Ricardo Andrés Belisario

Ricardo Belisario is a PhD student in the Italian Department at Columbia University. He received his BA in Philosophy cum laude from the University of Florida with minors in Italian and German. Subsequently, he received his MA in Italian Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. His master’s thesis L’empatia di Primo Levi: verso una nuova fenomenologia della vergogna investigated the ontological bases of survivors’ shame in the Holocaust by examining Primo Levi’s texts through the phenomenological lenses of Heidegger, Scheler, Agamben, and Lévinas.

At the University of Pittsburgh, Ricardo taught Elementary Italian I and II and worked as a Research Assistant for the Footprints project, a database to track the circulation of printed “Jewish books.” In addition, he worked as a translator, surtitler, and accessibility professional for the 2022 Macerata Opera Festival in Italy. Later, he worked as teaching staff in the Master of Arts in Accessibility to Media, Arts and Culture (AMAC) at the University of Macerata.

Ricardo’s interdisciplinary research explores the nexus between 20th-century Italian literature, continental philosophy, and critical theory. His main interests are Holocaust representations, fascism, neorealism, ontology, and phenomenology. His research languages include Italian, German, English, and Spanish.

In 2023, Ricardo received his TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate with teaching practice in Leipzig, Germany. He has also taught Spanish in high school and worked in exceptional student education.