Abstract: In this talk I will begin with a brief review of ground covered in Freedom Readers, specifically of those African American authors from the 19th century to more recent times who amplified Dante’s voice that speaks truth to power, before examining several white authors from the South over the same period who read Dante in the context of the “peculiar American institution,” slavery, and who paid attention to the ongoing problems that derive from it, racism and segregation and systemic inequality.

Bio: Dennis Looney served as director of the Office of Programs and director of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages at the Modern Language Association from 2014-2021. From 1986 to 2013, he taught Italian at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary appointments in Classics and Philosophy. He was chair of the Department of French and Italian for eleven years and assistant dean of humanities for three years at Pitt. In 2022, he received the James E. Alatis Founder’s Award from the Joint National Committee for Languages for “a lifetime of exceptional contributions to advancing language and international education” and the ACTFL Wilga Rivers Award for Leadership in World Language Education. Publications include Compromising the Classics: Romance Epic Narrative in the Italian Renaissance (Wayne State UP, 1996), which received honorable mention, MLA Marraro-Scaglione Award in Italian Literary Studies, 1996-97; and Freedom Readers: The African American Reception of Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy (U Notre Dame P, 2011), which received the American Association of Italian Studies Book Prize (general category) in 2011. He co-edited and co-translated Ludovico Ariosto’s Latin Poetry (Harvard UP, 2018) with D. Mark Possanza.