News - April 18, 2008

SU Florence announces finalists in the Academic Excellence Award

SU Florence has announced the eleven recipients of this semester’s Academic Excellence Award, in the categories of Outstanding Students—for the Volunteer Program and the Internship Program—and the prestigious Coluccio Salutati Award.

The Outstanding Students from the Volunteer program are:
Annemarie Finlan, Syracuse University
Amanda Kanekuni, Syracuse University
Nicole Stanek, Syracuse University

The Outstanding Students from the Internship program are:
Simona Capisani, University of San Diego
Chelsea Kelly, Vassar College
Marissa Lorenzetti, Syracuse University

The Coluccio Salutati Award honors students with high academic achievement and engagement with the Italian culture. This is the highest recognition SU Florence can bestow upon its students. Says Prof. Matteo Duni, coordinator of the Coluccio Salutati Award, “This semester saw more nominations of students by professors, and more essay submissions, than on any other year I have served on the committee. We honestly had a difficult time narrowing the choice down to five, there were so many strong essays.”

SUF professors nominated forty-eight students and thirty-three of these students subsequently submitted an essay. Congratulations to:
Ryan Doyle, Syracuse University, We Shall Not Cease
Alyssa Gjedsted, USC, The Lessons of Looking Up
Gwen Purdom, Lehigh University, Teach My Dog Italian
Laura Santel, Tufts University, Brunelleschi at the Gift Shop
Burak Unel, Syracuse University, A Surplus of Adjectives

These students will be honored in an award ceremony during the Student Day celebration on Thursday, April 24.

Poetic justice for Michelangelo

SU Florence announces the upcoming publication of Michelangelo’s Songbook, fifth in "The Villa Rossa Series: Intercultural Perspectives on Italy and Europe.”

While Michelangelo’s poetry has been previously published, this will be the first volume in English to include only those poems selected in the 1540s by Michelangelo himself, together with two of his friends. When one of them died, the project came to an end. This “songbook,” if completed, would have stood out not only for its quality but also as the first book of poems produced by any artist in Italy, ancient or modern. Introduced by Jonathan Nelson, Coordinator of the Art History department at SUF, it will be a testament to Michelangelo’s skill and ambition, as well as a self-portrait of the artist.

The volume will be presented in October 2008 in conjunction with an exhibit dedicated to the artist at the SUArt Galleries in Syracuse (organized by the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy, in association with Syracuse University), as well as a Michelangelo conference to be held at Syracuse University in New York (http://michelangelo.syr.edu/). The conference will see the participation of the leading Michelangelo scholars in the world, including many faculty members from SU Florence.

SUF Director Barbara Deimling says “I am proud to publish and present this volume to the public in connection with a prestigious series of events around Michelangelo on the home campus. It highlights SUF’s connection to Florence, the city that Michelangelo felt so very connected to.”