Jo Ann Cavallo

Jo Ann Cavallo (PhD, Yale, 1987), Professor of Italian and Chair of the Italian Department at Columbia University, has published widely on Italian literature and culture, especially Renaissance epics and their adaptation in such popular traditions as the epic maggio of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and Sicilian puppet theater. Her two latest books, The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947): The Paladins of France in America and The World beyond Europe in the Romance Epics of Boiardo and Ariosto were also published in Italian translation and received a UNIMA-USA Nancy Staub Award and Modern Language Association Publication Award, respectively. She is editor of several volumes, including World Epics and Puppet Theater, Teaching World Epics, Speaking Truth to Power from Medieval to Modern Italy (co-edited with Carlo Lottieri), and Teaching the Italian Renaissance Romance Epic, creator of the websites eBOIARDO (https://edblogs.columbia.edu/eboiardo/) and World Epics (https://edblogs.columbia.edu/worldepics/), and founding editor of the Anthem World Epic and Romance book series.