Faculty

Faculty for Fall / Spring 2010-2011

Ted Bohr, SJ, Rev.

G. Ted Bohr, SJ, taught art history at Creighton University and Boston College before joining the JFRC as Chaplain and art historian in August of 2009. Spanish Colonial and Non-Western art histories are his specialties. His pilgrimage to Rome is like the great quest of all seekers of all cultures to discover God, in people, places and events—and ultimately within self. His courses on the Rome Campus include Historical Theology, Theology of Pilgrimage and Modern Art History. His philosophy and theology studies were done at St Louis University, St Louis, Missouri. His graduate work in art history was done at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. His research took him to various, colonial Jesuit churches in Mexico and Ecuador. He feels fortunate to have had two, academic years abroad: in Spain and in the United Kingdom, along with a dozen summers in Latin America. “Transformative Education in the Jesuit Tradition” captures beautifully what Fr Bohr wants to do with his students at Loyola University Chicago’s Rome Campus: A JESUIT EDUCATION seeks to address the world in which we actually live as well as the hopes and challenges of that world. Indeed, one can view the current situation in the world against a backdrop of a whole range of key desires, really, "hungers" of the contemporary world for wholeness and peace. These are hungers which life and learning have helped us to identify in ourselves as well as in our students, hungers that our kind of education hopes to stir and meet: a Hunger for Integrated Knowledge, a Hunger for a Moral Compass, a Hunger for Civic Participation, a Hunger for a Global Paradigm, and a Hunger for an Adult Spirituality. http://www.luc.edu/transformativeed/

Bruna Capitini
Dott.ssa Capitini earned her laurea cum laude from the Universita` degli Studi La Sapienza in Rome and holds Italian State Qualifications at the highest levels to teach Italian language and literature, Latin, history, and geography. Professor Capitini has been working with students at the John Felice Rome Center for many years. She has extensive teaching experience as an instructor in seminars for students from widely diverse linguistic backgrounds, ages, and levels.
Susana Cavallo, Ph.D.,
Dr. Cavallo serves as a professor of Spanish and women and gender studies at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Cavallo received her PhD in Romance languages and literatures from the University of Chicago and her MA in Spanish from Middlebury College. She is a specialist in twentieth century Hispanic poetry, women’s narrative, feminist theory, and poetics and prosody. Among her publications are La poética de José Hierro; El sujeto femenino en escritoras hispánicas, edited in collaboration with Luis Jiménez and Oralia Preble-Niemi; and numerous articles on twentieth-century Hispanic literature and women’s writing in journals both in the United States and abroad. Professor Cavallo is also a poet, translator, pianist, and composer. Watch Video
Lisa Colletta
Marco Conti
Professor Conti was born in Rome in 1961. After obtaining a degree in Classical Literature (Laurea in Lettere Classiche) at the university La Sapienza in Rome, he moved to Leeds (UK) to begin a graduate course in Classics. In 1991 he gained a MA in Classics by research at the university of Leeds (School of Classics), and in 1996 a PhD in Classics at the same university. In the fall semester of 1996 he worked as a teaching assistant in History of Christianity at the university of Manchester, and as a teaching assistant in Latin and Greek language at the university of Leeds. In 1997 he moved to Durham (UK) where he worked as a research fellow in Greek and Latin Patristics until 2000. At the moment he teaches Medieval Latin Literature at the Università Pontificia Salesiana and Latin language at the Pontificio Istituto Liturgico Anselmiano. He also gives courses on Classical Mythology and Religions in Late Antiquity at the Richmond university. With Brepols he has published a monograph in 1998 (Marco Conti, The Life and Works of Potamius of Lisbon, (Instrumenta Patristica XXXII) (ISBN 2-503-50688-7) Brepols, Turnhout 1998) and a critical edition of the works of Potamius of Lisbon (Marco Conti, Potamii Olisponensis opera omnia (Corpus Christianorum - Series Latina LXIXA) (ISBN 2-503-00694-9) Brepols, Turnhout 1999). His latest publication is a volume in the series Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Edited by Marco Conti. ISBN-978-0-8308-1475-6. Inter Varsity Press Downers Grove, Illinois, June 2008). In the same series he has also edited the volume on Job together with Manlio Simonetti (2006), and the volume on Genesis 1-11 in collaboration with Andrew Louth (2001). At the moment is about to publish a complete translation with text, introduction and commentary of the works of Priscillian of Avila in the series Oxford Early Christian Studies of the Oxford University Press.
Nadia Cristiani
Born in Pisa (Tuscany), Nadia Cristiani has lived in Rome since 2001 where she taught Italian language classes at different levels with several American programs, including Cornell University, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Washington, De Paul University, Dartmouth College, Michigan State University, as well as the American Academy in Roma. She earned her Master’ degree cum laude in Italian Studies from the University of Bologna and her certificate for teaching Italian to foreigners from the Dilit IH in Rome. Her native language is Italian and she is fluent in English. She teaches Italian Language and Culture for some American Universities in Rome where she is involved in syllabi development and tests.
DiBiagi Flaminio Di Biagi,
Dr. Di Biagi holds a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Rome, an MA in Romance languages from the University of Washington, and a PhD in Italian literature from New York University. His extensive publications include Sotto l’arco di Tito: le “Farfalle” di Gozzano, Il cinema a Roma: guida alla storia e ai Luoghi dei cinema nella capitale. He has translated classic authors, such as Conrad and D.H. Lawrence, into Italian and has edited a highly acclaimed critical edition of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd. Watch Video
Evers Alexander Evers,
Dr. Evers has a DPhil in ancient history from Oxford University and has been a lecturer at Utrecht University in The Netherlands since 2000. Prior to that, he served as a tutor in ancient history at Brasenose College in Oxford and as assistant dean (1998-1999). He is a practicing musician, playing organ and piano, both as a soloist and accompanying choirs, and performing in the Vatican Choir of Saint Peter’s in Rome. His forthcoming works include Cyprianus van Carthago: interactic tussen kerk en wereld and Church, Cities, and People. A Study of the Plebs in the Church and Cities of Roman Africa. (Leuven: Peeters). Watch Video
Elizabeth Geoghegan
Elizabeth Geoghegan holds an MFA in Writing from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She also earned an MA in Creative Writing (Fiction) and a BA in English Literature, both from The University of Colorado at Boulder where her graduate thesis The Sound of Skin was selected for the Ruth Murray Underhill Award for an outstanding creative thesis. She teaches courses in writing and literature such as English and American Women Writers & Italy and Special Studies in Literature: Ernest Hemingway's Italy, France, and Spain. Other courses include: Society & Literature: Constructing "Italy" in Contemporary American Travel Narratives and The Writing of Fiction: Writing Rome, an on-site creative writing workshop she developed. She is the editor of Remus, a Rome-based literary journal, and the former editor of SniperLogic, the University of Colorado literary journal. Geoghegan also works as a freelance writer, editor, screenplay translator, and set-designer/stylist. Her fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, most recently in The University of Wisconsin's The Cream City Review. She has lived in Italy since 1999 and is currently at work on a collection of satiric essays about the real Rome. Watch Video
Stefano Giacchetti
Dr. Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi received his PhD in Philosophy (with distinction) from Loyola University Chicago, his MA from San Diego State University and his Laurea in Sociology from the University of Rome "La Sapienza". His area of research broadly addresses Continental Philosophy, with a special focus on aesthetics, the Renaissance and political philosophy. His area of concentration is in Critical Theory, and in particular in the works of T. W. Adorno. He has also extensively published and presented articles on Nietzsche, Marx and Schopenhauer. His latest book (as editor and contributor) "Nostalgia for a Redeemed Future: Critical Theory" has been recently published by the University of Delaware Press. He is currently member of the executive committee of the Society for European Philosophy and organizer of the yearly conferences on Critical Theory in Rome. He has given lectures and presented papers in several worldwide institutions, such as universities in the U.S., Italy, Canada, Poland, Ireland, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil and UK.
Emilio Emilio Iodice,
Professor Iodice has spent over three decades as a senior executive in the public and private sectors, as an educator and now as a university administrator. He joined Loyola University in 2007 as Director of the John Felice Rome Center. One year later he was promoted to Vice President of the University.

During those thirty years of experience he was also a key official in Washington working for several Administrations. He was named by the President to the Senior Executive Service when he was thirty three and considered the youngest public servant to reach the highest levels of federal service.

In the US diplomatic corps he was among the most decorated officers in history and was awarded the gold medal for heroism, a gold medal for exemplary service and the Silver medal and nominated for two Bronze Medals.

Among his honors are being knighted by the former king of Italy and receiving Medals of Honor from Spain and Italy.

He speaks several languages, has traveled across the globe and his passions in life are the Rome Center, its staff, faculty and its students, Loyola University, good music, writing and reading, his family and, in particular, his grand daughters, Sofia and Helena. Watch Video
langer Marshall Langer
Mr. Langer received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, he has taken extensive graduate coursework in counseling psychology at New York University. Mr. Langer has an extremely diverse business background. He has worked on Wall Street in investment banking for Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette as well as in trading for Banque Paribas. His 12 years of professional experience in the United States for multinational corporations includes work in the areas of corporate management, marketing strategy, management consulting, and real estate. Mr. Langer has taught at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Fordham University, University of Connecticut, American University of Rome, University of Malta Link Campus Rome, and Loyola University Chicago.
Lodici Claudio Lodici
Dr. Lodici is a graduate of the School of Political Science at the University of Rome and the author of several research articles on international affairs, decision-making processes, and Third Way policies in the Information Age. He presently works as an advisor for public affairs in the office of the Speaker of the Italian Senate. Among his extensive publications is Third Way–The Global Challenge. Professor Lodici writes a regular column for the Italian-American Democrat, a newsletter of the Italian-American Democratic Leadership Council, and contributes to Italy’s oldest scientific review, La Nuova Antologia, established in Florence in 1866.
maclaren Sarah Fiona Maclaren
Dr. Maclaren has taught at the John Felice Rome Center since 1999. She earned her PhD in philosophy at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, and her laurea in cultural and social anthropology at the University of Rome La Sapienza. Author of the books Magni cenza e mondo classico (Rome, 2003) and La magni cenza e il suo doppio. Il pensiero estetico di Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Milan, 2005), Professor Maclaren’s current fields of research include social and cultural aspects of traditional crafts and “studio crafts” in Italy and Japan, and aesthetic concepts in contemporary Japanese architecture.
Roberto Mannino
Professor Mannino earned a BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a diploma from the Fine Arts Academy in Rome. He has worked in intaglio, wood carving, printmaking, and papermaking. He has taught at the Cornell University Rome Program, Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in Rome, the San Giacomo Municipal School for Ornamental Arts in Rome, and the Rhode Island School of Design European Honors Program in Rome. His work is visible at www.robertomannino.it
Nicola Moruzzi
Nicola Moruzzi earned his laurea cum laude from the Università` degli Studi La Sapienza in, with a dissertation on “The narrative structure in cinema.” He then studied Film Direction and Screenwriting in Rome and began working in the television and cinema field in 2001, first as assistant director then as a freelance filmmaker and director. In 2008 he established Fake Factory, a production company active in cinema and commercial production. Presently he is working on his debut feature film “A pugni aperti”, a love drama set on the shores of Lago Maggiore (Northern Italy).
Eric Nicholson

Professor Nicholson earned his Ph.D. from Yale University and his M.A. from Warwick University, England. His teaching appointments have included Purchase College, SUNY (with tenure), and in Florence with Syracuse University and New York University. A specialist in early modern European theatre, he brings to the classroom the experience of an actor and director. He has performed various Shakespearean roles, and has directed numerous theatrical productions, among them A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, The Illusion, and The Mandragola. Among his publications, he has co-edited, with Robert Henke, Transnational Exchange in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate Press, 2008), and contributed chapters to the same and several other volumes as well as to scholarly journals. He has been awarded several fellowships, including a Fulbright in England, and has received a distinguished teaching award in the Liberal Studies Program, New York University, and the Outstanding Humanities Faculty Award from Purchase College.
nicholson John Nicholson
Dr. Nicholson received his PhD from the Dr. Nicholson earned his PhD from the University of Louvain, Belgium. Before joining the faculty of the Rome Center in 1968, he taught at the University of Ottawa and at Xavier Junior College in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Dr. Nicholson has extensive teaching experience in the fields of philosophy and history of art. In philosophy, he has specialized in theories of art and aesthetics, while in history of art, he has given courses on the artistic heritage of Italy and of Rome in particular. Watch Video
palladino Maria Palladino
Dott.ssa Palladino received her laurea from the University of Naples. After passing the Italian State Quallification in English, she taught English for many years in Italian schools. From 1970 to the present, she has taught Italian to generations of students at the JFRC. In addition, for the past several years, she has been an inspector of secondary schools in Italy for the Ministry of Education. In this work, she oversees the implementation of programs and the improvement of teaching skills.
Giovanna Piga

Giovanna Piga is a practicing licensed architect and adjunct professor at several Universities in Rome. Before joining the Rome Center in the Summer 2009 she has been teaching Architectural Design at the Philadelphia University Rome Program and Art and Architecture in Rome at the St. John's University Rome Campus. She has previously taught at the University of Arkansas Rome Program and at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. She received her post-graduated degrees in Sustainable Architecture from A.N.A.B. National Association of Sustainable Architecture, in Architectural Design from University of Rome “La Sapienza” and her degree in Architecture from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Her specialty is contemporary architecture theory, architecture and urban design, history of architecture.

As principal of her own architectural firm since 2002 and project manager at several Rome architectural firms since 1991 she has designed and coordinated a variety of building types.
As part of her work, she enters numerous competitions, both Italian and international and has been awarded a First Prize and Finalist. Her projects are published in national and international architectural magazines.
renczes Philipp Gabriel Renczes, S.J.,
Father Renczes is an assistant professor in systematic theology at the Gregorian University and an invited professor in historical theology at the Pontifical Institute Augustinianum. He earned his baccalaureate in theology from the Gregorian, his licentiate in theology and patristic science from the Augustianum, and his doctoral degree in theology at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Father Renczes has also earned a baccalaureate in philosophy from the Hochschule fur Philosophie in Munich and both a diplome d'Etudes Approfondies and a PhD in the history of religions and religious anthropology from the University of Paris, Sorbonne. He is fluent in German, English, French, Italian, Ivrit, and Spanish. Fr. Renczes was Werhan lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2004 and held the Wade Chair at Marquette University in 2007-08. Among his publications are : Agir de Dieu et liberte l'homme. Recherches sur l anthropologie theogique de Saint Maxime le Confesseur (Paris 2003), and Jesús, el Ungido, ¿centro de la creación? (Madrid 2007).
renczes Antonio Romano,,
born in Italy and lived in Rome, completed his education in Rome where he obtained a Doctorate in Law at the University of Rome in 1988 He moved to the United States the following year. He has been involved with the restaurant business and hospitality industry since a very early age and once in the United States, accessed various managerial positions with a multinational restaurant company in Chicago. He also operated other main worldwide locations, serving as marketing director. In this arena, Antonio developed a keen interest for the Italian cuisine and its impact on other gastronomic traditions in the world.

Later on he obtained a Master Degree in Counseling Psychology and practices as a licensed clinician in Chicago treating eating disorders, food addictions as well as counseling ethnicities of Hispanic origin struggling with issues of acculturation and identity.

Antonio is still consulting with multinational restaurant operations, helping them maximize their understanding of consumer's behavior with the purpose of improving the quality of their customers' service relationships and overall revenue outcomes. At Loyola University Chicago, he teaches Italian language and culture courses, both in Rome and in Chicago. Watch Video
Salvadori Sharon Salvadori
Dr. Salvadori received her PhD in the history of art from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University in 2002, specializing in both the Roman and medieval periods. Her main interest is in the original socio-political and religious function and meaning of both public and private artworks. Her scholarly research currently focuses on religious imagery and the representation of gender in the funerary art of late antiquity. Born to an Italian father and a U.S. mother, she was raised in Rome and in 1995, after completing her BA and her graduate coursework in the U.S., returned to the city, where she has lived ever since.
Schwarten James R. Schwarten
Dr. Schwarten earned his PhD in Italian Literature and Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and has taught courses ranging from Italian language and literature to sociology. He has also taught English as a Foreign Language in and near Rome. His translation of Silvia Mantini's "Women's History in Italy: Cultural Itineraries and New Proposals in Current Historiographical Trends" appeared in the Journal of Women's History. He is the co-author of a book (forthcoming), Globalizzazione, linguaggio e territorio: Il caso della Marsica, and is currently engaged in sociolinguistic field research in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Watch Video
Giovanni Giovanni Scichilone,
Dott. Scichilone revised his DLitt summa cum laude from the University of Palermo, where he wrote a thesis on problems of archaic Greek architecture in Sicilian colonies. He later received a Fulbright Grant to the American Academy in Rome, a fellowship to the Italian Archeological School in Athens, and after nation-wide competition he received a post at the Villa Giulia, one of Rome's foremost museums. After holding the directorships of several national museums and sites in Italy, he now serves as General Inspector for Archaeology in the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage in Rome. He has held travel scholarships in England, Greece, and Egypt and has done excavations in Crete, Central Italy, and Libya. He has lectured widely in Europe and beyond, and published excavation reports, critical essays, and book reviews on subjects related to the classical world in such periodicals as Archeologia, Enciclopedia dell' Arte Antica, Annali della Facolta di Lettere dell' Universita di Perugia, and Archeologia Classica. He has several publications on various topics in both Archaeology and Museum Studies. Watch Video
Sotis Grazia Sotis
Dr. Sotis received a PhD in Anglo-American literature from the University of Rome La Sapienza and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Connecticut. Among Dr. Sotis's publications are a book on Walt Whitman, and articles and reviews in literary and academic journals in the U.S., Italy, and Canada on American, Italian, and German writers in the areas of prose, poetry, and theater. Her most recent work is a comparative stylistic analysis of D’Arrigo’s Horcynus Orca and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.
James Stapleton
Sotis Ambassador Stefano Starace
wing Anne Wingenter
Dr. Wingenter earned a PhD in history from Loyola University Chicago, an M.A. in history from Indiana University-Bloomington, and a B. in international studies from Spring Hill College. Her dissertation, "Le Veterane del Dolore: Mothers and Widows of the 'Fallen' in Fascist Italy," examines how and why Fascist ideologues constructed the war mother as a central figure in the symbolic universe of the "new Italy." It is both an institutional history of the National Association of Mothers and Widows of the Fallen in War, whose actual bodies were utilized in this construction, and an attempt to interrogate how symbols are historically created and manipulated. Watch Video
zammer Leila Zammar
Dott.ssa Zammar received her laurea from the University of Rome La Sapienza with a dissertation on Peter Brook and opera. In addition to teaching Italian and history of opera at the JFRC, she teaches English in Italian high schools. A student of music theory, history of music, and composition, she has passed the examination in piano at the Conservatorio di Musica. Dott.ssa Zammar has been teaching Italian at Loyola since August of 1995, after having taught Italian for years in several private schools for foreigners.