The University of Notre Dame’s Center for Italian Studies and Devers Program in Dante Studies hosted an international symposium, Global Dante: Translation and Reception, on September 25–26 at the Hesburgh Library. The event marked the 30th anniversary of the Devers Program in Dante Studies and the Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian Literature, bringing together scholars from around the world to examine the global afterlife of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
The two-day symposium began with welcoming remarks from Prof. Margaret Meserve, Interim Edward H. Arnold Dean, Hesburgh Libraries and University of Notre Dame Press and Prof. Theodore J. Cachey Jr., Director of the Center for Italian Studies and the Devers Program in Dante Studies, who situated the gathering within the 30-year history of the Devers Program in Dante Studies. The opening lecture was delivered by Marco Sonzogni (Victoria University of Wellington), “Whose Dante? Time and Place for Timelessness and Placelessness: A Transoceanic Testimony,” which set the tone for the discussions that followed on Dante’s continuing global resonance.
Prof. Sonzogni offered a deeply personal reflection on travel, longing, and human connection, anchored in the story of a book with extraordinary significance: a volume once gifted by Eugenio Montale to Irma Brandeis. Having traced and recovered this copy, Sonzogni arranged for its careful restoration and ultimately presented it to the Hesburgh Library, where it now enriches the Zahm Dante Collection. His talk not only illustrated the material and affective journeys of texts but also symbolically linked Italian and American Dante traditions through an artifact that embodies the very themes of memory and transmission celebrated at the symposium.
The morning continued with a roundtable discussion on American Dantes. Traditions, Translations, Transformations (Eds. Z. G. Barański and T. Cachey, University of Notre Dame Press, 2025), featuring Kathleen Boyle (University of Notre Dame), Dennis Looney (University of Pittsburgh, emeritus), Joseph Rosenberg (University of Notre Dame), Henry Weinfield (University of Notre Dame, emeritus), and Kristina Olson (George Mason University). Chaired by Elizabeth Coggeshall (Florida State University), the lively conversation explored the many ways in which Dante has been interpreted, translated, and appropriated across the American literary and cultural landscape. Discussion topics included what makes Dante a universal poet and the evolving meaning of universality in the modern world.
In the afternoon, Jacob Blakesley (University of Rome, Sapienza) presented the lecture “Dante in Africa,” chaired by Dennis Looney (University of Pittsburgh, MLA, retired) with a response by Kristina Olson (George Mason University). Blakesley’s talk explored the translation and reception of Dante’s Commedia across African contexts, tracing how the poet’s moral and imaginative vision has inspired writers, translators, and readers throughout the continent and contributed to a broader understanding of Dante’s global afterlife.
The day concluded with the first “New Directions” panel, chaired by Vittorio Montemaggi (University of Notre Dame, London / Von Hügel Institute, Cambridge), featuring Rebecca Bowen (University of Notre Dame), Valentina Mele(Marie Curie Fellow, University of Notre Dame / University of Pavia), and Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė (University of Manchester). The session showcased emerging scholarship that reimagines Dante’s influence across time and geography: Bowen examined how Renaissance readers shaped the Commedia for new audiences; Mele investigated the Berkeley Renaissance’s modern reworking of Dante within a Californian avant-garde that included poets Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer; and Kiltinavičiūtė discussed the poet’s translation and reception in 20th- and 21st-century Lithuania. A reception and celebration dinner followed in the Mahaffey Family Presidential Suite, Hesburgh Library.
Friday, September 26, opened with a lecture co-sponsored by the Dante in East Asia Working Group: “Becoming Dante: More on Dante Translation and Reception in China” by Silvano Mo Cheng (Peking University), chaired by Jonathan Noble (Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, University of Notre Dame) with a response by Michel Hockx (Director, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, University of Notre Dame). Drawing on the case of Qian Daosun’s translation of the first five cantos of Inferno, the presentation examined the challenges of rendering the Divine Comedy into Chinese, especially Qian’s ostensibly “ancient style.” The lecture also examined how Qian Daosun’s translation reflects the tension between religious and cultural worlds, seen in his inconsistent renderings of divine terminology and his unusual use of “Nestorian” terms for Christianity. Special focus was given to his poetic treatment of Beatrice, whose description draws on classical Chinese imagery and literary allusion. By viewing Qian’s work as a negotiation between European content and Chinese literary conventions, the lecture raised broader questions about how translation strategies evolve over time, particularly as modern Chinese increasingly favors precision over cultural adaptation.
The morning continued with a session on Dante in East Asia—a presentation and discussion of the forthcoming volume Dante in East Asia (eds. J. Blakesley, A. Brezzi, R. Pepin, C. Sbordoni) chaired by Chiara Sbordoni (University of Notre Dame Rome). Jieon Kim examined parallels between Dante’s poetic language and Korean idiomatic expressions and register; Inha Park traced how translations and classroom teaching have shaped the reception and localization of Dante in postwar South Korea; and Salvatore Riolo explored the global transmission of the Commedia through translations preserved in the Zahm Dante Collection. Together, the presentations illuminated how Dante’s work continues to resonate across East Asia through translation, pedagogy, and cultural adaptation.
In the afternoon, the second “New Directions” panel featured Daragh O’Connell (University College Cork) and Elizabeth Coggeshall (Florida State University), chaired by Theodore J. Cachey Jr. O’Connell’s paper, “‘Duppy Conqueror’: Lorna Goodison’s Jamaican Dante’s Inferno,” examined how the celebrated Jamaican poet reimagines Dante’s Inferno within a Caribbean framework, transforming the Commedia’s moral and spiritual journey into a meditation on postcolonial identity, history, and resilience. Elizabeth Coggeshall, in her presentation “The Commedia as Transmedia Franchise? Dante in Convergence Culture,” explored how Dante’s work continues to thrive in contemporary media through adaptations in film, video games, digital art, and popular culture, illustrating the poem’s enduring capacity for reinvention across platforms and audiences. The symposium concluded with an exhibition tour of “‘What through the universe in leaves is scattered’ (Par. 33, 87): Mapping Global Dante in Translation,” curated in Hesburgh Library by Salvatore Riolo, Inha Park, Giulia Gliozzi, and Peter Scharer which traces Dante’s far-reaching impact through translations and artistic interpretations from around the world.
The Dante Symposium exemplifies the University of Notre Dame’s continuing commitment to Dante studies, highlighting the poet’s enduring influence and the vibrant scholarly networks connecting his works to diverse global contexts.