Dante’s Paradiso is the least studied and the least understood of the three parts of the Commedia. Yet it is arguably the most important for the dynamism and originality of the literary, theological, and philosophical inquiries that take place there. It is also a singularly important interpretive guide for a full understanding of the entire Commedia. It is a poem that asks to be tackled by a community of engaged readers: here it’s your opportunity! This year-long series of webinar workshops led by world-renowned scholars will take you on a deep reading of the Paradiso and an unforgettable journey to the heart of Dante’s universe. This virtual series will reward both first-time and expert readers of the Commedia with an opportunity to delve deep into one of the most complex and daring speculative poems ever written. We’ll be meeting online almost every other week from October to May. See the Project Paradiso page for full schedule.

Episode Two – The Structure of Dante’s Paradiso: or How to Tell a Story beyond Time, Space, and Individuality featuring:

Alejandro Cuadrado is a Lecturer in the Department of Italian Studies. He received his PhD in Italian and Comparative Literature from Columbia University in 2023, where he was also a Core Preceptor and Provost Diversity Fellow. He has an undergraduate degree in French & Italian from Princeton University. His research focuses on medieval Italian literature at the intersection of history and religion. He is currently writing his first book, Dante, Historian of Religious Institutions, which argues that Dante embeds parallel histories of the papacy, monasticism, and the mendicant fraternal orders into the Commedia. His other research has considered medieval exemplarity, travel and pilgrimage narratives, Boccaccio, Petrarch, lyric poetry, Mediterranean Studies, and Cervantes. With Akash Kumar, he is the co-editor of the Dante Simile Project, which brings together a wide range of scholars to historicize and contextualize Dante’s narrative similes. He is an Assistant Editor of Digital Dante, an online resource dedicated to original research and ideas on Dante, including Teodolinda Barolini’s commentary to the Divine Comedy.

Presented by the Humanities Institute and the Department of Literature Italian Studies. Sponsored by the University of California Humanities Research Institute, Siegfried and Elizabeth Mignon Puknat Literary Studies Endowment, and Porter College