The year 2007 marks the centennial of the birth of Renato Poggioli, a world-renowned scholar in Slavic Studies, Comparative Literature and Italian Studies. Born in Florence, Italy, and trained as a slavicist at his hometown university, Poggioli left fascist Italy in 1938 to teach Italian at Smith College in Northampton, MA. A militant anti-fascist, Poggioli co-founded, while in Northampton, the Mazzini Society (perhaps the most active anti-fascist organization outside of Italy) with, among others, Michele Cantarella and Gaetano Salvemini.

He eventually became a Professor of Italian at Brown University and then a Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. As a prolific translator and as an influential literary critic and theorist, Poggioli became a very well known figure in US literary circles and contributed largely to the diffusion of American and Slavic literatures in Italy, as well as to the diffusion of Italian and Slavic literatures in the US.

The symposium is open to the public and no registration is required.

For more information please visit
http://www.umass.edu/italian/poggioli_symposium/