Join Dr. Kristin Stasiowski to discuss one of the Florentine Renaissance’s most fiery figures: Girolamo Savonarola! A charismatic, devout, and unapologetically radical Dominican monk during a time of enormous political upheaval, Savonarola celebrated the death of Medici influence in Florence and urged Florentines to give up the excesses and pleasures of “la dolce vita” in favor of a return to more austere living. Not only, but he praised the destruction of secular art and literature that resulted in the infamous “Bonfire of the Vanities” in which even Boccaccio’s Decameron went up in smoke! Later accused of heresy and subsequently burned at the stake on the same spot of his infamous bonfire, Savonarola’s unwavering and polarizing convictions make him a riveting character in Renaissance history.

Kristin Stasiowski, Ph.D is the Assistant Dean of International Programs and Education Abroad for the College of Arts and Sciences and is also an Assistant Professor of Italian Language and Literature in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Kent State University. She received her Ph.D from Yale University in Italian Language and Literature and has taught Italian language, literature, cinema, history and culture in both Florence, Italy and at Kent State. She recently published a chapter entitled A Divine Comedy for All Time: Dante’s Enduring Relevance for the Contemporary Reader in Italian Pop Culture: Media, Product, Imageries. Rome, Italy: Viella Editrice s.r.. Her current research is focused on Dante, Boccaccio, and the modern poet Clemente Rebora.