Lauren Surovi

• B.A., International Relations and Italian, Syracuse University
• M.A., Italian, Middlebury College

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Italian Renaissance literature; Renaissance comedy; the relationship between spectacle and audience; the intersections between politics and theater in the Italian Renaissance; early modern political thought; early modern remedy; Niccolò Machiavelli; Pietro Aretino.

DISSERTATION TITLE

“The Comic Cure: Theater as Remedy in Machiavelli and Aretino”

COURSES TAUGHT

• Italian 101
• Italian 102
• Italian 203
• Italian for Reading & Translation
• Lit Trans 360: French & Italian Renaissance Literature
• Italian / Lit Trans 365: Machiavelli & His World (TA)

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• “Structuring the Writing Process to Deconstruct Barriers to Success,” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Boston, MA, March 5-8, 2020.
• “Subverting Heteronormative Masculinity in Pietro Aretino’s Marescalco,” Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, Boston, MA, March 5-8, 2020.
• “Sofronia in Charge: The Power of Public Shame in Machiavelli’s Clizia,” Northeast Modern Language Association, Washington, D.C., March 21-24, 2019.
• “Lucrezia Reborn: Machiavelli’s Vision for an Imperial Republic,” Borghesi-Mellon Workshop Series, “(Re)Imaging Empire,” Madison, WI, Dec. 7, 2018.
• “The Politics of Remedy in Machiavelli’s Mandragola,” Symposium “On Human Nature: Machiavelli’s Mandrake at 500,” Madison, WI, Oct. 12-13, 2018.
• “Machiavellian Virtù: History, Power, and Politics in Il Principe,” Northeast Modern Language Association, Pittsburgh, PA, April 12-15, 2018.
• “‘Per procacciarvi il rimedio con il proprio sangue’: Pietro Aretino and the Satirical Remedy,” Sixteenth Century Society & Conference, Milwaukee, WI, Oct. 26-29, 2017.
• “The Madonna and the Whore: Problematizing Pasolini’s Portrayal of Women and Sexuality in Mamma Roma and Teorema,” Modern Language Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 5-8, 2017.
• “A Sublime Virtù: Translating History, Power, and the Human in Machiavelli’s Principe,” Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 10-12, 2016.
• “The Toxic Cure: Remedy and Poison in Machiavelli’s Mandragola,” Graduate Association of French & Italian Students Symposium, Madison, WI April 8-9,
• “La Storia behind Elsa Morante’s romanzo popolare,” Graduate Association of French & Italian Students Symposium, Madison, WI, April 11-12, 2014.

PUBLICATIONS

• Book Review: Josephine Jungić, Giuliano de’ Medici: Machiavelli’s Prince in Life and Art, Anne Leader (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018), pp. 298. Forthcoming in Italica (2021).
• Book Review: Tatiana Korneeva, The Dramaturgy of the Spectator: Italian Theatre and the Public Sphere, 1600-1800 (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2019), pp. 261. Review published in Quaderni d’italianistica 2 (2019): 208-211.
• Book Review: Sarah Gwyneth Ross, Everyday Renaissances: The Quest for Cultural Legitimacy in Venice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016), pp. 256. Review published in Italica 2 (Summer 2019): 361-364.

AWARDS

• Mellon Public Humanities Fellowship, 2 years, UW-Madison Center for the Humanities (2019-2021)
• Conference Presentation Graduate Travel Grant, UW-Madison (2016, 2018, 2019, 2020)
• Mellon-Wisconsin Summer Fellowship, UW-Madison (2018)
• Chancellor’s Fellowship, UW-Madison (2016)
• French & Italian Departmental Award for Leadership in the Profession, UW-Madison (2019)
• French & Italian Departmental Award for Excellence in Service, UW-Madison (2018)
• Leadership Award, Graduate Association for French & Italian Students (chosen by peers; 2018)
• French & Italian Departmental Award for Excellence in Teaching & Service, UW-Madison (2015)
• French & Italian Departmental Award for First Year Academic Excellence, UW-Madison (2014)
• French & Italian Departmental Scholarship Award, UW-Madison (2013)