Rebecca Bowen

Dr. Rebecca Bowen is an AHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut. She holds a PhD from Oxford (2020) and has been a Lecturer in Italian literature at Pembroke College since 2017, specializing in Dante and medieval lyric poetry. Her research bridges visual, literary, and material culture in late medieval and early modern Italy, with focuses on classical reception, Text/Image Studies, and the iconography of love. She curated exhibitions like Looking for Dante (2024) and led a TORCH project on Dante's Commedia. Her work has been recognized with the Society for Italian Studies Postgraduate Prize.

Education: PhD in Italian Studies, University of Oxford (2020); earlier degrees not specified.

Research Interests: Dr. Bowen’s interdisciplinary work examines how textual and visual media intersect, particularly in Dante’s oeuvre. She explores how medieval and Renaissance artists and writers reinterpreted classical myths (e.g., Leander and Hero) and how these narratives shaped literary and artistic traditions. Her studies of early printed books illuminate the materiality of texts and their cultural reception.

Exhibitions:

• ‘Looking for Dante: Exploring the Divine Comedy in Print’ (Taylor Institute, 2024)
• ‘In the Margins’ (Taylor Institute Rare Book Display, 2018)
• ‘Dante and Somerville’ (Special Collections, 2018)

Awards:

• Society for Italian Studies Postgraduate Prize (2020)

Grants & Projects: Directed a 2023–2024 TORCH Knowledge Exchange project linking Dante manuscripts with modern printmaking. Collaborated with artist Wuon-Gean Ho to produce new artworks inspired by Dante’s Commedia.

Labs/Teams: Associated with the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz’s Dante Depicted project (DOI: 10.17617/1.97) and the University of Oxford’s Taylor Institution Library initiatives.