Bing Overseas Studies Program

Meet Our Instructors

Faculty in Residence

Each quarter, one Stanford professor serves as Faculty in Residence in each of the BOSP program locations. These faculty teach classes in their own disciplines, developing courses that incorporate unique features of the local culture and environment or that provide comparative perspectives on a particular topic. View a list of current and future faculty.

Local Faculty

Gaston Basile

Gaston J. Basile (PhD) is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Medici Archive Project (Florence) and serves as MAP series editor for publications. He is also involved with the Renaissance Society of America (Teaching Committee), the Inter-University Center for Comparative Studies "I Deug-Su" (University of Siena), and the Max Planck Institute. Dr. Basile has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2022–2023), I Tatti Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (2021–2022), the Warburg Institute (2019), the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (2018), the University of Buenos Aires (2015–2017), and the University of Siena (2011, 2016). His recent research has appeared in leading journals such as The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Arts et Savoirs, Medievalia et Humanistica, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Dialogues d’Histoire Ancienne, Renaissance Quarterly, and I Tatti Studies. His study “Dragon’s Blood or the Red Delusion: Textual Tradition, Craftsmanship, and Discovery in the Early Modern Period” received the RSA’s William Nelson (2023). His forthcoming monograph explores the role of Greek-to-Latin translation in the development of scientific knowledge in fifteenth-century Italy. He is currently leading a major research project focused on previously unstudied recipe collections from Medici Florence.

Ugo Biggeri

Ugo Biggeri serves as the European representative for the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, a global network of sustainable banks. He is also the President of Shareholders for Change, a network of European institutional investors promoting active shareholding on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues. A founding member of Banca Etica in Italy, he served as its president until 2019, overseeing a credit portfolio of €1.2 billion.  Biggeri holds a PhD in Physics from the University Federico II in Naples, and has specializations in Sustainable Development from the University of Trento and in Business Management from Bocconi University in Milan. He teaches Ethical Finance and Microcredit at the University of Florence, and is deeply committed to social justice and ecological issues, actively promoting initiatives and campaigns with Italian NGOs.

Deborah Bottazzi

Deborah Bottazzi holds a B.A. in Teaching Italian Language and Culture to Foreigners, an M.A. in Textual Skills for Publishing, Teaching and Tourism Promotion, and a second Master’s in Teaching Italian as a Second and Foreign Language. She also holds a DITALS certification, levels I and II, issued by the Università per Stranieri di Siena. She collaborates with the Center for CILS (certificate of Italian as a Second Language) and has worked in private schools teaching English and Italian. Her teaching philosophy rests upon the idea that in the classroom each student, regardless of their level and ability, finds a motivating space where to improve their language and communication skills before bringing them in their everyday life and interaction with the Italians. 

Nicola Cacciatore

Nicola Cacciatore was awarded a doctoral degree in history from the University of Strathclyde in 2019. His interests include European anti-fascism and the interactions between the Allies and the Italian Resistance during the Second World War, both within and outside Italy. He has worked as an Assegnista di Ricerca at the Universities of Florence and Padua on projects concerning, respectively, anti-fascist exiles and European nationalist networks. He is currently collaborating with the Istituto Nazionale Ferruccio Parri on a project focusing on escaped Allied Prisoners of War in Italy after 8 September 1943 and their relationship with the local population.

Ermelinda M. Campani

Ermelinda M. Campani

Ermelinda M. Campani is the Spogli Family Director of Stanford's Breyer Center for Overseas Studies in Florence. A native of Emilia Romagna (Italy), she earned an M.A. in Italian literature and a Ph.D. with an emphasis in film studies from Brown University. Prior to joining Stanford University in 1993, she taught courses both at Brown and Rhode Island School of Design and served as acting director of the Brown University Program in Bologna. She has been teaching film to Stanford undergraduates since 1993. Her teaching and research focus on film history and criticism, film style and interpretation, film culture, modernism and film, feminist film theory. Her published works include a book on Bernardo Bertolucci, one on cinema and the sacred (translated into French in 2007), and a book on cinema's representations of the human body. She has written articles both on European and US film journals, has contributed entries to the encyclopedia of World Cinema and has lectured widely. Her current research revolves around iconology and the film image.

Riccardo Emilio Chesta

Riccardo Emilio Chesta is assistant professor at the Politecnico di Milano and member of META – Social Sciences and Humanities for Science and Technology. He investigates the social and political dimensions of environmental problems and the intersections between democratic politics and expertise, opening science and technology to the participation of lay people. On these topics he has published the book The Contentious Politics of Expertise. Experts, Activism and Grassroots Environmentalism (Routledge, 2020). Together with Donatella Della Porta and Lorenzo Cini he has published Labour Conflicts in the Digital Age (Bristol University Press). Previously, he studied Sociology (BSc) at the University of Trento, Social Sciences (MSc) at the EHESS and ENS in Paris and obtained a PhD in Social and Political Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence. He has also been Postdoctoral Researcher at the Scuola Normale Superiore, as well as Visiting Researcher at New York University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Veronica De Romanis

Veronica De Romanis  studied economics at La Sapienza University in Rome (Bachelor Degree in Economics cum Laude) and Columbia University in New York (PhD Course), where she obtained an MA and MPhil in Economics.  She was a Member of the Council of Economic Advisors at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, for over twelve years, focusing on macroeconomics and public finance.  She was also in charge of the interaction with Eurostat, the European Commission, OECD and the IMF.  She is a current Member of the Advisory Board of the “Giubileo 2025 in Confindustria,” and of the Think Tank of Unindustria.  She is also a Member of the International Committee of the Board of WE Women Empower the World and she is in the listing of 100esperte.it. She published several books: “Il Metodo Merkel,” (2009, Marsilio), “Il Caso Germania,” (2013, Marsilio), “L’Austerità fa Crescere” (2017, Marsilio), “Il Pasto Gratis” (2024, Mondadori). She also lectures at the Libera Università degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (LUISS) in Rome (Department of Political Science, School of Government and MBA Program), and is an advisor to the Minister of Economy and Finance on the Reform of the European Economic Governance.  

Emanuele Ertola

Emanuele Ertola is an Assistant Professor at the University of Siena, Department of Historical Sciences and Cultural Heritage. His research focuses on Italian colonialism, decolonization, colonial and post-colonial migrations, Fascism. Emanuele holds a Ph.D. in Contemporary History from the University of Florence and a Master’s degree from “La Sapienza” University in Rome. He has authored several significant publications, including “Il colonialismo degli italiani. Storia di un’ideologia” (2022) and “In terra d’Africa. Gli italiani che colonizzarono l’impero” (2017).

Pegah Zohouri Haghian

Pegah Zohouri Haghian is a researcher specializing in Middle Eastern politics, transnational migration, and inclusive social development. She holds a DPhil in Oriental (Middle Eastern) Studies from the University of Oxford, where her dissertation focused on transnational elite networks and knowledge production on Muslims in Europe. She has held academic positions at Harvard University and the University of Oxford, where she taught courses on Islam, democracy, and modern Iranian history. As a consultant for the United Nations Secretariat, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, she contributed to policy work on social inclusion and sustainable development. Her publications explore themes of social inclusion, religious pluralism, reformist Islamic thought, and Muslim diasporas.

Andrea Mattiello

Dr. Andrea Mattiello holds a PhD in Byzantine Art History from the University of Birmingham and a PhD in History and Theory of Performance Art from the School for Advanced Studies in Venice. His research interests span medieval, modern, and contemporary art, photography, and architecture, as well as queer art in antiquity, female agency in Byzantium, and Greek-Italian humanism. Alongside his research fellowships, he has lectured at prestigious institutions such as Università IUAV of Venice, Christie’s Education London, Università di Salerno, University of Oxford, and NABA Milan. He co-edited the volume Late Byzantium Reconsidered: The Arts of the Palaiologan Era in the Mediterranean and published in major journals and edited volumes. Dr Mattiello is currently conducting research on humanities and sustainability at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and NABA in Milan.

Vittoria Mollo

Vittoria Mollo is originally from Torino and completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in the United States. She holds a double bachelor’s degree in English and French literature from Scripps College and earned her Ph.D. in Italian Studies from Stanford University in 2021. She has extensive experience teaching Italian language, culture, and literature courses, with a research focus primarily on the Italian Medieval and Renaissance periods. At Stanford, she taught in the Structured Liberal Education (SLE) Program and the Department of French & Italian, served as Director of the Italian Modernities Lecture Series in 2022–23, and worked as Executive Producer and Editor of the Entitled Opinions podcast from 2016 to 2023. She then spent the past two years as a Lecturer in Italian at Southern Methodist University. She has a deep passion for teaching language and for continually enriching her understanding of pedagogy. Her classroom approach blends information with entertainment to foster a supportive and engaging learning environment.

Tommaso Mozzati

Tommaso Mozzati is Associate Professor in the Dipartimento di Lettere at the University of Perugia. He is a specialist of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian sculpture and has published widely on that and related topics, including Early Modern visual culture and the art market; the representation of the nude in Italy from Brunelleschi to Giambologna and the European trade of marbles during the Cinquecento, from Carrara, to Genova, to France, Spain and England. He is also interested in the use of Renaissance art along XIX and XX centuries, including the critical reception of figures such as Perugino, Michelangelo, Cellini. He has curated several exhibitions, including I grandi bronzi del Battistero. Rustici e Leonardo, at the Museo nazionale del Bargello (2010-11), Norma e capriccio. Spagnoli in Italia agli esordi della 'maniera moderna' at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence (2013), Spagna e Italia in dialogo nell'Europa del Cinquecento at the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe of the Uffizi (2018), and Un mare tutto fresco di colore. Sandro Penna e le arti figurative at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria (2023). Previously he was a fellow of the Italian Academy – Columbia University, Villa I Tatti The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid.

Luca Palozzi

Luca Palozzi is Associate Professor in the History of Medieval Art at the Università di Pisa.  He holds a PhD in Art History from the Scuola Normale Superiore. Before joining the Università di Pisa in 2022, he held academic positions at Villa I Tatti-The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, and the University of Edinburgh. His research has been supported by the Kress Foundation, the Max-Planck Gesellschaft, the British Academy for the Humanities and the Social Sciences, the Henry Moore Foundation, and the Association of Art Historians (now Association for Art History).  He specializes in medieval Italian art, namely sculpture, with an emphasis on the relationship between art theory and practice; the dialectic between the different artistic media; materials and techniques; as well as issues of artistic geography, historiography and style. He is also interested in porosities between medieval science and art, in ideas of 'naturalism' and 'the real', and in how knowledge of the natural world was experienced, created, organized, and shared during the Middle Ages. He has worked with Ariella Minden on the topic of artistic failure, and an edited volume is underway. Research events organized include the exploratory seminars "Casting the Real in the Middle Ages" (with Emanuele Lugli), that were held at the Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of York in 2017, and at the University of Edinburgh in 2018. In 2020, he co-organized with Ariella Minden and Alessandro Nova the international conference "Failure: Understanding Art as Process, 1150-1750" at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. In 2025, he organized with Gregor Meinecke and Vera-Simone Schulz the international conference "Pseudo-scripts. (Il)legibility & Ornamentation" at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.  His work has appeared or is forthcoming in international journals, such as the "Burlington Magazine", "Source", the "Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz", and the "Sculpture Journal".

Silvio Pons

Silvio Pons is Full Professor of Contemporary History at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. He is President of the Gramsci Foundation, Rome. He has been a visiting scholar to several institutions, particulary Columbia University, the European University Institute, the Hoover Institution, the Wilson Center, the Russian Academy of Sciences. His main research interests are focused on the international history of the 20th century, on Soviet and world communism, on the Cold War and its aftermath. He is the author of The Global Revolution. A History of International Communism (Oxford University Press 2014) and the General Editor of the Cambridge History of Communism (Cambridge University Press 2017). His most recent book is The Rise and Fall of the Italian Communist Party. A Transnational History (Stanford University Press 2024).

Zuzanna Samson

Zuzanna Samson is conducting research in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Her academic background is in sociology (Human Rights, LSE) and international relations (Universiteit Leiden). Her research focuses on border deaths and burial practices for irregular migrants who died on the Polish-Belarusian border. She has published on these topics in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and the Polish Political Science Yearbook, and has also contributed a chapter to the book Ukrainian Culture Among Other European Cultures. Previously, she worked at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Oscar Schiavone

Oscar Schiavone is a Senior Research Fellow at The Medici Archive Project (Florence) and has held teaching and research positions at Durham University, University College London, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where he contributed to the ERC project Water Cultures of Italy. His research focuses on the intersection of politics, literature, and the arts in the governance of early modern states, with broader interests in the cultural history of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and Renaissance Italian literature. His forthcoming work examines how environmental and public health crises shaped infrastructure, territorial planning, and landscape in Medici Tuscany, offering new perspectives on the political ecology of Renaissance Europe. Oscar studied at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (MA 2005), the Universities of Florence and Bonn (PhD 2009), and University College London (PhD 2016). His book on Michelangelo’s poetry and art received the Giuseppe Giusti Literary Prize (2014), and he has published extensively on Petrarchism, Dante reception, Renaissance patronage, and environmental management in early modern Tuscany, with particular attention to the role of water. He is an editor of the journals Albertiana and La Rassegna della letteratura italiana.

Nora Söderberg

Nora Söderberg researches how narratives around “climate mobility” are produced and contested in global governance, with a focus on the intersections of environmental change, migration, and the politics of knowledge production at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence.  She is particularly interested in how expertise shapes international policy and political practice in the fields of climate and migration. Her broader academic interests include environmental justice, global development, and the political economy of migration.  Her publications address topics ranging from European migration governance to contestations around energy transitions, and have appeared in journals such as European Journal of International Relations, Qualitative Research, and Energy Research & Social Science. At the EUI, Nora co-convenes Qualifie, a cross-disciplinary working group that supports field-based and interpretive research across the social sciences. In her own research, Nora has conducted fieldwork in Kenya and worked with multi-sited qualitative methods to follow transnational processes. Originally from Sweden, she holds degrees in Development Studies and International Relations from Uppsala University and the University of Amsterdam.