Washington and Lee University
Newcomb 315Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2010
M.A. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006
B.A. Washington and Lee University, 2002
Research Interests: Intellectual, cultural, and political histories of medieval and early modern Italy; historiography; the premodern origins of modern national identities; Machiavelli.
Current Research: Professor Policelli is currently examining the premodern origins of Italian identities. His book manuscript, "Making Italy: Premodern Historians and the Dialogics of a Contested Idea," emphasizes the instructive value of a model of national identity whose narratives and essential terms are always contested. It argues for Italy's importance as the historical prototype of such a dialogical model of identity and advances Renaissance historians as the primary shapers of that model. Professor Policelli also recently completed an article that revisits Machiavelli's conception of Italia from the perspective of recent theories on national identities.
Teaching Areas: Medieval and Early Modern Europe; Mediterranean history; Italian history; historiography.