I received my B.A. in Italian and French from McGill University in Montréal in 2008. In 2009 I obtained an M.A. in Italian from the University of Pennsylvania, and I am currently working towards the completion of my Ph.D. My research interests include medieval popular culture, Italian historiography, and representations of sexual violence in literature and cinema. My dissertation, entitled “The Genealogy of the Body Politic in Brunetto Latini, Dante, and Boccaccio,” explores the social, political, economic, and literary history of Florence by analyzing the legend of Florence’s origins, particularly in its function as political propaganda.