I studied Classics (lettere classiche) at the University of Palermo (BA 1995), Paris VII Jussieu, and the Freie Universität Berlin, and received the PhD in 2000 from the University of Palermo. After several post-doc grants (Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung; University of Pavia; University of Palermo; Fritz Thyssen-Stiftung) I was hired as Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Collaborative Research Center “Transformations of Antiquity” (SFB 644) at the Humboldt University in Berlin (2005-2012) where I had the honor of collaborating with the cultural theorist Hartmut Böhme, whose teaching and work significantly influenced me. In 2005 I was awarded a Frances Yates Fellowship at the Warburg Institute in London, and I was subsequently selected to be a Research Associate at the Italian Academy of Advanced Study at Columbia University in New York (2008-2009). Since 2013 I have been Professor of Latin Literature at Ghent University, where I am also a member of the Sarton Centre of the History of Science. Currently I am the chair of GIKS (Ghent Institute of Classical Studies) and principal investigator of the research project “Coming After: Late Ancient Ecopoetics” (FWO 2022-2026, https://comingafter-ugent.be/).
I specialize in the literature and poetics of late antiquity; ecocritical approaches to ancient texts; Greek and Latin literatures of knowledge (art of war, architecture, medicine etc.); acts and passions of the early Christian martyrs; the Panegyrici Latini; masochism in ancient and modern literature. I have recently also published on Ovid, especially his Metamorphoses and its receptions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Lucian of Samosata and Euripides' Hippolytus. In general, I read literary works with attention to textuality itself as a vehicle for meanings that may not be immediately visible, making use of hermeneutical tools such as allegory and macrotextuality. My current book project is “The Nomadic Alternative. Motion, Borders and Environment in Ancient and Modern Texts”.
I am the editor of the book series “The Library of the Other Antiquity” (Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg) and in recent years I have launched with the publisher Bloomsbury in London the book series “sera tela. Studies in late antique literature and its reception” (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/sera-tela-studies-in-late-antique-literature-and-its-reception/). I am the editor of the section “Titubanti Testi” in the A1-journal ClassicoContemporaneo, of which I am also a member of the editorial board (https://www.classicocontemporaneo.eu/index.php).
I greatly enjoy organizing events that reach out to a broader audience. As Chair of GIKS and Coordinator of the Latin section of the Department of Literary Studies, I have organized various round tables (both virtual and in presence) on a range of topics related to Classics, for instance on “Encountering Environments: Classics and Ecocriticism”. In 2020 I launched a series of on-line dialogues around ancient and modern texts called “Titubanti Testi. Binomio di lettura,” which continues to offer a platform for discussion for scholars and persons working outside of academia around the world (https://titubantitesti.wordpress.com/2024/02/03/titubanti-testi/). I am a senior member of OIKOS (National Research School in Classical Studies) and a member of SBEC (Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos)
I lecture in English, Dutch, German, French, Portuguese and Italian.
