Faculty and Staff
U of A Faculty
Helena Fracchia (PhD, University of California Berkeley) Director of the University of Alberta School in Cortona, Professor of Classics in the Dept. of History and Classics, Adjunct Professor of Italian, Director of the University of Alberta Archaeological Field School at Ossaia. Dr. Fracchia has authored and co-authored several books and numerous articles on the archaeology of pre-Roman and Roman Italy. Her current research focus is the Romanization of Italy in the regions of Tuscany and Basilicata. Dr. Fracchia has held numerous Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants for her work in Italy. She was the recipient of a McCalla Research Professorship and has been awarded a 2004 Killam Annual Professorship for excellence in teaching, research and service at the University of Alberta.
Edward Bishop (PhD, Queen’s University) Bishop’s travel book Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books (Penguin 2005 /Norton 2006), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and was named a Best Book by the Globe and Mail, CBC’s Talking Books, and Playboy magazine, where he appeared (in textual contiguity) with Pamela Anderson. He has published articles on Joyce, Woolf, modernist publishing, and archives. He is the editor of Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room: the Holograph Draft, and his essay on page design in Jacob’s Room, “Mind the Gap,” appears in the new Norton Critical edition of Jacob’s Room. He is currently working on a history of ink.
Thomas Keating (PhD, Dalhousie University) is a Professor in Political Science and teaches courses in the areas of international relations, international ethics and Canadian foreign policy. He has published in these areas as well as works on peace building and humanitarian intervention. His most recent works are Global Politics, Oxford, 2010 (with Andy Knight) and Canada and World Order, 3rd edition, Oxford, forthcoming 2012. He is the recipient of the Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award and the University of Alberta’s Rutherford Award for Undergraduate Teaching in 2004.Federico Spinetti (PhD, SOAS University of London) is an ethnomusicologist and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Alberta. He has conducted extensive field research in Central Asia and Iran, and his scholarly publications have focused on the anthropology and the political economy of traditional and popular music in the Middle East and Central Asia. His current research explores the relationship between music and architecture in the context of martial arts practice in Iran. An active ethnographic filmmaker, he has produced short documentaries and has recently completed a full-length documentary feature film (Zurkhaneh – The House of Strength. Music and Martial Arts of Iran, University of Alberta and Lab 80 Film, 2010). A native of Italy, he was a recording and performing musician in the Italian popular music scene until 2002.
Lianne McTavish (PhD, University of Rochester) is a Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, where she offers courses in early modern visual culture, the history of the body, and critical museum theory. Her interdisciplinary research has produced many refereed articles as well as two monographs, Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France (2005), and Defining the Modern Museum: A Case Study in the Challenges of Exchange (University of Toronto Press, 2012). Dr McTavish’s recent work analyzes representations of cure and convalescence in France, 1600-1800, focusing on royal bodies at rest after giving birth, Kingly bodies recuperating from illness, religious bodies receiving miraculous cures, and unborn bodies at risk of becoming ill. She has also curated, and written the catalogues for, numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, including upcoming shows in Halifax, Fredericton, and Edmonton.
Dean Spaner (PhD, McGill University) Professor, Plant Breeding, Genetics and Organic Agriculture in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences. Dr. Spaner has authored and co-authored numerous articles on agronomy, organic agronomic systems, plant breeding and genetics. His background includes work in tropical and international settings. He presently breeds wheat for conventional and organic systems in Alberta and teaches historical and modern aspects of crop production, and some ethical issues in food production. Dr. Spaner has held numerous research grants, including Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grants for work on organic agriculture. He was the recipient of a McCalla Research Professorship and has generally stayed out of trouble.
Local Staff
Roberto Bondi (MA in Foreign Languages, University of Siena) holds a Certificate in “Second level DITALS – Didactics of Italian as Foreign Language” from the University for Foreigners in Siena and can teach advanced Italian language and literature (in addition to English, German and Spanish) and is also certified to test students who want to obtain a Certificate of Italian as a Foreign Language at the University for Foreigners in Siena.
Alessandro Celani (PhD, University of Perugia) Taught art history at Richmond College, Rome; U of A alumni in Cortona; and at the University for Foreigners in Perugia. Author of numerous books and papers on topics in ancient, medieval and renaissance art.
Maurizio Gualtieri (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) Professor Emeritus of History and Classics, University of Alberta, and Professor Emeritus of Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology at the University of Perugia. His main research interests are pre-Roman and Roman Italy. He has written numerous articles and several books on that topic, with grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He has directed the University of Alberta Field School in Italy at Roccagloriosa and at Oppido Lucano, where work is still on-going.
Andrea Guidi (PhD, Istituto di Studi Umanistici) has conducted extensive research on the Florentine Republic during the Renaissance and early 16th Century, with a particular focus on the works of Machiavelli. Scholarly publications include editing the Legazioni, Commissarie, Scritti di governo section of the “Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Machiavelli,” and Un Segretario militante, Politica, diplomazia e armi nel Canceliere Machiavelli, as well as numerous articles and essays on Machiavelli and the historiography of Florence.
Jo Pennington Legh (BEd, Oxon; MA, University of East Anglia; Dip. RSA) Directed the Accademia Britannica language school near Florence and has collaborated with the Provveditorato di Firenze and the Provveditorato di Arezzo on communicative method language development programs for Italian and English speaking audiences.
Valentina Raparelli (LLB, University of Rome “La Sapienza”; PhD, University of Naples) has published articles on multicultural society and immigration, and has lectured at the University of Perugia on Italian Constitutional History (“The Italian Political Parties and the Democratic State”, “The Welfare State”, “The Republican Constitution of 1948 and the Resistenza”, “Globalization and Crisis of the National State”, etc.). She is now a researcher at the following institutions: University of Rome “La Sapienza”, University of Perugia and University for Foreigners in Perugia.
Edmonton-Based Staff
Trevor Buckle, Manager of the School in Cortona
Phone: (780) 492-4389 or 1-888-533-5735 (in Canada)
Fax: (780) 492-6325