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Dante and the Christian Imagination
An International Conference at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto
Friday, March 9
Fr Robert Madden Hall, Carr Hall | 100 St. Joseph St.
8:45 Coffee
9:00 Opening Remarks
9:15- 10:45 First Session
1. Victoria Goddard, University of King’s College
The Consolation in the Comedy: Dante’s Reading of Boethius
2. Joseph Goering, University of St. Michael’s College
Boethius and the Love that Moves the Sun and the other Stars
3. Giulio Silano, University of St. Michael’s College
The Education of Virgil
11:00- 12:30 Second Session
1. Dominic Manganiello, University of Ottawa
The Epiphany of the Face: Visions of Love in Dante and C.S. Lewis
2. Stephen Tardif, Harvard University,
Impious Allusions: Paradoxes of Piety in Dante and Joyce
3. Martina Kolb, Pennsylvania State University
The Cloud of Knowing: Bertolt Brecht’s Intimations of Dante’s Love
12:30- 1:30 Lunch Break
1:30- 3:00 Third Session
1. Regina Coupar, Regis College
To Hell and Back: My Summer with Dante
2. Alfred R. Crudale, University of Connecticut
Beatrice: Dante’s Link between Erotic Passion and Divine Grace
3. Maria Clara Iglesias, Yale University
Iustitia caritatis: Virtue Ethics in Monarchia and Paradiso
3:15 Greetings
His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, SSL, STD, DD and Chancellor of the University of St Michael’s College
3:45 - 4:45 Keynote Address
Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University
The Divine Comedy: The Poetry of Prayer
5:30- 6:15
Daniel Donovan, University of St. Michael’s College
The Donovan Collection: Tour and Commentary
6:30- 7:30
St. Basil’s Church
Michael O’Connor, University of St. Michael’s College
Schola Cantorum
Songs of Penance and Renewal: Liturgical Chant in Purgatorio
Saturday, March 10
Charbonnel Lounge, 81 St. Mary’s St.
9:00 Coffee
9:15 - 10:45 | First Session
1. Sarah Rolfe Prodan, University of Toronto
Michelangelo, Dante and the Augustinian Intellectual Tradition
2. Carol Chiodo, Yale University
Circuir la Vigna in the Catholic Garden
3. Alessandro Vettori, Rutgers University
Saint Bonaventure and Dante’s Prayer of Ascent
11:00- 12:30 Second Session
1. Suzanne Conklin Akbari, University of Toronto
The Form of Heaven: Dante’s Islamic Paradise
4. Brenda Deen Schildgen, University of California at Davis
Christian Poetics: Dante, Prophecy, and the Urgency of Time
5. Fortunato Trione, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies
The Poetics of Affectus: Religious Aesthetics in the Divine Comedy
12:45 - 1:45 Lunch Break
2: 30 - 4:00 Third Session
1. Erminia Ardissino, University of Torino
Liturgy in Dante and in his Time: Some Considerations on Durand’s
Rationale Divinorum Officiorum and the Commedia
2. Jonathan Juilfs, Reedemer University College
Dante’s Trasumanar: The Poetics of Transformation and Apotheosis in the
Commedia
3. Toby Levers, Yale University
The ‘Literal’ in Dante and the Christian Imagination
4:15- 5:45 Fourth Session
1. Leon Jacobowitz Efron, Achva College of Ben Gurion University in Israel
Rabbi Moses of Rieti and Dante in Italian Jewish Liturgy
2. Catherine Adoyo, Harvard University
Come iri da iri parea riflesso e ‘l terzo parea fuoco: The Trinity in Dante’s
Commedia
3. Giulia Cardillo, Yale University
Veder dinanzi: Prophecy and Divination in the Commedia
Sunday, March 11
Charbonnel Lounge, 81 St. Mary’s Street
9:00 Coffee
9:15- 11:15 First Session
1. D.M.R. Bentley, University of Western Ontario
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Painting of Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante
2. Robert Di Pede, Independent Scholar
The Concept of Trust in the Age of Dante
3. James Miller, University of Western Ontario
Engineering Paradise: Dante’s Invention of the Thought-Mill
4. Mirko Tavoni, University of Pisa
Dante ‘Imagining’ His Journey Through the Afterlife
11:30- 1:15 Second Session
1. Eleonora Buoncore, Yale University
Nec mireris, lector, de tot reductis autoribus ad memoriam: The Poetic Value of Memory in Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia
2. Laurence Hooper, University of Chicago
Quia preterire non possumus quin transeamus […] percurremus: The De
vulgari eloquentia as peregrination
3. Griffin Oleynick, Yale University
Words and Deeds: Franciscan Literature in the Heaven of the Sun
4. Dennis McAuliffe, Bryn Mawr College
Dante and the Mystical Tradition
1:15 - 2:15 Lunch Break
2: 15- 3:00 Closing Address
Antonio Rossini, University of Windsor
The Body of Sybilla and ‘Ice-Man’ St. Paul: Author’s Anxiety or Deification?
3:00 Roundtable Discussion
“Curriculum Implications of the Conference”
Reid Locklin, Christianity and Culture Program, St. Michael’s College
Jenna Sunkenberg, Cornerstone Program in Social Justice, St. Michael’s College
Alexander Andrée, Medieval Studies Program, St. Michael’s College
3:45 Closing Remarks
Domenico Pietropaolo
, SMC Principal from 2002 to 2011, is the 2012 recipient of the Catholic Principals Council of Ontario’s Father John Redmond Award, for outstanding contributions to Catholic education. 