Maggie Fritz-Morkin

Maggie Fritz-Morkin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Italian at the University of North Carolina. Her research focuses on 13th-14th century Italian literature, particularly examining topics like medieval rhetoric, visceral speech, debt theories, urban studies, and medical rhetoric. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Bowdoin College.

Her work spans interdisciplinary analyses of medieval texts, including Dante’s Divine Comedy, Boccaccio’s Decameron, and Petrarch’s poetry. She explores how medieval authors navigated themes of obscenity, legal frameworks, and medical knowledge through literary devices. Her recent publications address medical poetry, gender representation in legal contexts, and the rhetorical strategies in theological works.

Professor Fritz-Morkin teaches courses on Dante, early modern Italian women writers, medieval fraud narratives, and the cultural history of contagion. She currently accepts graduate students and has contributed to edited volumes on Boccaccio and Dante’s philosophical influences. Her research emphasizes textual close-reading combined with historical contextualization, revealing how medieval literature engaged with contemporary societal issues.

Her academic contributions include co-editing International Boccaccio/ Boccaccio Internazionale (forthcoming) and analyzing medieval medical texts’ intersections with poetic form. Despite no listed awards, her work demonstrates sustained scholarly impact in medieval Italian studies.