今日大瓜

Professor Ross鈥檚 research obsessions lie in the world of Renaissance Europe, and especially in Italy. Working at the intersection of social and intellectual history, she is fascinated by the ways that people outside the ranks of the robustly enfranchised encountered, talked about, drew inspiration from, and improved their lives through education in general, and the classical literary tradition in particular. She has published extensively on women writers, and the dynamics of Renaissance feminism. She has also unearthed from wills and household inventories the literary lives of ordinary Venetian men and women, telling their stories in her recent book聽Everyday Renaissances: The Quest for Cultural Legitimacy in Venice聽(2016). Ross鈥檚 current work turns to class-defying, genre-obliterating, gender-bending聽commedia dell鈥檃rte聽performers. Her new project follows the Andreini family (a dynasty of actors) through two generations as they wooed patrons, lured audiences, and dodged Counter-Reformation censors.

Ross rejoices that her research and writing have been supported not only by Boston College but also by a number of external foundations, including the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at Princeton University, and Villa I Tatti, Harvard University鈥檚 Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.

Books, ideas, the gloriously strange people who love books and ideas, artistic people, everyday people 鈥� these are the protagonists of Professor Ross鈥檚 courses no less than her research. For undergraduates she offers a History Core, 鈥淓urope and the World I,鈥� as well as electives on the 鈥淎ge of the Renaissance,鈥� and 鈥淥dysseys in the Western and Islamic Traditions,鈥� which she co-teaches with Professor Dana Sajdi. Ross also teaches a research seminar on 鈥淲omen of the Renaissance鈥� for history majors. Ross鈥檚 graduate courses include a colloquium on early modern Europe, and one on 鈥淕ender History and the Scholar鈥檚 Craft Today.鈥� She has several new undergraduate electives in the planning stages, including one on the Venetian Empire, and another on sex, sexuality, and gender in the聽commedia dell鈥檃rte.听