vernacular lyric heritage, Tristan touches upon cultural topics and addresses tensions of interest to those who have studied medieval history and Italy's most famous literary son. It is both a fantastic testament to the depth of the Italian Department’s research and an engaging study of a such an important figure.
BOOK LAUNCH