CURRICULUM
VITAE
Victoria
Kirkham
Department of
Romance Languages
521 Williams
Hall Hopkinson House,
tel. 215-898-6028
fax 215-898-0933
e-mail:
vkirkham@.sas.upenn.edu
Education
Università Statale
di Milano (part time student), 1964-65.
Doctoral dissertation: "The Filocolo of Giovanni Boccaccio
with an English Translation of the Thirteen Questioni d'amore,"
Director, Charles S. Singleton.
Teaching
Positions
Full Professor,
Romance Languages,
Associate
Professor, Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania, 1978-94.
Graduate Group,
Comparative Literature,
Assistant
Professor, Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania, 1972-78.
Assistant
Professor, Italian,
Teaching
Assistant, Italian Literature, Johns Hopkins University, 1967-70.
Teaching
Assistant, Italian Language,
Fulbright Teaching Assistant of English,
Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale "Omar," Novara, Italy, 1964-65.
Visiting
Professor:
Johns Hopkins Univ., spring semester, 1999,
for a weekly graduate seminar: Women in Poetry: From the Troubadors to the
Petrarchans.
Honors
and Awards
Pendleton
Scholarship, 1960-64,
Fulbright Teaching
Assistantship of English, Novara, Italy, 1964-65.
NDEA Graduate
Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University, 1967-70.
I Tatti Fellow,
Lilly Endowment
Fellow, one of three faculty members selected to represent the
Visiting Scholar,
The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities,
New undergraduate
course proposal, "The Medieval Reader," selected for $3,000 Faculty
Summer Development Award, 1987, by
I Tatti Visiting
Professor,
Elected President,
American Boccaccio Association, 1988-90; re-elected President, 1990-92.
University of
Pennsylvania, Center for Italian Studies, Salvatori Fund travel grant to
present a paper at the conference of the Associazione Internazionale per gli
Studi di Lingua e Letteratura Italiana, "Literature and Industry,"
Turin, Italy, May, 1994.
Visiting Professor,
National Endowment
for the Humanities Fellowship, 1996.
Project: "Dante's Phantom, Petrarch's Specter: A Literary Biography
of Laura Battiferra." (Interrupted by medical leave and chemotherapy; the
last quarter was postponed until early 1997.)
Academic Advisory
Board,
Rockefeller
Foundation Fellowship in Gender Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Europe,
Newberry Library, Sept. 1, 2000 - June 30, 2001. Project: "Creative Partners: The Artful
Marriage of Laura Battiferra and Bartolomeo Ammannati."
Winner of the
Modern Language Association's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a
Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies, for Fabulous Vernacular: Boccaccio's
Filocolo and the Art of Medieval Fiction for 2000, University of Michigan
Press, 2001.
Collaborative
Research Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities, "A Tradition
Discovered: Women Writers in
Invited by
President and Governing Committee of the Italian Ente Nazionale Giovanni
Boccaccio to join the Comitato di Consulenza Scientifica (Academic Advisory
Committee), March, 2005.
Guggenheim Fellowship,
2005-2006. Project: "The Marriage of Laura Battiferra and Bartolomeo
Ammannati."
Publications
See separate publications link.
Research
in Progress
Books
Creative
Partners: The Marriage of Laura Battiferra and Bartolomeo Ammannati.
A joint biography
of an early modern creative couple, an eminent women poet (d. 1589) and her
husband, a distinguished sculptor and architect (d. 1592), whose marriage is a
microhistory of Catholic Reformation Italy.
Under the
Dante Octet. A
volume integrating Dante essays previously published with long chapters
presenting new material Dante's Renaissance portraits and lives in the context
of the emerging canon of the Three Crowns of
Articles
"Morante vs.
Moravia, or, Two Women who Became History."
"Virgils in
Skirts. Female Personification of 'Manly
Reason' from Antiquity to the Late Renaissance."
Papers
Presented
"The Moral
Lesson of Boccaccio's 'Most Immoral' Tale," Medieval Studies Group,
"Boccaccio's
First Numerical Composition," Northeast Modern Language Assoc.,
"The
Numerology of Marriage in Boccaccio's Teseida," session for the
600th Anniversary of Boccaccio's Death, Midwest Modern Language Assoc.,
"Boccaccio's Decameron:
The Hundred and First Tale," invited lecture,
"Numerology
and Allegory in Boccaccio's Teseida," Renaissance Seminar,
"Learning
From Alibech, Rustico, and Dioneo," American Boccaccio Assoc., Modern
Language Assoc., San Francisco, Dec., 1975.
"Numerology
in Boccaccio's Decameron," symposium on "Joyful Symmetry:
Measure and Pattern in Renaissance Literature,"
"Boccaccio's
Numerology," Villa I Tatti,
"On Number
and Time in the Decameron," Middle Atlantic Renaissance Conf.,
"The
Numerological Calendar of Boccaccio's Decameron," invited lecture,
Wayne State Univ.,
"The 'Vanti
del pavone' in the Filocolo: Juno's Bird and a Bride to Be,"
International Medieval Institute,
"Maestro
Simone and the Day of Judgment (Decameron VIII,9)," American Assoc.
Univ. Professors of Italian,
"'History'
Twice Told: Moravia and Morante's 'Two Women'," Modern Language Assoc.,
"The Women in
the Divine Comedy," invited lecture, Ohio Wesleyan Univ., 1981.
"Boccaccio's Amorosa
visione Reconsidered," Midwest Modern Language Assoc.,
"Painters at
Play in the Decameron," invited lecture co-sponsored by Romance
Languages and History of Art, Univ. of
"The Word,
the Flesh, and the Decameron,"
"The Male
Narrators of the Decameron Reconsidered," American Boccaccio
Assoc., Modern Language Association,
"Seven
Suggestions for Skunking the Skeptics," Colloquium, Dept. of Romance
Languages,
"Painters at
Play in Boccaccio's Decameron," invited lecture, Elvehjem Museum of
Art,
"Pseudonyms
into Symbols: the Decameron's Seven Virtue Narrators,"
"Boccaccio's
Dedication to Women in Love," American Assoc. of Italian Studies,
"I quindici
gradi
"The Last
Tale in the Decameron,"
"Dante's
Purgatorial Ladder to Heaven," Modern Language Association,
"Boccaccio's
'Arabic World': The Ninth Tales in the Decameron" (with María Rosa
Menocal), American Boccaccio Assoc., Modern Language Association,
"Renaissance
Portraits of Boccaccio: A Look into the Kaleidoscope," Renaissance Society
of
"The Poet as
Peacock: What Dante's Mother Dreamed in Boccaccio's Trattatello,"
International Medieval Institute,
"The Classic
Bond of Friendship in Boccaccio's Tito and Gisippo (Decameron
X,8)," 20th Annual Conference, Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance
Studies,
"Renaissance
Portraits of Boccaccio: Views of the Poet and a Visual Genre," invited
lecture, Johns Hopkins Univ., Nov., 1986.
"Boccaccio
Visualized: Renaissance Portraits of Boccaccio,"
"The
Renaissance Portraits of Boccaccio: Views of the Author anad a Visual
Genre," invited lecture for Renaissance and Reformation Studies and
Department of Italian, McGill Univ., Montreal, Feb., 1987.
"Boccaccio
visualizzato," Colloquium presented with Vittore Branca, Department of
Italian,
"The
"Boccaccio's
Griselda and the Trecento Virtue of Humility," American Assoc. of Italian
Studies,
"Boccaccio
illustrato" (on the "Penn Boccaccio Project"),
Colloque/Convegno: Le Riviste di Italianistica nel Mondo, Associazione
Internazionale per gli Studi di Lingua e Letteratura Italiana, Université de
Paris-Sorbonne - Istituto Italiano di Cultura,
"Lectura
Boccaccii: Decameron I,8," American Boccaccio Assoc., Modern
Language Association,
"Renaissance
Portraits of Boccaccio," invited lecture,
"The Penn
Boccaccio Project," American Assoc. of Italian Studies,
"Accounting
for Females in Dante's Commedia," American Assoc. of Italian
Studies, Brigham Young Univ., Apr., 1988.
"Counting
Women in Dante's Commedia," invited lecture,
"Quanto in femmina foco d'amor dura!" Giornata Internazionale di Studi in Onore
di Charles S. Singleton, 667th Anniversary of Dante's Death, Opera di Dante,
"Quanto in femmina foco d'amor dura!
Le donne nella Divina Commedia," Dipartimento di
Italianistica, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Jan., 1989.
-----------, Istituto di Filologia e Letteratura Italiana, Università di
Padova, Padua, Apr., 1989.
-----------, Dipartimento di Italianistica e Filologia Moderna, Università
di Venezia, Venice, Apr., 1989.
"Under the
"Gluttons for
Books: Lore of the Poet as Bibliolator," Plenary speaker, Pennsylvania
Renaissance Symposium,
"The Parallel
Lives of Virgil and Dante," symposium on Poetry and Scholarship in the
Tradition of Virgil,
"A Canon of
Women in Dante's Commedia," roundtable on "Women's Voices in
Italian Literature," American Assoc. of Teachers of Italian,
"Boccaccio's
Humanism as Biographer," invited speaker, Sixth International Colloquium
on Comparative Medieval Studies, Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and
Conference Center at Lake Como, Italy, Nov., 1989.
"Under the
--------------,
invited speaker, Renaissance Colloquium,
"The Parallel
Lives of Dante and Virgil," American Assoc. of Italian Studies,
"John
Badmouth. Fortunes of the Poet's
Image," for "Boccaccio 1990.
The Poet and his Renaissance Reception," colloquium at the
"Dante, the
Book Glutton, or, Food for Thought from Italian Writers," Univ. of
Pittsburgh, invited speaker for the Nicholas G. Tucci Lecture in Italian
Language and Literature, Apr., 1991.
"Dante the
Book Glutton, or, Food for throught from Italian Writers," invited lecture
for the Eleventh Seminar in Italian Studies, Charles S. Singlton Center for
Italian Studies, Villa Spelman, Florence, June, 1991.
"Morante vs.
Moravia, or, Two Women who became History," American
Association of Italian Studies,
"Boccaccio
and the Three Crowns of
"Portraits of
Dante and Boccaccio in the Renaissance," invited lecture at Univ. of
"Morality,"
invited lecture for the conference "Boccaccio's Decameron: Toward a
Critical Lexicon," Johns Hopkins Univ., Apr., 1992.
"Gluttons for
Books: Author Portraits from Dante to Benjamin Franklin," invited lecture,
Univ of Chicago, May, 1992.
"An
Introduction to Purgatorio: Canto 28," invited lecture for the Lectura
Dantis series,
"Space in Dante's
Inferno," invited lecture for the
"Four times
Seven Makes Eden: Dante's Entry into the Earthly Paradise," American
Association of Italian Studies,
"Vasari's
Dante Society (Six Tuscan Poets)," invited lecture co-sponsored by
the Medieval Studies Program and the Dept. of French and Italian,
"Laura
Battiferri: The Female Body as Corporate Entity," for a colloquium at the
"Boccaccio's Decameron,"
invited lecture, NEH funded faculty series on great western authors,
"Dante's
Phantom, Petrarch's Specter: Bronzino's Portrait of the Poet Laura
Battiferri," Colloquium on Women in the Renaissance,
"What did
Boccaccio Look Like? Early Modern Image
Storage and Transmission," conference on "The Image of
Technology,"
"Dante's
Phantom, Petrarch's Specter: Bronzino's Portrait of the Poet Laura
Battiferri," Renaissance Society of
"Space in
Dante's Inferno," invited paper for session sponsored by the Dante
Society of America, American Association of Italian Studies, Madison, Wisc.,
Apr., 1994.
International
Dante Colloquium,
"Classics at
the Supermarket: From the Preraphaelites to Boccaccio Chianti," American
Association of Teachers of Italian,
"The Lost
Image. Boccaccio's Likeness in
Renaissance Memory," Modern Language Association,
"Dante's
Phantom, Petrarch's Specter: The Sixteenth-Century Florentine Poet Laura
Battiferri,"
"Dante's
Phantom, Petrarch's Specter: Bronzino's Portrait of the Poet Laura
Battiferra," American Association of Italian Studies,
"Pentecostal
Passions: Petrarch's Debt to Boccaccio's Fiammetta?" International Medieval Conference, Kalamazoo,
Mich., May, 1995.
"'Iohannes de Certaldo': la firma dell'autore," Gli Zibaldoni di
Boccaccio: memoria, scrittura, riscrittura, Florence, Apr., 1996.
"In Memory of
Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati: The Silenced Manuscript of her Jesuit
Poetry," Renaissance Society of America,
"Dante's
Phantom, Petrarch's Specter: Bronzino's Portrait of the Poet Laura Battiferra
degli Ammannati," invited lecture, Istituto di Cultura Italiana,
"Signed
Pieces: Boccaccio's Authorial Fantasy," invited colloquium for the
Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies,
"An Italian
Album Film: Dante's
"Creative
Marriage: The Interactive Careers of Bartolomeo Ammannati and Laura
Battiferra," Renaissance Society of
"The
Epistolary Web of Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati: From Sonneteer to Humanist
Secretary," American Association of Italian Studies,
"Leonardo
Bruni's Parallel Lives of Dante and Petrarch," Conference on Translation
and Cultural Transformation,
"Let's Play
Shepherd at the Pitti: Cosimo, Ammannati, and other Rustics in an Unpublished
Eclogue by Laura Battiferra," Renaissance Society of
"Rhymeful
Moments: Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati and her Renaissance Circle,"
invited colloquium for the Dept. of Hispanic and Italian Studies, Johns Hopkins
Univ., Apr., 1999.
"I sorrisi di
Madre Chiesa e l'imbrogliato patrimonio di Laura Battiferra: La chiusura di un
circolo perfetto," invited talk for a conference on women and patronage,
"Committenza femminile e Patronato Muliebre in Italia all'Epoca Moderna,"
29 May, 1999,
"Benigni's
Holocaust and the Rainbow of Culture," to be presented at a conference on
Benigni's film La vita e' bella,
"Seven
Suggestions for Saving the Classics."
Session on "The Future of Italian Studies," sponsored by the
American Association of Teachers of Italian.
Modern Language Association, Chicago, 1999.
"Sappho on
the Arno: The Brief Fame of Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati," for the
conference "Strong Voices, Weak History: Medieval and Renaissance Women in
their National Literary Canons,"
"Poetry as
Diplomacy: Three Sonnets by Laura Battiferra." American Association of Italian Studies,
"Creative Partners:
The Artful Marriage of Laura Battiferra and Bartolomeo Ammannati," Fellows
Colloquium, Newberry Library,
"Creative
Partners: The Artful Marriage of Laura Battiferra and Bartolomeo
Ammannati," Renaissance Workshop,
"Sappho on
the
"Sappho on
the
"Creative
Partners: The Artful Marriage of Laura Battiferra and Bartolomeo Ammannati,"
"Su nombre ornado: Poetry Dedicated to Eleonora de Toledo,"
Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, Mar., 2001.
"The Birth of
the Tuscan Canon," paper for session on "The Italian Lyric
Anthology," American Association of Italian Studies,
"Il canonista
e la sua dama: Iconografia della Fiammetta," Convegno Internazionale su Giovanni
Boccaccio,
"How Shall We
Restore the Ladies to Mainstream Literary History: Documents from the File on
Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati (1523-1589)," Italian Studies Center
Colloquium,
"Boccaccio
Visualized: From Self-Portrait to John Badmouth," invited lecture,
"Plague Tales
from the Villa of a Paduan Jurist: Marco Mantua Benavides
(1489-1582)," Modern Language
Association,
"The Choral
Lyric Anthology: Voice of the Community, Virtual Salon," Renaissance
Society of
"Dante the
Book Glutton, or, Food for Thought from Italian Poets." Invited speaker for the annual, endowed Aldo
Bernardo Lecture, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, SUNY,
"Lost and
Found: The Rediscovery of Laura Battiferra degli Ammannati," Invited
lecture,
"The Virtues
of Heliotrope," Invited participant in session to launch the new
electronic Boccaccio journal, American Association of Italian Studies,
Washington, D.C., Mar., 2003.
"The Artist as Humanist: Ammannati's
Intellectual Itinerary,"
Renaissance Society of
"The Amazing Life of Bartolomeo
Ammannati," Penn-Bryn Mawr Summer Program in
Invited
participant in a Liberty Fund Colloquium, "Individual Freedom and Human
Destiny in the Political Thought of Dante Alighieri,"
"Laura
Battiferra's Library." Renaissance
Society of
"The Complete
Petrarch: A Life's Work (1304-1374)," Introductory remarks for the first
annual Coccia Centennial Celebration of Italian Culture,
"The Paper
Duchess: Eleonora de Toledo and the Poets." Colloquium for
"Boccaccio's
Humanism as Biographer." American Boccaccio Association session at Modern
Language Association of America,
"Lost and
Found: Reconstructing the Self-Reconstruction of Laura Battiferra degli
Ammannati (1523-89)," invited lecture,
"'Il
riassunto delle disgrazie'? Women in the Winter of Life." Session on the
Seicento, American Association of Italian Studies, Chapel Hill, N.C., April, 14-17,
2005.
"Cinema of the Unseen," for
session "Behind the
screens: A Variety of Approaches to Teaching Italian Cinema II: Discussion on I cento passi," American
Association of Teachers of Italian, Washington, D.C., Oct., 2005.
"A Recipe
from Scratch: The First Battiferra Book," Italian Medieval and Renassiance
Division, Modern Language Association of
"Dante the Book Glutton, Or, Food for Thought from Italian Poets." Rava Lecture. Invited talk for annual endowed presentation. Washington University, St. Louis, March, 2006.
"A Sampler of Sonnets for Ammannati." American Association of Italian Studies, Genoa, Italy, May, 2006.
"Petrarchismo e storia europea: I sonetti volanti di Laura Battiferra." Plenary talk, Associazione Internazionale di Studi delle Lingua e Lettera Italiana, Trieste-Padova-Pola, Sept. 2006.
"Dante the Book Glutton, or, Food for Thought from Italian Poets." Commemorative lecture for Anthony Kimberly Cassell. University of Illinois, Urbana, October, 2006.
Conferences
Organized
"Boccaccio
1990. The Poet and his Renaissance
Reception." Kevin Brownlee and
Victoria Kirkham Co-organizers. An
interantional colloquium at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, Oct. 19-21, 1990,
sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Romance Languages,
Center for Italian Studies, Amici of the Center for Italian Studies, and
American Boccaccio Association. Selected
papers published in Studi sul Boccaccio 20, (1991-92): 166-397.
"Cinema
Across the Disciplines: A Colloquium on Italian Film Studies." An event featuring leading Italinist film
scholars in North America and film screenings, co-sponsored by Dept. of Romance
Languages and Center for Italian Studies,
"Strong
Voices, Weak History: Medieval and Renaissance Women in their Literary
Canons," an international, interdisciplinary conference on women writers
in
American
Association of Italian Studies, annual meeting at the
"The Complete
Petrarch: A Life's Work (1304-1374)."
In consultation with Millicent Marcus.
Sessions
Organized and Chaired
American Boccaccio
Association, Modern Language Association, Chicago, 1977.
Modern Italian
Literature, America-Italy Society of
Numerology in
Medieval Art and Literature, International Medieval Institute,
Boccaccio and
Chaucer, International Medieval Institute,
Boccaccio,
International Medieval Institute,
American Boccaccio
Association, International Medieval Institute,
Literary Poetics:
New
Boccaccio and
Ariosto, American Assoc. of Teachers of Italian,
Renaissance Women:
Poetic and Social Fictions, Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature
Division, Modern Language Association,
Boccaccio's Decameron:
Comparative Approaches, American Boccaccio Association, Section Meeting, Modern
Language Association,
American Boccaccio
Association, Section Meeting, Modern Language Association,
American Boccaccio
Association, Lectura Boccaccii, American Association of Italian Studies,
American Boccaccio
Association, Lectura Boccaccii, Modern Language Association,
International
Medieval Institute,
American Boccaccio
Association, Lectura Boccaccii, Decameron II,8, Modern Language
Association,
Medieval and
Renaissance Italian Literature: The Comic Muse, Modern Language Association,
American Boccaccio
Association, Lectura Boccaccii, Decameron II,2, American
Association of Italian Studies,
American Boccaccio
Association, Lectura Boccaccii, Decameron II,9, International
Medieval Institute, Kalamazoo, May, 1992.
American Boccaccio
Association, Lectura Boccaccii, Decameron II,7, Modern Language
Association,
American Boccaccio
Association, Lectura Boccaccii, Decameron II,10, Modern Language
Association,
American Boccaccio
Association, Lectura Boccaccii, Decameron II,1 and II,4, American
Association of Italian Studies,
American
Association of Italian Studies, "The Italian Lyric Anthology,"
Teaching
Sample List of
Courses Taught
Undergraduate:
The Medieval Reader. Syllabus includes Petrarch's "Ascent of
Mt. Ventoux," Augustine's Confessions; Inferno V; history of
the manuscript as a material object; literacy, women as makers of manuscripts
and as readers and teachers; medieval encyclopedias; monastic culture vs. the
rise of the universities; the book as symbol; Eco, The Name of the Rose,
etc. Cross-listed: Comparative Literature, Women's Studies. Satisfies General Requirement in Arts and
Letters.
Introduction to Italian Cinema: From
Neorealism to the Nineties (an intro. to Italian film, Italian culture, and
film as medium). Cross-listed: Comparative Literature; satisfies General
Requirement in Arts and Letters.
Worldviews in Collision: The Scientific
Revolution and Counter Reformation in