This Spring quarter, we are pleased to introduce Professor Diego Pirillo as the 2025 Charles Speroni Endowed Chair in Medieval Renaissance Literature and Culture. This endowed visiting position honors exceptional faculty in medieval and Renaissance Italian studies.
Pirillo is a Professor and Chair of Italian Studies at UC Berkeley, where he also serves as the Director of the Renaissance and Early Modern Studies (REMS) graduate program and as an Affiliate Faculty member in the History department. His work explores how mobility, displacement, and colonialism shaped the intellectual and cultural life of early modern Europe and the Atlantic world.
His forthcoming book, The Atlantic Republic of Letters: Knowledge and Colonialism in the Age of Franklin (University of Pennsylvania Press), examines the intellectual history of colonialism in early America, showing how Enlightenment scholars served as agents of empire, silencing their ties to chattel slavery and coordinating the dispossession of Indigenous people.
“UCLA has always been a renowned center for Renaissance Studies,” Pirillo reflects. “Being here is a special pleasure. A quarter goes by quickly, but I’m sure it will be a formative experience, and my time at UCLA will profoundly affect my teaching and research.”
As a self-proclaimed “book historian and bibliophile,” Pirillo is eager to explore collections within the William Andrews Clark Library, the Getty, and the Huntington Library to further his current research projects.
“I’m curious not only about specialized research centers but also about public libraries in LA that serve a wide range of users well beyond academia. I look forward to events such as the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books later this month and the LA Art Book Fair in May.”
While at UCLA, Pirillo is excited to engage with the CMRS Center for Early Global Studies (CMRS-CEGS).
“I have long known and admired the activities of the Center, even before moving to the U.S. Scholars like Fredi Chiappelli, Brian Copenhaver, Michael Allen, and Massimo Ciavolella always had close connections with Italian academia, and their work has been very influential,” he shares. Now, under the leadership of CMRS-CEGS Director Zrinka Stahuljak, Pirillo sees the Center as a model for rethinking Renaissance and early modern studies.
“The Center is transforming its intellectual identity in inspiring and critical ways—moving beyond the traditional Eurocentric paradigm and opening the field to discussions about gender, race, and indigeneity.”
In addition to collaborating with the Center, Pirillo will teach two courses this Spring.
He will teach an undergraduate course on Renaissance cities and a graduate seminar on Italy and the Global Renaissance, which centers on early modern refugees and their writings.
“My first goal is to convince students that studying the past is essential—not because history offers clear lessons for the future, but because it deepens our understanding of the present and challenges our usual perspective on the world,” he explains.
In both courses, Pirillo is committed to expanding the canon and recovering the voices of marginalized groups and persecuted minorities often overlooked in official Renaissance histories.
Pirillo is also immersed in several ongoing research projects.
He is currently working on a book titled Renaissance Refugees: Negotiating Displacement in Early Modern Italy, which examines mass expulsions in early modern Europe, including those of the Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal (1492 and 1496) and the Moriscos from Spain (1609-1614).
“When I began working on the history of refugees, I didn’t immediately grasp the present relevance of the topic,” Pirillo shares. “But the more I studied, the more I realized that forced migration is not a series of isolated crises, but a structural and long-standing phenomenon of the Mediterranean world.”
In addition to this book, Pirillo is editing a special issue commemorating the 75th anniversary of Fernand Braudel’s La Méditerranée. This issue, arising from a 2024 conference held at Berkeley and Stanford, reexamines Mediterranean studies with and beyond Braudel. With co-editor Rowan Dorin (Stanford), Pirillo aims to foster new academic collaborations across West Coast institutions and globally.
Since arriving at UCLA, Pirillo has actively engaged with the academic community.
“My colleagues in European Languages and Transcultural Studies (ELTS) have been warm and welcoming. From the very first day, it has felt like home,” he says.
He has also connected with faculty members whose work he has long admired.
“I had the chance to meet with Barbara Fuchs, who gave the keynote at our Braudel conference, and Stefania Tutino, whom I’ve known for years. I have also been in touch with Bronwen Wilson, who was very kind despite being on leave in Italy.”
This week, Pirillo co-taught a class with Devin Fitzgerald, Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing (UCLA Special Collections), introducing students to the transition between manuscript and print.
“Bringing students into libraries and museums and extending learning beyond the classroom is a great passion of mine,” Pirillo says.
Please join us in congratulating Professor Pirillo on his Charles Speroni Chair appointment and welcoming him to UCLA!