EAST LANSING, Mich. - Christopher Celenza, an assistant professor of history at MSU, recently had to make a difficult decision, a decision most professors with aspirations to engage in overseas research would love to make.
Celenza was awarded two prestigious one-year fellowships; a Bundeskanzler Humboldt Stipendium (the "Chancellor's Humboldt Fellowship" from Germany) and a fellowship from the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti. After a lengthy decision-making process, Celenza chose the Harvard award.
Celenza, who leaves for the Harvard Center in Florence on Sept. 1, will be working on the project "An Archaeology of Wisdom: The Pre-Socratic Heritage and the Search for Ancient Wisdom in Early Modern Europe." The project will explore the way Renaissance thinkers approached the earliest history of human thought in philosophical, historical and religious contexts.
"The Harvard Center will be the perfect place to bring this project to fruition," said Celenza. "This is something I have been thinking about and working on for quite some time and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of the Villa I Tatti community."
Harvard's Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti is committed to advanced study of the Italian Renaissance in all its aspects: the history of art; political, economic and social history; the history of science, philosophy and religion; and the history of literature and music.
"We are fortunate to have someone of Christopher Celenza's outstanding abilities here at MSU, " said Henry Silverman, chairperson of the Department of History at MSU. "This prestigious fellowship is a wonderful way to have his talents recognized."
Celenza is one of 12 to 15 post-doctoral scholars who were nominated to become I Tatti Fellows by an international selection committee. In addition, I Tatti's scholarly community includes 15 research associates from the Italian academic world, a number of visiting scholars and visiting professors invited for varying lengths of time, and the director. The members of the academic community come from institutions from around the world.
I Tatti fellows, such as Celenza, represent a wide variety of interests and methods within the broad area of Renaissance studies. Once there, Celenza will have the opportunity for independent study and research both at the Biblioteca Berenson and in other libraries, archives and collections in Florence and throughout Italy.