Migiel receives MLA prize for literature

Marilyn Migiel, professor of Romance studies, received the 18th Howard R. Marraro Prize from the Modern Language Association (MLA) for her book A Rhetoric of The Decameron (University of Toronto Press, 2003). The Marraro Prize alternates biennially with the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for an outstanding book in the field of Italian literature or comparative Italian literature.

The selection committee's citation for Migiel's book states that she "brings years of research and of teaching Boccaccio's masterpiece to this stimulating and intellectually satisfying work. Eschewing traditional prefeminist and protofeminist interpretations of The Decameron, Migiel's reading makes us focus on Boccaccio's lexicon and helps us understand that, as women become more empowered in Boccaccio's society, societal threats on that autonomy become more insistent. The work is thus at once feminist and convincing in its disciplined adherence to historical realism. Migiel often gives credit for her conclusions to observations made throughout the years by her students, a strategy that gives the work a sense of community sleuthing and a synthesis of multiple perspectives. With lively prose, Migiel offers Boccaccio scholars an original and fascinating study."

Migiel received her A.B. in medieval studies (as an independent major) from Cornell in 1975 and her Ph.D. in Italian language and literature from Yale University in 1981. She joined the Cornell faculty in 1987, after six years on the Yale faculty. She is currently professor of Italian in the Department of Romance Studies and a member of the graduate fields of Romance studies, medieval studies, and feminist, gender and sexuality studies.

Migiel is known primarily for her feminist readings of medieval and Renaissance Italian literature. Her publications include Gender and Genealogy in Tasso's "Gerusalemme Liberata"; Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance, co-edited with Juliana Schiesari; and numerous articles. Migiel received the Stephen and Margery Russell Award at Cornell in 1995 for her inspired teaching, especially at the undergraduate level. She is a member of the MLA, the American Association of Teachers of Italian, the American Association of Italian Studies, the American Boccaccio Association, the Renaissance Society of America and the Telluride Association.

The MLA, the largest and one of the oldest of American learned societies in the humanities (est. 1883), promotes the advancement of literary and linguistic studies. The 30,000 members of the association come from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as from Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa.