Valerio Cappozzo

Valerio Cappozzo is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi, where he directs the Italian Language Program. He holds editorial leadership roles as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Annali d’Italianistica and serves as President of the Associazione Amici di Leonardo Sciascia and Vice President of the American Boccaccio Association. His academic affiliations include executive committee memberships in the MLA Forum on Medieval and Renaissance Italian and the Fondazione Giorgio Bassani.

Education includes an M.A. in Literature (2007) and Ph.D. in Italian (2012) from Indiana University-Bloomington. Research focuses on Medieval Italian literature, manuscript studies, dream interpretation (Somniale Danielis), and modern/contemporary Italian poetry, with emphasis on Giorgio Bassani, Dante, Boccaccio, and Carlo Michelstaedter.

His publications explore cross-cultural literary exchanges, symbolic dream analysis, and poetic hermeneutics. Recent works examine Islamic influences on Dante, Bassani’s transatlantic journeys, and Sciascia’s political correspondence. Articles frequently intersect with themes of exile, memory, and interdisciplinary medieval-modern dialogues.

Awards include the 2018 Random Acts of Kindness Teaching Award (University of Mississippi), Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah Research Grant (Kuwait, 2012/2014), and the Andrea McRobbie Research Award (2009). He has led international collaborations, including digital projects on Boccaccio and conferences on Dante’s global legacy.