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.

 Heather Webb (PhD Stanford 2004) is Professor of Italian Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Selwyn College. She is the author of The Medieval Heart (Yale, 2010), Dante’s Persons: An Ethics of the Transhuman (Oxford University Press, 2016), and Dante, Artist of Gesture (Oxford University Press, September 2022). With Zygmunt Baranski, she is editor of Dante’s ‘Vita Nova’: A Collaborative Reading (Notre Dame University Press, December 2023). With George Corbett, she is editor of Vertical Readings in Dante’s Comedy, 3 vols (Open Book Publishers, 2015, 2016, 2017). With Pierpaolo Antonello, she is editor of Mimesis, Desire, and the Novel: René Girard and Literary Criticism (Michigan State Press, 2015). She is Senior Editor of Italian Studies for pre-1700 material.

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