Francesco Brenna is Assistant Professor of Italian and the Italian Program Coordinator in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Towson University. Previously he taught at Indiana University Bloomington. He holds a BA and MA in Italian from Università Cattolica in Milan and a PhD in Italian from Johns Hopkins University.

His research and publications focus on Renaissance Italian literature, especially treatises on poetics, epic, and sacred poetry, the relationship between Italian and English literature, and the relationship between literature and other disciplines such as sport, science, and music.

He co-edited a special issue of MLN dedicated to Charles S. Singleton’s legacy in Dante studies (Johns Hopkins University Press) and a volume on the connections between literature and science in the early modern age (Franco Cesati). His research has also appeared on journals such as I Tatti Studies, Forum Italicum, Italianistica, Paragone letteratura, Seicento e Settecento, and Milton Quarterly.

He studied jazz piano and arrangement and took courses at the Peabody Institute. While in New York, he has been composing and collaborating with lyricists and librettists for musical theater projects in workshops run by the Dramatist Guild Institute. He enjoys teaching Italian to music students and integrating language learning and music.