Tessa C. Gurney

Tessa C. Gurney is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she completed a Masters degree in Italian literature in 2011. Tessa teaches Italian language and literature at UNC and has also taught at Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence.She has presented her work at numerous conferences in Europe and the United States, and in 2013 received the pre-dissertation prize from the Center for Global Initiatives at UNC for exploratory dissertation research. She is currently developing a dissertation on the Mediterranean Other in late cinquecento and early seicento theater, and is specifically interested in the theater of Giovan Battista Andreini, theater festivals and theatrical exchange between the Medici and Gonzaga courts.