Jilian Anne Pizzi

Jilian Pizzi is a Ph.D. candidate in Columbia’s Department of Italian and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. Jilian received her B.A. in Italian summa cum laude and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College. As an undergraduate she received the William Pepperell Montague Prize in philosophy and the Bettina Buonocore Salvo Prize for excellence in Italian. She received her M.A. in Italian and M.Phil. in Italian and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She studies medieval history and religion with the goal of historicizing the works of Dante. Her dissertation focuses on Dante’s treatment of Jews and Judaism in the Divina Commedia. 

She is a current Preceptor in the Core Curriculum, teaching Literature Humanities. She has taught Elementary and Intermediate Italian and has also served as teaching assistant for Professor Teodolinda Barolini’s “Dante’s Divina Commedia 2.” She has also served as Lead Teaching Fellow for the Italian Department for the 2022-2023 academic year and served as Senior Lead Teaching Fellow for the 2023-2024 academic year. She serves as the rapporteur for the Medieval Studies Seminar (2022-present).

As a graduate student, she has presented her paper, "The Deicide Charge and the Absence of Contemporary Jews in Dante's Commedia," at the 2024 convention of the Renaissance Society of America and "Raab in Paradiso IX: Cananea, Meretrice, e la Stella più Luminosa del Cielo di Venere" at the Congresso Dantesco Internazionale held by the University of Bologna in Ravenna. She also organized Columbia University’s Italian conversation group from 2021-2022 and is a member of the Dante Society of America, the Renaissance Society of America, and the Medieval Academy.