Here at the Italy Center, we are very lucky to have some of the best faculty and administration members in the area. Here is a brief look at our staff at the Italy Center:

Dr. Todd  Waller (Director)

Prior to taking on the Director’s role at the Spring Hill College Italy Center, he  was the Dean of Students at the John Felice Loyola Rome Center.  Dr. Waller is the former Director of the Center for Democratic Studies and Constitutional Development (CCSDD) at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center. From 2001 to 2005, he directed the Balkan based Youth Organizing Institute, which focused on conflict resolution programs for college students attending from across the Balkans. He has taught service learning courses and coordinated international service projects at a number of universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, University of Denver, Regis University, and Fordham University.  He has directed two documentary films in Bosnia Herzegovina.  His doctoral dissertation is from the University of London’s Institute of Education titled: Mother Teresa wore Birkenstocks: an analysis of self and spiritual growth from former volunteers who walked in the shoes of the Missionaries of Charity.

Vittorio Buffatti (Assistant Director and Adjunct Professor for Community Based Resarch)

As the Assistant Director of the Italy Center, Professor Buffatti overseas internships, service learning, undergraduate research and community based research projects in collaboration with a broad spectrum of community agencies. He is a practitioner and researcher  having worked for numerous human rights causes across Italy and the Balkans.  He currently is conducting research for Amici dei Bambini which is the largest non-profit organization in Italy addressing the needs of children. He holds two master’s degrees; one in Political Science (interdisciplinary with Law) from the University of Bologna and another in Business and Non-Profit Management from the Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. He has overseen the operations of youth and legal projects in the Balkans while working for the Johns Hopkin’s University Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development.  He served for four years as a tutor and director of student affairs for the Bologna based Loyola University (California) International  Law Program.

Riccardo Guidetti (Director, Alma Mater Residence Hall)

Dr. Guidetti has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Bolonga.  He overseas all day-to-day operations of the Alma Mater Campus where the Spring Hill Italy Center  is based.  He directs the annual  Alma Mater and CEUR Foundation Conference based on a pressing social or political theme which then results in a yearly book that Dr. Guidetti edits.  He currently is project director for a new residence hall and conference facility which will house 280 students and will be completed in the Summer of 2013.  Prior to taking on the role as Director of the Alma Mater Residence Hall, he instructed philosophy courses at the prominent Mingetti Liceo High School in Bologna. Guidetti manages a staff of ten Alma Mater employees who keep the residence hall running.  He has a passion for American Football (not soccer) and played semi-professional football in Italy as a younger man.  He is employed by the Milan based CEUR Foundation.

Greta Rossi (Student Life Assistant)

Ms. Rossi graduated in 2011 from London’s Hult International Business School.  She attended high School at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.  Greta was born near Bologna in the town of Medicina.  She has served as a translator for Amnesty International and was the President of Hult’s OXFAM Association.  She has a deep commitment to human rights causes and is currently directing the Youth and Human Rights project in area school with the support of the Bologna Human Rights Film Festival.

Faculty

Andrea Betti (Political Science)

Professor Betti will soon defend his PhD dissertation titled: Legitimate and Contested:

The Impact of International Norms on Great Powers.  His areas of academic interests include theory of international relations with a particular focus on the study of international norms, humanitarian intervention, international criminal responsibility, human rights enforcement, and domestic determinants of foreign policy. Dr. Betti  has published five articles in the past three years.

As a doctoral student at the University of Trento, he has been awarded numerous research fellowships.  As a result, he has conducted graduate research at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and at the University of Westminster England. He recently returned from the prestigious University of California’s Washington DC International Studies Institute.

Elisabetta Cunsolo (Art History)

Dr. Cunsolo acquired her PhD in the History of Art from University of Bologna in 2004. Her dissertation was titled: Between Reality and Imagination, 17^th Century medical and anatomical art illustration. Dr. Cunsolo is currently the Assistant Curator at the Photography Library at Villa I Tatti which is the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. She has published thirteen articles and one book in addition to her co-curating numerous art exhibits in Bologna, Trento and Piacenza. She has instructed art history courses for the University of Bologna and the Dickenson College art and humanities programs.

Lorenza Fabretti (Italian Language)

Prior to instructing Italian at the Spring Hill College Italy Center, Professor Fabretti taught Italian language courses at the Gregorian Pontifical University of Rome.  From 2004 to 2010, Dr. Fabretti instructed English to immigrants for the Jesuit Refugee Services in Rome.  She is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Instruction and Promotion of Italian Language and Culture for Foreigners at the University of Venice. She completed her first Master’s Degree in International Studies at the University of Bologna in 2001 and her Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and Anthropology from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1995. Prior to returning to Italy in 2000, she worked for the International Commission for Missing Person’s in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina assisting women from all three sides of war. Ms. Fabretti speaks Italian, English, Spanish, and entry level French and Bosnian (Serbo-Croat).

Lee Foust (Italian Literature)

Dr.  Foust first came to Italy as an undergraduate student in 1980.  He acquired his PhD at New York University in the Comparative Literature department where he focused on Italian and English medieval literature.   While living in New York he co-edited the literary magazine Resister—which published excerpts from his novel In Between. His prose poems and creative fiction has appeared in The Village Voice, The Spin Alternative Music Guide, and Sojourner Magazine.  Dr. Foust has taught or currently teaches Renaissance and Modern Italian literature and Creative Writing at Studio Art Centers International; Italian Literature, Dante, Creative Writing and various comparative topics for California State University; Epic Poetry, Boccaccio and Chaucer, Studies in Fiction and The Modern European Novel for Gonzaga University, all three in Florence Italy. He has also taught Italian Literature (modern and pre-modern) and Dante for Richmond College in Florence and the International Studies Institute at Palazza Rucellai as well as a Great Books course at New York University’s Villa La Pietra, also in Florence.

Sergio Gilotta (International Business)

Sergio Gilotta recently acquired his PhD in Corporate Law at the University of Bologna. In 2008, Dr. Gilotta completed  a Master’s of Law Degree (L.L.M) in Corporate Law and Governance from the Harvard Law School . He is a practicing lawyer.  Professor Gilotta has published an annual article the Giursprudenza Commeciale (Commercial Law) since 2007.

Mili Romano (Italian Language)

Dr.Romano holds a doctorate degree in Foreign Languages and Literature from the University of Florence which she acquired in 1977.  Since 1986, she has been a professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bologna.  Simultaneously, Dr. Romano has been instructing Italian language courses since 1977.  For 30+ years she has been a key member of the language instruction team at the Johns Hopkins Graduate School for International Studies in Bologna. Her Italian teaching career also includes instructing courses at Brown University and Dickenson College in Bologna.  She has authored numerous articles in academic journals and newspapers on foreign literature, contemporary art, urban anthropology, cinema and urban studies. Her interdisciplinary career includes curating numerous art exhibits in Bologna and throughout the Emilia Romagna region.  In addition to her mother tongue of Italian, Dr. Romano speaks English, French and Russian.

Caterina Zanfi (Philosophy)

Dr. Zanfi received her PhD in Philosophy from the Universty of Bologna in 2008. Her thesis was recently published by Bononia University press into a book titled: Bergson, la tecnica e la guerra. Dr. Zanfi’s interdisciplinary work integrates philosophy, anthropology, religious studies and art. She has conducrted research at a number of institutes in Germany and France in addition to having worked for the United Nations – UNESCO Italian Commission for Culture, Education and World Heritage.  She recently appeared on French television in a number of episodes dedicated to the theme of Technology broadcast on the ARTE channel.