W&L’s Stephen McCormick Earns Prestigious Fellowship from Harvard The fellowship, made possible by The Lila Wallace – Reader’s Digest Fund, is designed for scholars who explore “Italy in the World.”

By Erica Turman
May 13, 2019

Stephen P. McCormick, associate professor of French and Italian at Washington and Lee University, has been awarded a Villa I Tatti Berenson Fellowship from Harvard University.

The fellowship, made possible by The Lila Wallace – Reader’s Digest Fund, is designed for scholars who explore “Italy in the World.” Projects address the transnational dialogues between Italy and other cultures during the Renaissance, broadly understood historically to include the period from the 14th to the 17th century.

“I am incredibly honored to receive the Harvard Villa I Tatti Berenson Fellowship,” said McCormick. “This opportunity will allow me to conduct archive and library research for my current book project, which explores the connections between Italian epic and medieval and early modern cartography.”

According to the fellowship’s website, I Tatti offers Fellows the precious time they need to pursue their studies with a minimum of obligations and interruptions together with a maximum of scholarly resources—a combination that distinguishes the Harvard Center from similar institutions. Each year, a limited number of activities organized at I Tatti are reserved for the Fellows, and they are expected to join the wider community at conferences, lectures and concerts.”

“It is rare to have such sustained and unrestricted access to medieval and Renaissance maps, manuscripts and the vast amount of secondary literature available at the I Tatti center and the Florentine libraries,” said McCormick. “I am truly humbled, but also very excited to have the support to focus on researching this project.”