Widowhood in Renaissance Italy

Students

  • Chloe Kofman (UNH)

Faculty

  • Anna Wainwright (UNH, Italian Studies)

Overview

Dr. Wainwright hosted an intern this summer and trained this undergraduate in scholarly research. By inviting the student into her research, she created a high-impact experience in areas of racial and social justice in the humanities for a student.  

The research was focused around an in-progress monograph, Widow City: Emotion and Politics in Renaissance Italy, which investigates the role of widowhood in early modern Italian literature and politics, specifically during the Italian Wars and the Counter-Reformation, periods of rising anti-Muslim and proto-nationalist sentiment in Italy and Europe at large. The intern helped find both primary and secondary sources to help complete the manuscript.  
 

Student Reflection

“This research opportunity was beneficial to me in several ways. For one, since this is my fourth (and probably last) year at UNH, it’s helpful to have research experience for the purpose of applying to graduate programs. But more importantly, I could directly apply my Italian studies major to it, drawing on some prior knowledge of Italian language and literature and discovering connections to my own life and experiences. As such, this research gave me something tangible to work towards as well as the chance to research a history and culture that I find immensely rich and intriguing.”