Kristina Marie Olson

Kristina Marie Olson
Associate Chair
Associate Professor
Italian: Medieval and Early Modern Italy; Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch; Translation and Adaptation Studies
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
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.