Anna Wainwright (Ph.D., New York University) is Associate Professor of Italian Studies and Core Faculty in Women's and Gender Studies. Her research considers gender, race, politics, and emotion in medieval and early modern Italy. Her first book, “Widow City: Gender, Emotion, and Community in Medieval and Renaissance Italy” (forthcoming, University of Delaware Press, 2025) investigates the cultural and political significance of widowhood from Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio to the women poets of the Counter-Reformation; her publications include articles in The Italianist, Religions, and Spenser Studies. She is the translator of Leonora Bernardi’s pastoral tragicomedy "Clorilli", (University College London Press, 2023) and co-editor of the volumes "Innovation in the Italian Counter-Reformation" (Delaware, 2020), "Teaching Race in the European Renaissance: A Classroom Guide" (ACMRS, 2023), and "The Legacy of Birgitta of Sweden: Women, Politics and Reform in Renaissance Italy" (Brill, 2023). Her research has been supported by awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Research Council of Norway, the Renaissance Society of America, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. She is a delegate to the MLA Assembly and chair of the Bibliography Committee for the Dante Society of America, and is on the editorial board of the journal Dante Studies.
