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Dr. Salvatore Musumeci

Assistant Professor of European History & Italian Cultural Studies
Director, Bryan College Honors Program
Co-Director, Bryan Center for Undergraduate Research
Faculty Sponsor, Bryan College Coffee Connoisseurs
Faculty Sponsor, Bryan College Democrats
 
E-mail: salvatore.musumeci@bryan.edu
Office Phone: 423.775.7260
Box: 7806

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Dr. Salvatore Musumeci is a Connecticut native and fervent Hartford Whaler and Jimmy Buffett fan. Dr. Musumeci received his BA in Philosophy and Religion from fellow CCCU member Palm Beach Atlantic University and his MA in History from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He completed his Ph.D. in History and English at Queen Mary and Westfield College (University of London) under the direction of the noted art historian Dr. Evelyn Welch.

Dr. Musumeci is a social historian with an interest in the material and visual cultures of Europe between 1300 and 1600. His research deals primarily with consumable goods (esp. food and wine) and the social imagination in medieval and Renaissance Italy, but he also has an interest in all things Italian (regardless of era). Dr. Musumeci teaches all levels of European history and Italian language courses at Bryan College. He and his wife Robin live in Chattanooga, TN and currently attend North Shore Fellowship. He can be reached at salvatore.musumeci@bryan.edu and would be happy to discuss the possibilities of studying history at Bryan College as well as what careers are open to history majors and minors after they graduate.

Academic Degrees

  • Ph. D.: History & English, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London (London, England)
  • M.A.: History, Trinity College (Hartford, CT)
  • B.A.: Philosophy & Religion, Palm Beach Atlantic University (West Palm Beach, FL)

Honors and Recognition

  • 2012-2015 Councilor in the Arts & Humanities Division, Council on Undergraduate Research (Washington D.C.).
  • 2011-2012 Scholar of the Year Award, Bryan College.
  • 2011-2012 Faculty Appreciation Award, Bryan College.
  • 2009-Present Member of College, Queen Mary and Westfield College (University of London).
  • 2008-2009 Outstanding Faculty and Teaching Award, University of Sioux Falls.
  • Who's Who in America.

Research Assistantship

With Dr. Evelyn Welch, King's College London (University of London), and Dr. James Shaw, University of Sheffield, “The Speziale al Giglio: Selling Health in Renaissance Tuscany,” a Wellcome-Trust funded study in the history of medicine, Florence and Prato (Italy). This study resulted in the following publication: Evelyn Welch and James Shaw, Making and Marketing Medicine in Renaissance Florence (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2011).

Fellowships and Grants

  • 2012 Lindsay Young Visiting Faculty Fellowship at the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (University of Tennessee, Knoxville).

  • 2005 Graduate Studentship, Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation, Universite de Tours-Francois Rabelais, Tours, France.

  • 2004 Erasmus Grant, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy.

  • 2001-2003 Graduate Grant, Trinity College, Hartford, CT.

  • 1995-1998 Christian Vocational Grant, Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, FL.

  • 1995-1998 Christian Leadership Grant, Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, FL.

Recent Publications

  • Book review of John Varriano, “Tastes and Temptations: Food and Art in Renaissance Italy,” in Food and Foodways (forthcoming).

  • “The Urban Influence: Shopping and Consumption at the Florentine Monastery of Santa Trinità in the Mid-Fourteenth-Century,” in Ken Albala and Trudy Eden (eds.), Food and Faith: Christian Consumption from the Middle Ages to the Present (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 23-53.

  • With Mr. Christopher Strand, “The Loosened Tongue of a Tipsy Diva: Drunkenness, Promiscuity and a Cuckolded Husband in Boccaccio’s tale of Pericone and Alatiel,” Christiana Purdy Moudarres (ed.), Food Talk: Perspectives on Food in Medieval Italian Literature (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010), 85-96.

  • With Dr. Dario Del Puppo, “Predator of the Heart: Nobility, Eroticism, and Changing Food Practices in Boccaccio’s Tale of Federigo degli Alberighi,” Christiana Purdy Moudarres (ed.), Food Talk: Perspectives on Food in Medieval Italian Literature (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010), 73-84.

  • Book review of Timothy J. Tomasik and Juliann M. Vitullo (eds.), “At the Table: Metaphorical and Material Cultures of Food in Medieval and Early Modern Europe,” in Gastronomica, Spring 2010, 107-108.

  • “Leonardo Sciascia’s To Each His Own,” in Peter Boxall (ed.), 1001 Books You Must Read (New York: Rizzoli, 2010), 595.

  • “‘Per rape, et porri, et per spinachi’: Examining the Realities of Vegetable Consumption at the Monastery of Santa Trinità in Post-Plague Florence,” in Susan Friedland (ed.), Vegetables: Proceedings of The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 2008 (Devon: Prospect Books, 2009), 146-154.

  • “Palazzo Vecchio,” in Richard Cavendish (ed.), 1001 Historic Sites (New York: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2008), 491.

  • “Monte Cassino Abbey,” in Richard Cavendish (ed.), 1001 Historic Sites (New York: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 2008), 525.

  • “‘How does it taste Cisti? Is it good?’: Authentic Representations of Italian Renaissance Society and the Culture of Wine Consumption in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron,” in Richard Hosking (ed.), Authenticity in the Kitchen: Proceedings of The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 2005 (Devon: Prospect Books, 2006), 331-344.

Recent Panels and Presentations

  • Panel moderator: Italy and the Mediterranean, Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, April 2013.

  • Panel moderator: New Testament Themes and Allusions in Literature, South-Central Conference on Christianity and Literature: The Bible in Literature, Our Lady of the Holy Cross College, New Orleans, LA, May 2012.

  • Panel moderator: Writing Local History, 8th Annual Southeast Tennessee Student History Conference, Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA, April 2012

  • “Beyond Gumbo: New Orleans Cuisine as a Mosaic of Europe and Microcosm of Itself.” SoFAB 2011 Symposium: Hungry in the South, The Southern Food and Beverage Museum, New Orleans, LA, September 2011.

  • With Dr. Rebecca Flynn, '"This do in remembrance of me’: Wine and the Culture of Consumption in the Works of Giovanni Boccaccio and Geoffrey Chaucer." Thirty-Eighth Annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium: Voice, Gesture, Memory and Performance, University of the South, Sewanee, TN, April 2011.

  • “Wine and the Social Imagination in Italian Renaissance History and Literature,” South-Central Conference on Christianity and Literature: Sin, Piety, and Celebration in Literature and the Related Arts, Our Lady of the Holy Cross College, New Orleans, LA, February 2011.

  • Participant: “Joyful Teachers, Joyful Scholars,” Council of Christian Colleges and Universities: New Faculty Workshop, Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, FL, June 2010.

  • Panel organizer and moderator: Food and the Social Imagination in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, American Association of Italian Studies Annual Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, April 2010.

  • “‘Per rape, et porri, et per spinachi’: Examining the Realities of Vegetable Consumption at the Monastery of Santa Trinità in Post-Plague Florence,” The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery: Vegetables, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, September 2008.

  • “Table Culture, Alimentary Habits and Diet: Social Status and Identity in Medieval and Renaissance Italy,” Fresh Perspectives in History Conference: Culture and Identity, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK, March 2006.

  • “Diet, Metaphor and Practice: A Consumable Dialogue in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Florence and Prato,” Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation, Universite de Tours-Francois Rabelais, Tours, France, September 2005.

  • “‘How does it taste Cisti? Is it good?’: Authentic Representations of Italian Renaissance Society and the Culture of Wine Consumption in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron,” The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery: Authenticity, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, September 2005.

  • “Wine, the Vine and the 1427 Florentine Catasto: Spatial Consumption, Social Constructions and Cultural Anxieties,” Y2 Graduate Conference, Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK, May 2005.

  • “Ascanio Condivi’s Vita di Michelangelo and the Creation of an Artistic Persona,” The Association of Art Historians Annual Meeting, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, April 2005.

  • “Taverns and Inns: A Look at Transient Spaces and Human Behavior in Early Modern Florence, 1427-1480,” Fresh Perspectives in History Conference: Environment and Human Behavior, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK, March 2005.

Courses Taught

  • CT391A: Holy Feast, Holy Fast: The Restorative Significance of Hospitality

  • CT391B: Doing Life Together: Reflections on Community and the Rule of St. Benedict

  • HIS111: Western Civilization, I

  • HIS112: Western Civilization, II

  • HIS220: Historical Writing

  • HIS251: Church History, I

  • HIS252: Church History, II

  • HIS321: Early Modern Europe

  • HIS330: Ancient History

  • HIS331: Medieval Europe

  • HIS334: History of Reformation

  • HIS390: Food in Italian History, Society, and Art

  • HIS400: Advanced Research

  • HIS470: Independent Study

  • HIS475: Teaching Assistantship

  • HIS476: History Internship

  • ITAL101 Conversational Italian

  • ITAL111: Elementary Italian, I

  • ITAL112: Elementary Italian, II

Professional Associations

  • American Association of Italian Studies

  • American Historical Association

  • Association for the Study of Food and Society

  • College Art Association

  • Conference on Christianity and Literature

  • Council on Undergraduate Research

  • Medieval Academy of America

  • National Collegiate Honors Council

  • Renaissance Society of America

  • Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition

Topics of Expertise

  • Medieval Europe

  • Early Modern Europe

  • Italian History and Culture