Agenda

Interview

1. Please provide a brief outline of your training and scientific activity.
Since 1994, I've held the position of full Professor of History of Romance Languages and have been coordinating the Double-Degree Programme with the Università degli Studi di Trento since 2010. Presently, I am serving as the director of the Italienzentrum Dresden e.V. (IZD).
In 2006, I became a corresponding member of the Centro di studi muratoriani (Modena) and a full member in 2016. Accademia degli Agiati in Rovereto appointed me as an associate member in 2019.
Since 2010, I have been a full member of the Scientific Committee of C.R.E.S (Center for Research on Eighteenth-Century Epistolary Books), University of Verona. I received the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes académiques nomination in 2013.
I co-authored the 25th volume of the "Edizione Nazionale del Carteggio di L. A. Muratori” (Firenze, Olschki, 2020" with Daniela Gianaroli and a German-Italian team. The 24th volume's writing is still ongoing.
In 2022, I co-wrote "Italienisch - die Erfindung Dantes. Die Grundlegung der ersten Schrifttumsgemeinschaft Europas” (Tübingen, Stauffenburg) with Richard Baum, and I was also responsible for organizing an international conference on the Italian language's evolution from Florence to its global reach, the proceedings of which are currently being published.

2. Please state your reasons for choosing Venice and the Department for your research and teaching stay.
At the Università degli Studi di Padova, I taught German as a lecturer of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst from 1985 to 1989. I resided in Venice during the period when I wrote my postdoc thesis on the evolution of Renaissance printing in Venice and Veneto.
Ever since, I've always stayed connected with the Italian academic community of German and Italian Studies. I'm grateful for Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, which offers me the chance to advance my research on Lodovico Antonio Muratori and Venetian publishing in a cultural and excellent university environment.

3. Have you ever had a research collaboration with the teaching staff of Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies in the past?
My research in Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies in Italy has taken me to Venice several times, like also to Padova, Trento, Bologna, Roma, Messina, and Bergamo, since the 1990s.