Mario Sassi

Photo of Mario Sassi

Visiting Assistant Professor of Romance Languages

[email protected]
413-597-2623
Hollander Hall Rm 155
At Williams since 2023

Schedule a meeting with Prof. Sassi here: https://calendly.com/marsassi/officehour

Education

M.A. University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania

Areas of Expertise

Medieval Studies, Preaching, Italian literature, Medievalism, Dante

Courses

RLIT 101(F) SEM

Elementary Italian

RLIT 102(S) SEM

Elementary Italian

RLIT 105(F) SEM

Pathway to Proficiency

COMP 221(S) SEM

Dante and the Medieval World

Scholarship/Creative Work

Co-Edited Book

Elisabetta Appetecchi, Maurizio Campanelli, Cristina Di Bari, Achille Giacopini e Mario Sassi, eds. I testi statutari del Commune d’Arcadia. Rome: Accademia dell’Arcadia, 2021.

Articles

Mario Sassi, “Vernacular Religious Miscellanies of Exempla: The Case of UPenn Ms. Codex 331,” Manuscript Studies 8, no. 1 (2023): 1–23.
Mario Sassi, “Strategies of Interpretation in French and Italian Exempla,” Medieval Sermon Studies 66 (2022): 3–19.
Mario Sassi, “The Language of a Preacher: Cavalca, Passavanti, and the First Steps toward a National Vernacular,” Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa 58, no. 1 (2022): 27–49.

Mario Sassi obtained his Ph.D. in Italian at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught both language and culture—with particular attention given to Dante’s Divine Comedy. He also taught for DePauw University’s summer study abroad program in Grado, Italy. His research focuses on Medieval storytelling and popular narratives, considering the role of the supernatural in religious and literary works (exempla and novelle). He is interested in the interactions between language and creativity, publishing on medieval Italian language and manuscripts. Additionally, he studies medievalism in contemporary pop culture, including in videogames and TV shows.