Francesco Cotticelli joined the Institute during the spring 2017 semester as a Distinguished Visiting Italian Fulbright. Currently Professor of Theatre Studies at Università della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli," he specializes in the theatrical life in Europe between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with particular focus on the social capital of Naples and its connections with other European capitals. An expert in both archival research and the history of ideas, Prof. Cotticelli has edited and published widely and has held visiting positions at Yale University, the Institut für Film-, Medien- und Theaterwissenschaft at the University of Vienna, and at Ohio State University. While pursuing his research at Notre Dame, Prof. Cotticelli teaches students the history of the commedia dell'arte and is organizing a giornata di studi dedicated to the role of diplomacy in the history of European theatre.
Károly Pintér joined the Institute during the spring 2017 semester from the Institute of English and American Studies at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Hungary, where he chaired that Institute and still teaches as an Associate Professor. A specialist in history and literature, Prof. Pintér teaches courses on the history of Britain and the USA and publishes on early science fiction and writers such as Robert Owen, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut, and Anthony Burgess. His doctoral dissertation at Eötvös Loránd University was published in 2010 as The Anatomy of Utopia: Narration, Estrangement, and Ambiguity in More, Wells, Huxley and Clarke. While at Notre Dame, he plans to explore the idea of "civil religion" in the US as a way of reflecting more deeply on that idea and its expression in the constitutions of several European nations today. This work is leading toward a monograph in progress towards habilitation (full professorship) in Hungary.