Margaret F. Rosenthal
Professor of Italian, University of Southern California
Margaret F. Rosenthal has spent her whole life immersed in Italian culture. From her birth in Rome to her research on renaissance women writers of Venice, she has made her life work reflect her love of Italy and its rich artistic heritage. She holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, where she specialized in Italian renaissance literature. She combines expertise in literary, social and costume history of early-modern Italy. She is an expert on the life and literature of Veronica Franco and other Italian renaissance women writers. Her book,
The Honest Courtesan. Veronica Franco: Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice (University of Chicago Press, 1992) won the Howard R. Marraro Prize from the Modern Language Association of America. It was the basis of the 1998 Warner Bros. film
Dangerous Beauty, which has acquired a large cable television and DVD fan-base. She also co-authored and co-translated
Veronica Franco: Poems and Selected Letters with Ann Rosalind Jones (University of Chicago Press,1998). Recently, they published
The Clothing of the Renaissance World -- Europe, Asia, Africa, The Americas: Cesare Vecellio's Degli habiti antichi et moderni, which is the first ever translation of Vecellio's 1590 costume book (Thames and Hudson, 2008), Their book includes an introduction, technical glossary and explanatory notes. Currently, the movie based on her book is being developed into a Broadway-bound musical, for which she is a historical and literary advisor. A professor in the French and Italian development at the University of Southern California and the recipient of numerous awards for teaching and mentorship, she continues to share her expertise and enthusiasm with students and Franco enthusiasts alike.
Lauren MaldonadoLead Research AssistantLauren Maldonado is an undergraduate Art History and Biology (Pre-Medical) student at the University of Southern California. As a member of the University's prestigious Baccalaureate/Medical Program, she has been honored with the opportunity to explore and develop her interests in both the Arts and in the Sciences during her undergraduate experience. Maldonado is also a part of the Thematic Option Honors program, and is recognized as a Presidential Scholar. A painter herself, she is passionate about both the study as well as the creation of art, and is particularly interested in studying the works of women writers and visual artists. In 2008, Maldonado was awarded the Harvard-Westlake School Prize for Excellence in Painting for her senior body of work consisting of over a dozen pieces reflecting diversity, homelessness, and class-division in her native city of Los Angeles.
After meeting and studying with Professor Rosenthal during the summer of 2008 in her USC Micro-Seminar class, "Women of the Renaissance," she was inspired to research Veronica Franco and renaissance Italian women from the point of view of an art historian. She is particularly fascinated by the rich creative culture and enlightened thought that characterize the Renaissance period, and looks forward to developing her personal interest and understanding of this time during her collaboration with Professor Rosenthal. Her research contributions to this project are funded by a generous research grant provided by USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She greatly looks forward to sharing her passion and enthusiasm for this project and for art history with others.
Anne Aubert-SantelliProject CoordinatorAnne Aubert-Santelli graduated
summa cum laude from the University of Southern California in 2007 with Bachelor degrees in Art History and Italian. Her academic pursuits have often centered on multi-dimensional women, like Veronica Franco, who created strong public voices within artistic and literary milieus. Anne's Senior Honors Thesis in Art History focused on one specific painting by the French Impressionist Berthe Morisot,
On the Balcony (1871-1872), a haunting portrait of a woman and child overlooking modern Paris from a balcony. By examining the gaps present in existing criticisms of the painting -- particularly those of the feminist lens -- and through her own analysis of the image, Anne rejects the characterization of Morisot as a "paradigmatic female artist". She argues instead that Morisot very skillfully and consciously negotiated her position in the patriarchal art world of 19th century Paris. Anne's current intellectual interests lie in the social and cultural factors that have influenced and continue to influence food consumption.
A former student of Professor Rosenthal and an original member of The Veronica Franco Project research team, Anne now serves as Project Coordinator. In this role, she has built and maintains the website and handles other administrative tasks, while also contributing to the team's research efforts.
Shannon McHughGraduate Student ContributorShannon McHugh is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Italian Studies at New York University. She briefly considered focusing on modern writers. After she worked under Professor Rosenthal on Veronica Franco, she realized that she would never be happy outside Italy's community of Early Modern women writers. She is currently working on two such projects: a master's thesis on the unconventional spiritual dialogues of Chiara Matraini, a laywoman who was one of the only handful of women -- among them, Franco -- to produce a single-authored collection of poetry in Cinquecentro Italy; and a translation of an unedited manuscript by Diadata Malvasia, a late-sixteenth-century nun, on the lives of the sisters of a Dominican convent.
Shannon graduated
summa cum laude in Italian from the University of Southern California. Before starting graduate school, Fate led her to such diverse locales as the Office of Admission at USC, the U.S. Consulate in Naples, Italy, and Walt Disney World in Florida (the last of which she rarely discusses in polite academic circles). She is a recipient of NYU's MacCracken Fellowship and the U.S. Department of Education's Jacob K. Javits Fellowship.
