Maria Rita Manzini

Maria Rita Manzini is a Full Professor at the Department of Letters and Philosophy, University of Florence (since 2000). She previously held academic positions as Associate Professor (1992-2000) and Lecturer (1984-1990) at University College London's Italian Department and Faculty of Letters, later advancing to Reader and Visiting Professor there (1990-1999). Her affiliations span prestigious institutions including MIT, University of Florence, UCL, and collaborations with international universities like Georgetown, Universidade de Brasilia, and University of Leiden.

• 1983 Ph.D. in Linguistics and Philosophy from MIT
• 1979 Diploma from Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa
• 1979 Laurea in Lettere (Italian Literature) from Università di Pisa

Her research focuses on core areas of theoretical linguistics, particularly syntax, morphosyntax, and parametric variation in Romance and Balkan languages. She investigates grammatical categories, case marking, clitic placement, and syntactic structures across diverse linguistic frameworks.

Her recent publications explore topics like DOM datives, middle-passive constructions, and complementizer systems in Romance languages. These works intersect with subfields including generative grammar, linguistic typology, and formal syntax analysis.

• Research Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (1990-1991)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Cognitive Science, UC Irvine (1983-1984)

Manzini has led major Italian PRIN research projects on linguistic categories, recursion, and grammatical features. She served as Editor for Quaderni di Linguistica e Studi Orientali (2015) and held editorial board positions for Rivista di Grammatica Generativa (since 1987) and Language Acquisition (1990-2003). Currently (as of 2012), she directs the Doctoral Programme in Filologie del Medioevo e Rinascimento e Linguistica at the University of Florence.