Michael Syrimis

Michael Syrimis is Associate Professor of Italian at Tulane University, where he coordinates Cinema Studies and directs Italian Undergraduate Studies. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago (2003). His research examines Italian cinema-literature interactions during 20th-century cultural shifts, particularly the role of film technology in modernism. His monograph The Great Black Spider on Its Knock-Kneed Tripod (2012) analyzes early literary responses to cinema. Current work explores 1930s Italian film genres under Fascism, Hollywood influence, and sound technology.

Teaching includes Italian neorealism, Pasolini's 'cinema of poetry', and interdisciplinary history-culture courses. Previously lectured at Washington University in St. Louis.