The Center for Italian Studies is pleased to host a two day symposium in celebration of 30 years of the Devers Program in Dante Studies and the Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian Literature at Notre Dame:

Global Dante: Translation and ReceptionA Dante Symposium Celebrating 30 Years of the Devers Program in Dante Studies and the Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian LiteratureDepartment of Special Collections, Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame


Featuring the exhibition of worldwide translations of Dante's Commedia:
“‘What through the universe in leaves is scattered’ (Par. 33.87): Mapping Global Dante in Translation”
Selections from the John A. Zahm, C.S.C., Dante Collection

The symposium explores the global translation and reception of Dante’s works, highlighting cross-cultural interpretations, regional adaptations, and evolving scholarly approaches. Through lectures and panels spanning Africa, East Asia, the Americas, and Europe, it examines how Dante’s Divine Comedy continues to inspire diverse literary, academic, and artistic traditions worldwide.

Particpants: Marco Sonzogni (Victoria University of Wellington); Ted Cachey (UND); Clíona Ní Ríordáin (UND); Kathleen Boyle (UND), Dennis Looney (University of Pittsburgh, Modern Language Association [retired]); Joseph Rosenberg (UND); Henry Weinfield (UND, emeritus); Kristina Olson (George Mason University); Elizabeth Coggeshall (Florida State University); Jacob Blakesley (University of Rome, Sapienza); Vittorio Montemaggi (UND, London / Von Hügel Institute, Cambridge); Rebecca Bowen (UND), Valentina Mele (Marie Curie Fellow, UND/ University of Pavia); Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė (University of Manchester); Jonathan Noble (Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, UND); Silvano Mo Cheng (Peking University); Michel Hockx (UND); Chiara Sbordoni (UND Rome); Jieon Kim (UND), Inha Park (UND); Salvatore Riolo (UND); Daragh O’Connell (University College Cork).
Download the program schedule here.

Symposium Program
Thursday, September 25
9:00–9:30 AM — Welcome
9:30–11:00 AM — Lecture“Whose Dante? Time and Place for Timelessness and Placelessness: A Transoceanic Testimony”Marco Sonzogni (Victoria University of Wellington)
Chair: Theodore J. Cachey Jr. (Director, Devers Program in Dante Studies, University of Notre Dame)Respondent: Clíona Ní Ríordáin (Chair, Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame)
11:00PM Coffee Break — Scholars Lounge, 106 Hesburgh Library
11:30 AM–1:00 PM — Roundtable Discussion ofAmerican Dantes. Traditions, Translations, Transformations (Eds. Z. G. Barański & T. J. Cachey, University of Notre Dame Press, 2025)
Panel:

Kathleen Boyle (University of Notre Dame)
Dennis Looney (University of Pittsburgh, emeritus)
Joseph Rosenberg (University of Notre Dame)
Henry Weinfield (University of Notre Dame, emeritus)
Kristina Olson (George Mason University)

Chair: Elizabeth Coggeshall (Florida State University)
1:00–2:20 PM — Lunch (B02 McKenna Hall)
2:30–4:00 PM — Lecture“Dante in Africa”Jacob Blakesley (University of Rome, Sapienza)
Chair: Dennis Looney (University of Pittsburgh, MLA, retired)Respondent: Kristina Olson (George Mason University)
4:00PM Coffee Break — Scholars Lounge, 106 Hesburgh Library
4:30–6:00 PM — "New Directions” Panel I


Rebecca Bowen (University of Notre Dame)“Dantean Other Worlds: Crafting the Commedia for a Renaissance Readership”


Valentina Mele (Marie Curie Fellow, University of Notre Dame / University of Pavia)“‘No, Kid, Don’t Enter Here’: The Berkeley Renaissance’s Californian Dante”


Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė (University of Manchester)“Dante’s Translations and Reception in 20th- and 21st-Century Lithuania”


Chair: Vittorio Montemaggi (University of Notre Dame, London / Von Hügel Institute, Cambridge)
6:30 PM — Reception and Celebration Dinner (Mahaffey Family Presidential Suite, 14th Floor, Hesburgh Library)

Friday, September 26
9:30–11:00 AM — Lecture(Co-sponsored by the Dante in East Asia Working Group)
“Becoming Dante: More on Dante Translation and Reception in China”
Silvano Mo Cheng (Peking University)
Chair: Jonathan Noble (Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, University of Notre Dame)
Respondent: Michel Hockx (Director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, University of Notre Dame)
11:00PM Coffee Break — Scholars Lounge, 106 Hesburgh Library
11:30 AM–1:00 PM — Session on Dante in East Asia (Presentation and discussion of forthcoming volume, Dante in East Asia, eds. J. Blakesley, A. Brezzi, R. Pepin, C. Sbordoni)


Jieon Kim (University of Notre Dame)“‘La 'Lingua Mentale Comune' a Dante e al Coreano: 단테의 시적 표현과 우리말의 관용적 표현”


Inha Park (University of Notre Dame)“Teaching Dante in Korea: Translation, Reception, and Localization of Dante in Post-Korean War South Korea”


Salvatore Riolo (University of Notre Dame)“‘Trasumanar Significar per Verba’: The Global Translations of The Divine Comedy in the Zahm Dante Collection”


Chair: Chiara Sbordoni (University of Notre Dame Rome)
1:00–2:20 PM — Lunch (B02 McKenna Hall)
2:30–4:00 PM — “New Directions” Panel II


Daragh O’Connell (University College Cork)“‘Duppy Conqueror’: Lorna Goodison’s Jamaican Dante’s Inferno”


Elizabeth Coggeshall (Florida State University)“The Commedia as Transmedia Franchise? Dante in Convergence Culture”


Chair: Theodore J. Cachey Jr. (Director, Devers Program in Dante Studies, University of Notre Dame)
4:00 PM — Exhibition Tour with Curators
“‘What through the universe in leaves is scattered’ (Par. 33, 87): Mapping Global Dante in Translation”
7:00PM — Reception & Dinner at Rohr’s Bistro, Morris Inn

Saturday, September 27
9:00AM - 5:00PM — Dante Society of America Graduate Student Conference (136 De Bartolo Hall)Conference Organizer: Beatrice Rosso, Graduate Student Coordinator, University of Notre Dame
Originally published at italianstudies.nd.edu.