Academia

Kimiya Memarzadeh, “Academia’s Inferno” (April 4, 2016)

May 5, 2022 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“In high school I read a book called Inferno by Dante Alighieri. [. . .] I want to take you through the nine circles of suffering every graduate student experiences on their journey to defending their thesis. I’m sure there are far more than nine forms of struggle that graduate students go through, but for the purpose of the analogy, we will stick with nine.

[. . .]

“Defeat is another circle that graduate students become quite familiar with. It happens so often that around the two-year mark of grad school, most of us seem to get desensitized to it. We learn to separate our self-worth from the worth of our work, and to focus on doing the best we can without letting defeat get in the way of our confidence. We build a thicker skin, and if nothing else, this circle of suffering will prepare us for a lifetime of rejected grants and harsh criticism from pesky ‘Reviewer Three.’

“This brings us to the last and probably most dangerous circle – doubt. Part of being a scientist is being a skeptic. However, if you constantly doubt yourself, your progress, or your ideas, you will inevitably make your graduate school experience a painful one. Go confidently in the direction you pursue, and if you fail – well then you’re just back at circle one.” –Kimiya Memarzadeh, “Academia’s Inferno,” McGovern Medical School (April 4, 2016)

Sante Matteo, “Escape from Paradise,” Twelve Writers

January 9, 2022 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Before Beatrice fled from Florence to Venice and beyond in my story, she migrated from the classroom to the written page, then set sail and found a welcome dock at Twelve Winters Journal.

“A course I taught on the Divine Comedy drew students with a wide spectrum of academic interests. I encouraged them to undertake a term project related to their field of studies, as long as it included an account of their research and how their secondary sources contributed to the creation of their final product (a bit like this commentary). Art students handed in paintings and sculptures; music students composed, performed, and recorded musical pieces; writing majors wrote poetry and stories; theater majors wrote and staged plays; film students scripted, shot, and showed movies; philosophy majors wrote Platonic dialogues. My office became a museum of intriguing works of art.

“Beatrice often figured in the students’ projects, which gave me the idea for a piece that showed how things might have looked through her eyes. After I retired and began to dabble in ‘creative writing,’ I emulated my students and took on the project of drafting a story presented from her perspective. [. . .]” –Sante Matteo, “Commentary on ‘Escape from Paradise’,” Twelve Winters

Read Sante Matteo’s story “Escape from Paradise” at Twelve Winters‘ website here.

See also Sante Matteo’s poem “Assignation” (here) and his essay on Dante and baseball (here).

Contributed by Sante Matteo

“Stai fermo un girone: Un gioco per scoprire Dante e il suo mondo”

January 9, 2022 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“‘Stai fermo un girone’ è un gioco concepito sul modello del tradizionale ‘gioco dell’oca,’ dedicato all’Inferno di Dante Alighieri e alle discipline della ricerca umanistica coinvolte nello studio del Medioevo.

“Per avanzare e vincere non occorrono soltanto conoscenze sui canti, i personaggi e i temi infernali, ma ci si dovrà anche confrontare con diversi metodi di indagine applicati ai testi negli studi universitari: questa, anzi, sarà la porta d’accesso per guardare all’opera dantesca sullo sfondo dell’intero Medioevo, con la sua storia, le sue idee, la sua cultura, i problemi che si è posto e le risposte che ha provato a dare. Il gioco potrà servire a stimolare e consolidare l’apprendimento in studenti delle superiori che incontrino per la prima volta i versi danteschi, o essere occasione per tutti gli appassionati per rivivere e ricordare – in maniera più disimpegnata – letture del passato. Grazie ai suoi tre livelli di difficoltà, infatti, si adatta a tutti i giocatori, dai principianti agli esperti.

“Il formato stampabile e ritagliabile permette a ciascuno di costruirsi il suo set di carte, segnalini e tavola da gioco e di immergersi nell’Inferno e nel mondo di Dante.” —Milano University Press website

The game—created by Guglielmo Barucci, Paolo Borsa, Rossana Guglielmetti, Luca Sacchi, and Roberto Tagliani—is available for download here (online since December 2021; last accessed January 9, 2022).

Contributed by Osvaldo Varieschi (MA, Florida State University ’23)

Student-Led “In via Dante Network”

October 31, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

The “In Via Dante Network” is “a student-led initiative for Post-Graduate Students and Early-Career Researchers with an interest in Dante Studies.” —In Via Dante Network

The group organizes events, creates opportunities for networking, and maintains a mailing list through which members can initiate collaborations, advertise events, and provide support. Sign up for the listserv here.

Learn more on their website here.

Dante, l’italiano (2021)

October 17, 2021 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Nel libro, intorno alla figura e alla lingua di Dante, convergono storie di ricerca diverse. Studiosi noti e affermati, dantisti di vaglia, si affiancano a giovani ma agguerriti ricercatori. Temi tradizionalmente legati ai più vari aspetti dell’azione e dell’immagine di Dante tracciano i perimetri fondamentali delle sue idee linguistiche, della sua operosità, della sua presenza e del suo riuso nella tradizione e nella storia, non solo letteraria, ma anche figurativa e dialettale; a essi si uniscono temi nuovi e meno scontati, che toccano molti dei mezzi e modi della comunicazione destinata al largo pubblico (dall’opera lirica alle canzoni, dal Dante dei fumetti e per ragazzi al Dante degli enigmisti, fino a una più generale considerazione del Dante pop). La varietà degli argomenti trova riscontro nella disponibilità di materiali inediti e studiati per la prima volta, che ci si augura possano essere apprezzati, anche per una fruizione didattica, da un pubblico italiano e internazionale; a questa finalità risponde anche l’inserimento di una sitografia aggiornata.” —goWare

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