Meet the Faculty

All faculty members in the Florence program are Italian academics, and most have been involved with the program for years. They enjoy the opportunity—unique to the Sarah Lawrence program—of offering small seminars and working one-on-one with students. Bi-weekly tutorials enable them to share a love of their subject, and student interest in return brings out a warmth and generosity that truly inspires.

Massimo Agus
Photography
Laurea in Architecture from the University of Florence. He teaches Photography History at the University of Siena and Technique of Photography courses at Fondazione Studio Marangoni. Massimo Agus has been the official photographer for several theatre, dance, and opera festivals and the curator of numerous exhibitions. SLC since 2008

Swietlan Nicholas Kraczyna
Art on Paper
BFA in Painting, Rhode Island School of Design. EHP Scholarship in Rome and Florence. MFA, University of Southern Illinois. Assistant to artist Marino Marini for his colour etchings. He set up the Etching department of Rosary College Graduate School of Fine Arts in Florence, where he taught for eighteen years. Co-founder of the “Il Bisonte”, International School of advanced printmaking in Florence, Kraczyna has had over 100 solo exhibits throughout the world. He has also been invited to hold seminars in various U.S. Universities and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. SLC since 1994.

Diane Kunzelman
Art Restoration
M.A. in History of Art, Syracuse University; Fulbright Fellowship in Florence. Painting restorer at the Laboratorio di Restauro of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence since 1977. Major conservation projects on works from the principle museums and churches in Florence. Publications in Quaderni degli Uffizi and Studies in Conservation, contributions to exhibit catalogs, research in diagnostic for the treatment of cultural property. SLC since 1993.

Davide Lombardo
Italy, Europe and the European Union

Ph.D. in History at the European University Institute in 2007. Holds degrees in history from France and Italy, and has studied and worked in Italy, UK, France and recently in the US. He specializes in European culture of the 19th and 20th century and his interests range from 19th century Humour to Urban theory of modern cities, to the evolution of the European public sphere. SLC since 2009.

Lorenzo Pubblici
Italian Language and Literature (Advanced)

Ph.D. in Medieval History, University of Florence. Scholarship from University of Moscow in 2003 and Columbia University in 2004. Collaborates with several History magazines (www.retimedievali.it; www.sismel.it; www.fupress.com/cesecom). Author of numerous publications, essays and articles. SLC since 2005.

Fabrizio Ricciardelli
Italian Civilization from the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 14th century

Ph.D. in History, University of Warwick, England. Author and co-author of numerous textbooks, reviews, conference presentations and journal articles on institutional and political history. Most recent publication: The Politics of Exclusion in Early Renaissance Florence (Brepols: Turnhout, 2007). His main field of study is Italian city-states in the social, economic, political, and cultural landscape of Medieval Europe, now concentrating on the different forms of political communication used in the Italian Republics from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. SLC since 2003.

Maria Antonia Rinaldi
Art in Florence and Northern Central Italy: A survey from the 13th to the 16th Century

Laurea with Honors in History of Architecture and Post-Graduate Specialization in History of Art, University of  Florence; Post-Graduate Specialization in Economics and Management of the  Cultural Patrimony, University of Torvergata, Rome (with scolarship). In 1995, she  was awarded a scholarship by the European Union to work in Spain in the field of  museology, where she worked at the San Pio V Museum in Valencia. She collaboarted with the Ministry of Historic Patrimony of Florence on exhibitions and catalogues. She organized and curated several exhibitons of contemporary art in Florence and abroad. Recently she collaborated with U.N.E.S.C.O. and the Library of Alexandria to organize and teach a seminar in museology for young employees/staff of the Library, and she adviced for the new display of the small ethnographical museum of Siwa. She teaches Museology and Art History Graduate Seminar at S.A.C.I. SLC since 2000.

Edoardo Tacchi
Italian Language and Literature (Intermediate)

Laurea in Didactic of Italian language as L2, University of Siena, DITALS (Diploma in Foreign Language Teaching), University of Siena. He has been teaching Italian as L2 to foreigners and—later—to immigrants in different schools of Florence. His teaching mission is not to convey his knowledge to his students, but to facilitate them with the discovery of their own. SLC since 2001.

Elisa Terrazzi
Italian Language and Literature (Beginners)

Laurea in Modern Italian Literature, University of Florence; Post-graduate Specialization in Teaching Italian to foreigners, University of Siena; DITALS (Diploma in Foreign Language Teaching), University of Siena; Master Itals (Master in Foreign Language Teaching), University of Venice Ca’ Foscari. Teacher of Italian in several different schools in Florence. Special interests: multiple intellingences in learning languages. SLC since 1992.

Chiara Tognolotti
History of Italian Cinema

Ph.D. in Film History, University of Florence. Her main field of studies ranges from the silent movies of the Twenties to the History of Animation films. Author of several publications, she collaborates with articles for film magazines such as Bianco & Nero, 1895, La valle dell’eden and Comunicazioni sociali. She also teaches film seminars at the University of Florence. SLC since 2006.