Mattia Boccuti

Teaching Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow, Italian

Education

Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
M.A., University of Bologna
B.A., University of Salerno

Research and Teaching Interests

Dante; Petrarch; Boccaccio; Ecocriticism; Dante and Cinema; Neorealism; Second-Language Acquisition; VR and AR Teaching Strategies

Biography

Mattia Boccuti is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Italian at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his doctoral degree in Italian literature at the University of Notre Dame, his master’s degree in Italian Studies and Modern Philology at the University of Bologna (Italy), and his bachelor’s degree in Modern Italian Literature at the University of Salerno (Italy). Mattia’s primary research focuses on Dante’s literary development both as a poet and a prose writer from the youthful lyrics to the Commedia. In his work, he explores the complex, erratic, and often contradictory process through which Dante became Dante. Building on the scholarship of leading Dantisti, the goal of his project is to analyze Dante’s literary and intellectual trajectory through the figure of Beatrice.

He has published articles in journals on Dante’s Commedia and Francesco Petrarca’s Psalmi Penitentiales and is the co-author of an article/interview on non-professional child actors in Roberto Rossellini’s Neorealist Cinema. Mattia’s other academic interests include early twentieth-century cinematic representations of Dante’s Commedia, the role of the ten ballads in the Decameron, Dante and ecocriticism.

Mattia is also interested in second language acquisition, digital humanities, and the use of technology and virtual and augmented reality in the classroom. He collaborates with the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano Institute (OVI) to complete the Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (TLIO), a state-funded project aimed at producing the first historical dictionary of Old Italian.

Representative Publications

Catherine O’Rawe, Mattia Boccuti, Valentina Geri, “The non-professional child actor in neorealism:
Interview with Alfonso Bovino,” Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies 11:1 (2023): 185-197.

Mattia Boccuti, “L’umile salmista e il poeta laureato. Davide, Petrarca e i Psalmi
penitentiales,” Italica 98:2 (2021): 254-266.

Mattia Boccuti, “‘Non che Roma di carro così bello rallegrasse Affricano, o vero Augusto.’ Purg. XXIX
115-117: il carro della città di Dio e l’arrivo dello scriba,” Le Tre Corone 8 (2021): 83-97.

Mattia Boccuti, “‘E una voce per entro le fronde gridò.’ Purg. XXII 142-154: una proposta
interpretativa,” Lettere Italiane 70:1 (2018): 100-115.

Mattia Boccuti, “‘Quella ch’ad aprir l’alto amor volse la chiave:’ Maria Domina Dei tra patrimonio
laudistico e innovazione,” Rivista di letteratura religiosa italiana 1 (2018): 13-24.