Third-Year PhD Student
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Italian Early Modern Literature, Mysticism, Sound Studies, Lyricism, Material Culture
Sean Widlake is a third-year PhD student in the Italian Department at Rutgers University focusing on Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque literatures, with a particular emphasis on the poetry of Dante and Marino, amongst others. He previously obtained a BA (cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts Boston in History, and an MA from the University of Washington in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. His prior academic work has focused on the histories, languages, and literatures of the Middle East, with an emphasis on Iran. Expanding on his prior research, Sean is currently investigating themes of mysticism, material culture, music, and lyricism in the Italian early modern period. He is also more broadly interested in translation, sound studies, and acousmatic readings of texts.
CONFERENCES
Recent Conference Presentations and Invited Talks
- "Learning Italian Through Music," Guest Lecture for Diction for Performance Majors, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, April 22, 2026.
- "Hearing the Angel’s Song: The Paradiso and Dante’s Yearning to Remember," Princeton Medieval Graduate Conference, Princeton University, March 28, 2026.
- "Echo and the Sonic Body in Giambattista Marino’s Galeria," Renaissance Society of America, San Francisco, CA, February 19, 2026.
- Panel Chair: Second Panel on ‘Dante and Money.’ Dante Society of America Annual Symposium, New York University, NY – April 11, 2025
- "Waltzing Matelda: Penance, Redemption, and Dance in Dante’s Purgatorio," Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA), Philadelphia, PA, March 8, 2025.
- "Waltzing Matelda: Penance, Redemption, and Dance in Dante’s Purgatorio," Inter-University Doctoral Consortium Medieval Studies Conference, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, April 19, 2024.