Dr. Sergio Corsi Honored at the JFRC, Summer 2009
Professor Sergio Corsi began his distinguished teaching career at Loyola in 1973, after receiving his Ph.D. in Romance Languages & Literatures from the University of Chicago. His Italian language classes at the Water Tower Campus were an instant hit with Loyola students and Sergio Corsi’s energy and passion for teaching inspired rapid growth in Loyola’s Italian program. Dr. Corsi soon began offering courses on Dante and on Italian literature in the Honors Program. His enthusiasm for literature and his ability to explain the ideas and the powerful poetry of Dante captured the imagination of his students and Dr. Corsi was named Honors Program Professor of the Year in both 1981 and 1982. Dr. Corsi’s inspiring teaching reflected his profound knowledge of the Divine Comedy developed through extensive study of Dante’s formal knowledge of rhetoric in the late Middle Ages. In 1987, Dr. Corsi published a scholarly manuscript entitled "Il modus digressivus' nella Divina Commedia in the "Scripta Humanistica," of the Catholic University of America Press. He also did significant scholarly work on other medieval and Renaissance authors (such as Torquato Tasso) and during the 1990s served as a leading organizer of the sessions on Italian literature at the International Conference on Medieval Literature held annually at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
As a teacher, Sergio Corsi has always shown a special gift for connecting with students and for taking personal care for their learning experience. He was an ideal candidate to direct the Summer Program in Rome that was begun in 1990 by Loyola’s Department of Modern Language and Literatures. In twenty years of dedicated service to the Rome Center summer program as teacher and program organizer, Sergio has established himself as a wonderful Italian cultural ambassador and leader of the community of students who together share an intense, magical five weeks in La città eterna. Many summer program participants and faculty colleagues have especially fond memories of Sergio singing or reciting poetry or telling stories during our bus rides or group dinners on organized excursions to Assisi, or Florence or Siena or Pompeii. Dr. Corsi’s stirring renditions of the Inno di Mameli, the Italian national anthem are emblematic of his joy in sharing his Italianità with his students and colleagues.
In recent years, Sergio has continued to receive much recognition for his outstanding teaching and student are still fighting over spaces in his Literature in Translation courses on Dante, Italian Masterpieces and the Italian novel. In Summer 2008, Dr. Corsi was the subject of a warmly affectionate video portrait entitled “Monkey Business” in honor of a favorite English language expression of Sergio. In 2009, the John Felice Rome Center named the “Aula Corsi” classroom in Dr. Corsi’s honor in appreciation of his service to the Center and to generations of Loyola students on both sides of the Atlantic. Dr. Corsi was very moved by the award and he was very pleased to be surrounded by students, colleagues, and the Rome Center staff that over the years has developed much affection for the Sergio, a man for all summer seasons in Rome.
