Theodore Cachey Jr.

Theodore J. Cachey Jr. is the Fabiano Collegiate Professor of Italian and Inaugural Pizzo Family Chair in Dante Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He serves as Ravarino Family Director of the Center for Italian Studies and the Devers Family Program in Dante Studies. His expertise lies in Medieval and Renaissance Italian literature, with a focus on Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, alongside the history of the Italian language and travel literature.

Education: Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); B.A., Northwestern University.

Research Interests: Closely tied to Dante’s works and their reception, cartographic writing, the intersection of literature and geography, and the cultural history of travel. His publications include Dante’s ‘Other Works.’ Assessments and Interpretations (2022), Petrarch’s Guide to the Holy Land (2002), and numerous articles in journals such as Dante Studies and Annali d'Italianistica.

Publications Highlight: Recent scholarship explores Dante’s topographical imagination (Mappe e strutture topografiche dell’ Inferno dantesco, 2022) and Petrarch’s spatial poetics (Geografie della scrittura, 2024). His edited volumes, including works in the William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante Studies, underscore his role in shaping contemporary Dante studies.

Leadership: Directs interdisciplinary initiatives at the Center for Italian Studies and contributes to editorial projects, such as Le Tre Corone, a journal on Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.