Stefano Rapisarda

Stefano Rapisarda is a Full Professor of Romance Philology and Linguistics at the Department of Humanities, University of Catania. He has held academic positions since 2002, progressing from Researcher to Associate Professor (2018) and Full Professor (2021). He is President of the Master's Degree in "Linguistic Sciences for Education and Interculturality" at the Special Teaching Structure of Ragusa and serves on multiple university commissions. He has been delegated to lead the Special Educational Structure of Ragusa and represents the University of Catania on the Board of Directors of the Ibleo University Consortium.

His research focuses on three interrelated areas: the philology of medical-scientific and magical-divinatory texts; intercultural contacts in the Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period; and the intersections between philology, history, politics, and ideology. He has conducted extensive textual editions of medieval works, including the Thesaurus pauperum, Nicole Oresme’s Contre la divination, and various chiromantic and scapulomantic texts. His work emphasizes material manifestations of interculturality such as bilingual glossaries, multilingual inscriptions, and codices with mixed scripts.

The 15 most recent publications highlight a sustained engagement with medieval divination, philology in wartime, intercultural textual practices, and the political dimensions of language and scholarship. Key themes include prognostication, textual criticism, linguistic hybridity, and the role of intellectuals during periods of conflict. His recent books examine the global history of the Spanish language and the ideological uses of philology in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Scientific Awards and Honors:

• Candidate for the 'Premio Prezzolini per la Traduzione Letteraria'
• Qualified under the Fulbright Program for teaching at Northwestern University (2011)

Advising and Grants: While no specific students are listed, Rapisarda has been a member of doctoral committees at the University of Macerata and the University of Catania. He has served as Principal Investigator on multiple funded research projects, including 'Scholars in Arms' (€15,500), 'Transnational Intellectual Networks' (€22,500), and 'Scholarship in Wartimes' (€30,000), managing over €70,000 in institutional funding. He has contributed to major national research initiatives (PRIN) and international collaborations, including a HERA-funded proposal on academics in wartime.

Labs and Research Groups: He directs the 'Professori in Guerra' Digital Library, an archive of autobiographies and militant texts by scholars. He co-directs the 'Divinatoria' book series with Classiques Garnier and has organized international workshops on divination. He is a founding member and treasurer of the International Society for the Critical Study of Divination and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Divination and Prognostication.