Events
The Catherine Frisone Scott Center for Italian Cultural Studies plans a host of events throughout the year, on the UMass Boston campus, at other sites around the city and online. Subscribe to our mailing list to keep current with our calendar!
Upcoming events sponsored by the Catherine Frisone Scott Center for Italian Cultural Studies

The UMass Boston Catherine Frisone Scott Center is pleased to host Dr. Carrie Beneš at the UMass Boston campus (Campus Center 3-3540, University Drive North, Boston, MA 02125) on Tuesday, April 8th, 2025, from 11am-12:15pm.
Carrie Beneš is a cultural historian of late medieval Italy whose research focuses on civic identity, landscape, and the classical tradition. She is Professor of Medieval & Renaissance History and Urban Studies at New College of Florida and Project Director for Geospatial Analysis for the Sfera Project. "Imagining the World in the Renaissance" will explore how Florentine merchant Gregorio Dati described his trading world around the whole Mediterranean, combining mercantile, intellectual, scientific and artistic knowledge to reflect multiple perspectives from the early Italian Renaissance.
Attendance is free to all. Attendees seeking disability-related accommodations should please write us at ItalianCenter@umb.edu before the event. We hope you can join us in imagining the Renaissance!
Past events sponsored by the Catherine Frisone Scott Center for Italian Cultural Studies
- "Appearances of the Uninhibited Planet: An Ecosemiotic Approach to the Re-semanticised Landscape of Gianni Celati" with Sara Massafra
- "Portraiture and Identity in the Roman Empire": The Frisone Center faculty give a tour of ancient Roman portraiture at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
- The Frisone Center faculty co-organize a stop of Cinema Ritrovato On Tour, screening rare and restored films across three days
- “The Face of Migration: Humanizing Global Migration through Storytelling” with Pamela Kerpius
- “When Your Latin Teacher Is a Statue: Marta Marchina (1600-1646) and Pasquino” with Skye Shirley
- The Frisone Center faculty screen Pupi Avati’s 2022 film, Dante, introduced by Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani
- The Frisone Center faculty give a tour of Strong Women in Renaissance Italy at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
- Lorenzo Buonanno, Shannon McHugh and Eugenio Refini convene Staging the Renaissance: A Conversation with the Authors of Three New Books
- Laurie Nussdorfer presents her forthcoming publication, City of Men: Service and Servants in Baroque Rome, joined by Timothy McCall
- Jessica Maratsos presents her 2022 monograph, Pontormo and the Art of Devotion in Renaissance Italy, joined by Stuart Lingo
- Denis Brotto presents his 2021 documentary Logos Zanzotto, joined by Giovanni Zanzotto
- "Do Black Lives Matter in Italy?" with Angelica Pesarini
- Giulia Bertoluzzi presents her 2018 documentary Strange Fish
- "Dante the Migrant: From Medieval Mediterranean to Kara Walker's Art" with Akash Kumar
- Vittoria Colonna in Verse, Song and Print: A Multimedia Celebration of Ramie Targoff's New Translation
- Shannon McHugh on the impact of Colonna's first publication
- Ramie Targoff on translating Colonna's earliest poetry
- Dramatic readings of three sonnets by Floriana D'Ammora
- Troy Tower on editing as translation
- Original performance of Pietro Vinci's musical arrangement of one of Colonna's sonnets by Brian Kay, sung by Ashlee Foreman
- The Frisone Center faculty give a tour of Titian: Women, Myth & Power at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum
- "Seeing Is Believing? Mario Schifano's Nonfigure" with Aja Martin
- Daniel Maze presents his 2021 monograph Young Bellini
- Music as Critique of Racism and Italian Citizenship Policies: Amir Issaa in Concert and in Dialogue with Akrobatik
- "Neorealism on TV: Italy, Television, and the Search for 'Genuine Food'" with Joseph Perna
- "Wine over Water: Wine Culture in Medieval Italian Literature" with Danielle Callegari
- "Machievelli: Yesterday and Today" with Christopher Celenza
- Deception, Deceit, and Dishonesty in the Early Modern Era: 2017 New England Renaissance Conference at UMass Boston
- Discussion and Reception Inaugurating the Catherine Frisone Scott Center for Italian Cultural Studies in Memory of John B. Frisone