Kristina Marie Olson

Kristina Marie Olson

Kristina Marie Olson

Associate Chair

Associate Professor

Italian: Medieval and Early Modern Italy; Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch; Translation and Adaptation Studies

My training is in medieval Italian literature, specifically the "tre corone" (the "three crowns") of Italian literature: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. I employ new approaches to reading and teaching this literary canon, often with an eye to understanding ethics, gender, economics, and political history. Many of my essays explore the later reception of Dante and Boccaccio in artistic and literary adaptations and translations.
 
Courtesy Lost: Dante, Boccaccio and the Literature of History (University of Toronto Press, 2014), my first monograph, reads Dante’s influence on Boccaccio through the lens of "cortesia" (chivalry, courtesy) in the late medieval period. Regarded as a pioneering work, Courtesy Lost offers a new model for reading the fictionalization of history by Italian medieval authors. 
 
I am the Editor-in-Chief of Dante Studies. I served as the President (2020-23), Vice President (2017-20), and Treasurer (2014-17) of the American Boccaccio Association. I served two terms as Vice President of the Dante Society of America (2016-18).
 
Together with Christopher Kleinhenz (Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison), I edited Approaches to Teaching Dante's Divine Comedy for the Modern Language Association (2020). With Francesco Ciabattoni and Elsa Filosa, I edited Boccaccio 1313-2013 (Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2015). 
 
I am the author of an Audible Original book on Boccaccio's Decameron which is part of the Great Courses "Books That Matter" series. For the Teaching Company (Great Courses), I also created and taught an original Italian language course program, titled "Learning Italian: Step by Step and Region by Region," which consists of twenty-four video lectures and a workbook.
 

Selected Publications

Monograph

Courtesy Lost: Dante, Boccaccio and the Literature of History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. 

Edited Volumes

A World of Possibilities: The Legacy of 'The Undivine Comedy.' Series: Cultural Inquiry (#37). Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, forthcoming 2025.

Approaches to Teaching Dante’s Divine Comedy. Second edition. Edited with Christopher Kleinhenz. Series: Approaches to Teaching World Literature. New York: Modern Language Association, 2020.

Boccaccio 1313-2013. Edited with Francesco Ciabattoni and Elsa Filosa. Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2015.

Open City: Seven Writers in Post-War Rome. Edited with William Weaver. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1999.

Audiobook

"Books That Matter: Boccaccio's Decameron,” Audible, 2021.

Selected Articles

"The Whole Book: Eroticism and Censorship in Boccaccio’s Decameron.” In The Oxford Handbook of Italian Literature, ed. Stefano Jossa. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press (published online in 2025; forthcoming in print in 2026). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197613955.001.0001

"In Good Faith: From Dante’s First American Poet-Translator, Thomas William Parsons, to Sandow Birk, Marcus Sanders and Mary Jo Bang." In American Dantes: Traditions, Translations, Transformations, eds. Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., and Zygmunt Barański. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2025, pp.161-180. 

"'Maintaining Neutrality in a Period of Moral Crisis': The Appropriation of Inferno 3 from JFK to Martha Nussbaum.” In Dante Beyond Borders, ed. Nick Havely. Cambridge: Legenda, 2021, pp. 311-323.

"The Ethical and Sartorial Geography of the Far East: Tartar Textiles in Boccaccio’s Decameron  and Esposizioni," Le Tre Corone. Rivista internazionale di studi su Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio 6 (2019): 125-139.

“Shoes, Gowns, and Turncoats: Reconsidering Cacciaguida’s History of Florentine Fashion and Politics,” Dante Studies 134 (2016): 26-47.

“The Language of Women as Written by Men: Dante, Boccaccio, and Gendered Histories of the  Vernacular,” Heliotropia 8-9 (2011-12, http://www.heliotropia.org/08-09/olson.pdf)  
Reprinted in Heliotropia 700/10: A Boccaccio Anniversary Volume (LED, 2013), pp. 217-236. 

 

Expanded Publication List

Articles and Book Chapters

  1. "The Whole Book: Eroticism and Censorship in Boccaccio’s Decameron.” In The Oxford Handbook of Italian Literature, ed. Stefano Jossa. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press (published online in 2025; forthcoming in print in 2026). 
  2. "Filling in the Blanks: Free-Verse Translations of the Commedia." In Dante’s Divine Comedy in English, eds. Jacob Blakesley, Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., and Federica Pich. London, UK: Routledge (forthcoming, 2025). 
  3. "In Good Faith: From Dante’s First American Poet-Translator, Thomas William Parsons, to Sandow Birk, Marcus Sanders and Mary Jo Bang." In American Dantes: Traditions, Translations, Transformations, eds. Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., and Zygmunt Barański. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2025, pp.161-180. 
  4. "Sartorial Biography: Boccaccio’s Semiramis, Inventor of the Chastity Belt." Heliotropia 22 (2025, forthcoming).
  5. "’E se non piangi, di che pianger suoli?’: The Tragic and Visual Art of Dante's Commedia in Paolo Sorrentino's È stata la mano di Dio." In Early Modern Voices in Contemporary Literature and on Screen, eds. Ambra Moroncini and Aaron Kahn. Holden, MA: Quod Manet, 2024, pp. 57-76. 
  6. "Migrant Purgatories: Dante, Lô, Nabil, and Sedira," Le Tre Corone. Rivista internazionale di studi su Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio IX (2022): 77-92.
  7. "'Maintaining Neutrality in a Period of Moral Crisis’: The Appropriation of Inferno 3 from JFK to Martha Nussbaum." In Dante Beyond Borders, ed. Nick Havely. Cambridge: Legenda, 2021, pp. 311-323.
  8. "Dante in a Global World: Sandow Birk’s Divine Comedy." In Unexpected Dante, ed. Lucia Wolf. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2021, pp. 47-59.
  9. "Dante and Monetary Language," Dante Studies: The Annual Publication of the Dante Society of America 138 (2020): 195-202.
  10. "The Tale of Lisabetta da Messina." In The Decameron Day Four in Perspective, ed. Michael Sherberg. University of Toronto Press, 2020, pp. 86-106.
  11. “Conceptions of Women and Gender in the Comedy.” In Approaches to Teaching Dante’s Divine Comedy, second edition, edited by Christopher Kleinhenz and Kristina Olson. Series: Approaches to Teaching World Literature. New York: Modern Language Association, 2020.
  12. "Legacies of Greed and Liberality: Angevin Rulers in Dante and Boccaccio," Studi sul Boccaccio XLVII (2019): 181-201.
  13. "The Ethical and Sartorial Geography of the Far East: Tartar Textiles in Boccaccio’s Decameron and Esposizioni," Le Tre Corone. Rivista internazionale di studi su Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio VI (2019): 125-139.
  14. "Shoes, Gowns, and Turncoats: Reconsidering Cacciaguida’s History of Florentine Fashion and Politics," Dante Studies: The Annual Publication of the Dante Society of America 134 (2016): 26-47.
  15. "Uncovering the Historical Body of Florence: Dante, Boccaccio and Sumptuary Legislation," Italian Culture 33:1 (March 2015): 1-15.
  16. "Dante’s Urban American Vernacular: Sandow Birk’s Divine Comedy." Special Edition: "New Voices in Dante Criticism," Dante Studies: The Annual Publication of the Dante Society of America 131 (2013): 143-169.
  17. "The Language of Women as Written by Men: Dante, Boccaccio, and Gendered Histories of the Vernacular," Heliotropia 8-9 (2011-12, http://www.heliotropia.org/08-09/olson.pdf) Reprinted in Heliotropia 700/10: A Boccaccio Anniversary Volume (LED, 2013), pp. 217-236.
  18. "Resurrecting Dante’s Florence: Figural Realism in the Decameron and the Esposizioni," Modern Language Notes 124:1 (January 2009): 45-65.
  19. "'Concivis meus': Petrarch’s Rerum memorandarum libri 2.60, Boccaccio’s Decameron 6.9, and the Specter of Dino del Garbo," Annali d’Italianistica 24 (2005): 375-80.

Short Essays and Translations

  1. “Life and Hell: Reading, Seeing and Living Dante.” The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Philadelphia:  
     Beehive Books, 2024, pp.119-127.
  2. "Empty Flags and Fallen ‘Angeli’: Dante and the Imagery of the Capitol Riot." Bibliotecha Dantesca: Journal of Dante Studies 4 (2021). https://repository.upenn.edu/bibdant/vol4/iss1/11/
  3. "Hell on Earth: Parents, Children, and Pain at the Border.” In “Dante: Prophet of Hope." The Berkley Forum, Georgetown University. October 21, 2021 (https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/hell-on-earth-parents-children-and-pain-at-the-border)
  4. "Worse than Dante’s Hell: Parents, Children and Pain at the Border." Dante Notes, September 28, 2018 (https://www.dantesociety.org/node/132).
  5. "Selected Illustrations from Birk’s Comedy." Birk Illustrations, Digital Dante. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2017. (https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/image/birk-illustrations/inferno/)
  6. Selected poetry from Amelia Rosselli’s Documento. Published in the Italian Poetry Review, volume 4 (Società editrice fiorentina, 2009).

Reviews and Review Articles

  1. Review of Boccaccio’s Florence: Politics and People in His Life and Work by Elsa Filosa. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022. In Heliotropia 20 (2023): 197-200. 
  2. Review of Pier Massimo Forni, and Renzo Bragantini, eds. The Decameron: A Critical Lexicon. English edition by Christopher Kleinhenz. Translation by Michael Papio. (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2019). Annali d’italianistica 39 (2021): 492-494.
  3. Review of Marilyn Migiel, The Ethical Dimension of the Decameron (Toronto: University of Toronto, 2015). Heliotropia, 16-19 (2019-20): 297-300.
  4. Review of Sherry Roush, Speaking Spirits: Ventriloquizing the Dead in Renaissance Italy (University of Toronto Press, 2015). Speculum 92:2 (April 2017): 580-81.
  5. Review of Boccaccio: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works, eds. Victoria Kirkham, Michael Sherberg and Janet Levarie Smarr (University of Chicago Press, 2013). Modern Philology 113: 4 (May 2016): 217-224.
  6. Review of Money, Morality, and Culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, eds. Juliann Vitullo and Diane Wolfthal, (Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010). Annali d’Italianista 30 (2012): 509-511.
  7. Review of Tobias Foster Gittes, Boccaccio’s Naked Muse: Eros, Culture, and the Mythopoeic Imagination (University of Toronto Press, 2007). Heliotropia, 6:1-2 (2009): 63-66.
  8. Review of Olivia Holmes, Dante’s Two Beloveds (Yale University Press, 2007). The Medieval Review, July 1, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.baj9928.0907.001.
  9. Review article of Claire Honess, From Florence to the Heavenly City: The Poetry of Citizenship in Dante (Legenda, 2006). Symposium 61:3 (Fall 2007): 211-216.

Courses Taught

At George Mason University:

  • FRLN 550: Boccaccio's Decameron
  • FRLN 330: Topics in World Literature
  • HNRS: Hell on Earth
  • HNRS 122/230: The Language of Empire: Ancient Rome, Italy and Africa
  • HNRS 122: Hell on Earth
  • ITAL 420: Global and Local Italy
  • ITAL 360: The Italian South
  • ITAL 340: Italian through the Arts (Film / Opera)
  • ITAL 330/331: Advanced Italian: Language and Culture I & II
  • ITAL 320: Italian Cinema / Neorealism and Global Cinema / Neorealism and Its Legacy
  • ITAL 325: Major Italian Writers ("Dante's Divine Comedy"; "Dante's Inferno"; "The Literature of the Black Death: Boccaccio's Decameron")
  • ITAL 201 & ITAL 202: Intermediate Italian II
  • ITAL 101 & ITAL 102: Elementary Italian I and II
  • ITAL 110: Elementary Italian

Thesis Advisor and Reader (at Mason)

  • URSP Mentor for Giovanna Uberti, August-December 2017. Project Title: “Urban Policing in Contemporary Italy.” George Mason University.
  • URSP Mentor and English Honors Thesis Advisor for Georgia Wood, June 2014-May 2015. Project Title: “The ‘Divine’ Revisited: Reflections of Dante’s Divine Comedy in Toni Morrison’s Trilogy.” George Mason University.

Extramural Teaching

  • The Teaching Company (Great Courses / Wondrium). Course title: "Learning Italian: Step by Step and Region by Region," released December 2020.
  • Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Fairfax, Virginia. Course title: Dante’s Inferno. Spring 2017.
  • Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Fairfax, Virginia. Course title: Dante’s Purgatorio. Spring 2018.
  • Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Fairfax, Virginia. Course title: Dante’s Paradiso. Spring 2019.

Education

Ph.D., Department of Italian, Columbia University (2006)

M.A., Department of Italian, Columbia University (2001)

B.A., Division of Languages and Literatures, Bard College (1998)

Recent Presentations

"'Chiosar con altro testo': La presenza del Decameron nella moderna esegesi dantesca." Conference: “Giovanni Boccaccio: La cultura dantesca e le opere della maturità. Convegno internazionale di studi per il 650° anniversario della morte di Boccaccio." Florence-Ravenna, Italy. May 21-23, 2025. In person.  

"Una riscrittura boccacciana della ‘sconcia novella’ dantesca: i Caccianemico e le famiglie bolognesi dall’Inferno XVIII al Decameron X.4.” Symposium: "Boccaccio e/a Bologna." University of Bologna, Alma Mater Studiorum, Italy. May 8-9, 2025. 

"’Buona Moneta’: Dante’s (and Boccaccio’s) Monetary Language." The Annual Meeting of the Dante Society of America. New York University, April 10-11, 2025. In person. 

"Boccaccio’s Semiramis, Inventor of the Chastity Belt?" Department of French and Italian, Indiana University. February 20, 2025. In person. 

"Synoptic and Psychedelic: Sophy Hollington’s New Illustrated Inferno." Conference: "MoDa: La mondializzazione di Dante II. Le aree extra-europee." University of Bologna, Italy. November 22-23, 2024.