As part of the 2025 Fall Italian Research Seminar series, the Center for Italian Studies is pleased to host a lecture by Professor Filippo Gianferrari (UC Santa Cruz) titled:Our Memories, Ourselves: Restoring Political Communities in Purgatorio   In one of the most striking and comic episodes of the Commedia, Dante and Virgil, Dante, Virgil, and a group of newly arrived souls in Purgatorio are suddenly scattered—like doves in a public square—by an irate Cato. They have just been caught indulging in a moment of recreation, entranced by the singing of a Florentine musician, Casella, who is performing one of Dante’s own canzoni: “Amor che nella mente mi ragiona.” This enigmatic episode has generated sustained critical debate, particularly concerning the target of Cato’s rebuke. Yet the preceding exchange between Dante and Casella is no less peculiar and deserves closer scrutiny—an inquiry this reading seeks to undertake. Casella’s assurances about his unchanged “memory” and “practice of the songs of love” (Purgatorio 2.107) constitute a bizarre and surprising claim in light of the late-medieval scholastic controversy on the survival of memory and affections in the disembodied soul. Dante’s revelations here about the condition of the separated souls must be appreciated as integral to the development of two of the Ante-Purgatory’s central and interconnected themes: the human body-soul composite and the political wreckage of Dante’s contemporary Italy. How do these seemingly unrelated concerns converge to animate this liminal space between life and death, body and soul, time and eternity? To begin addressing this question, this reading broadens its focus to examine the nexus between memory and embodiment in Dante’s treatment of both human generation (Purgatorio 25) and his representation of bodily ombre who can see, experience, and remember each other in Purgatorio (12–14). Through this exploration, affective memory and empathy emerge as key elements of Dante’s anthropology. Not only are they essential to individual and collective identities, but they are also central to his vision of ‘embodied’ souls called to purge themselves and to mend their fractured political bonds. Filippo Gianferrari is associate professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received a Ph.D. in medieval studies from the University of Notre Dame, and an MA and BA from the University of Bologna. Before joining USCS, he taught at Vassar College and Smith College. His recent book, Dante’s Education: Latin Schoolbooks and Vernacular Poetics, was published by OUP in 2024 and investigates the influence of Latin school texts on Dante's poetics of vernacular learning. His next book project, “Political Eschatology: Vernacular Theories of the Common Good,” focuses on debates on the common good among the laity in late medieval Italian city-states. In particular, the project explores the entanglements of late-medieval political theory and theological controversies on the body-soul nexus, the intellect, and the beatific vision. He is the organizer of the webinar, “Project Paradiso: Exploring Dante’s Heaven,” and co-editor with Ronald Herzman of the edited volume Dante's Paradiso: A Reader's Guide (forthcoming, Routledge: 2025). The lecture is co-sponsored by the Medieval Institute.The Italian Research Seminar, a core event of the Center for Italian Studies, aims to provide a regular forum for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and colleagues from other universities to present and discuss their current research. The Seminar is vigorously interdisciplinary, and embraces all areas of Italian literature, language, and culture, as well as perceptions of Italy, its achievements and its peoples in other national and international cultures. The Seminar constitutes an important element in the effort by Notre Dame's Center for Italian Studies to promote the study of Italy and to serve as a strategic point of contact for scholarly exchange. Originally published at italianstudies.nd.edu.

Join in for an evening of sketching, community, and inspiration centered around themes found in the exhibition Homecoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880–1900. This month’s session will focus on still lifes and will be led by local artist Rebecca Walton. Come ready to share a sketch (sketches should be no larger than 9” x 12”) of your own, created in response to this prompt: Choose an object from your home that you use regularly and that adds beauty, comfort, or meaning to your daily life—an everyday heirloom. Find a quiet moment to spend time with the object. Observe it closely, paying special attention to signs of wear or use, unique textures or marks, and subtle details in shape, color, or material. Using any drawing medium you like, sketch the object by itself. Your drawing can be precise or expressive—let the object's story guide your hand. During the program, we’ll share sketches, discuss artistic choices and techniques, find inspiration in each other’s and Osborne’s work, and take on a new sketching challenge inspired by this month’s theme. Local Lines is open to artists aged 15 and up. This program is part of The Big Draw, the world's largest celebration of drawing that takes place across the globe every year during October. It is for anyone who loves to draw, as well as those who think they can't. The festival promotes drawing as a universal language that has the power to change lives and unite people of any age, background, race, or religion from around the globe. Parking is available in the Visitor Lot immediately north of the Sculpture Park for a fee during the week (before 4:30 p.m.). Free two-hour parking is available in the Eddy Street Commons Parking Garage or along Angela Blvd. After 4:30 p.m. and on weekends, parking is free and available in any non-gated campus lot. If traveling via South Bend Transpo, take the No.7 bus and use the Eddy St. Commons stop.   Originally published at raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Learning Beyond the Classics: Voicing Intergenerational Trauma in Postwar Korea and Japan through Contemporary Cinema Directed by Park Chan-wook With Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo Rated R, 145 minutesIn Korean and Japanese with English subtitles A celebrated director with a multifaceted body of work (e.g., Oldboy, Stoker, and Decision to Leave), Park Chan-wook took a big swing a decade ago when adapting Sarah Waters' Fingersmith and moving its original Victorian-era Britain setting to 1930s Korea when under Japanese rule. The bones, though, remain in place: A young woman is hired as a handmaiden to a reclusive Japanese heiress living on a vast estate in the countryside. Proving good help is hard to find, the handmaiden has an ulterior motive as she is working with a con artist, himself posing as a Japanese aristocrat, to seduce the heiress and empty her bank account. GET TICKETS *Free for ND, SMC, HC, and IUSB students. **Co-presented by the David A. Heskin and Marilou Brill Endowment for Excellence, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship/Hesburgh Libraries.

In collaboration with the University Counseling Center (UCC) and the McDonald Center for Student Well-being (MDC), this support forum offers an open space for students experiencing concerns related to substance use and recovery, offering a practical, skills-based approach to maintenance and well-being. We will cover topics such as finding and maintaining your motivation ("why"), navigating urges and cravings, cultivating self-awareness, and integrating holistic well-being. Originally published at mcwell.nd.edu.

Last season, violinist Randall Goosby carried a sold-out audience to the highest heights of emotion as the last-minute soloist replacement for the London Philharmonic Orchestra's triumphant concert. A flood of rapturous audience testimonials meant it became a must to welcome him back quickly. Renaissance Quartet, founded in 2021 by Goosby, violinist Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin, and cellist Daniel Hass, is making waves with a welcoming approach to the string quartet format.Communicative engagement and technical finesse allow the four Juilliard School graduates to launch from their classical base into the 21st-century stratosphere with a dynamic blend of soul, R&B, hip-hop, and jazz. Their boundary-pushing performances are virtuosic and engaging, creating a new space for chamber music to thrive.Making a cultural statement in sound with high-energy artistry and gorgeously programmed to whisk you away early into a fall weekend, the Renaissance Quartet is a must-see for encountering classical music's centuries-long story with new chapters written right now. GET TICKETS (the performance is in the O'Neill Hall of Music)