Faculty & Staff

Johan Jonsson – Program Director and Professor

Violinist and Professor of Music at Montana State University in Bozeman. Holds degrees from Conservatoire Darius Milhaud, France; Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden; and Indiana University. Active as recitalist and chamber musician in both Europe and the US. Founding member of the String Orchestra of the Rockies, a professional, conductor-less ensemble in Montana. Has led semester-abroad programs to Siena with US university students since 2001. In addition to English and Italian, he also speaks Swedish and French fluently.

Eliza Nash – Operations Coordinator

Mount Holyoke College: B.A. in Art History, Università degli Studi di Siena: Master in Enogastronomic Tourism. Special Projects Coordinator within the International Center for the Study of Italian Language and Culture. Also Student Affairs Coordinator at the University of California, Siena Study Center. Works as a private concierge during the tourist season. Is co-founder of the Associazione Culturale Ulisse, an association that works to promote intercultural exchange.

Michael Manchester – Field Coordinator

Lewis and Clark College: B.A. in Communications. Coordinates Service Learning in Education. Has worked as the English Program Coordinator for the Siena public Kindergartens for four years as well as interpreter for the AC Siena professional soccer team. Michael is also a founding member of the Associazione Culturale Ulisse, an association that works to promote intercultural exchange.

Antonella Filippone – Professor

Università degli Studi di Siena: M.A. in Modern Letters with a Modern Languages focus. Holds the DITALS specialization in teaching Italian as a second language from the Università per Stranieri di Siena. Acts as coordinator of Italian Professors for Siena Italian Studies. Has worked as professor at the Università per Stranieri di Siena for more than a decade. Antonella has published several articles and, most recently, the Italian language text, Dimmi Tutto!.

Fiora Biagi – Professor

Università degli Studi di Siena: M.A. in Foreign Languages and Literature. PhD in Linguistics from the University of Siena. Holds the DITALS specialization in teaching Italian as a second language from the Università per Stranieri di Siena. Works as a Professor at the University of Siena for Foreigners and has worked as an Italian/English translator.

Margherita Baldisserri – Professor

Università degli Studi di Siena, M.A. in Philosophy. PhD in Anthropology. Her research interests include Migration and Trans-national Peruvian Migration to Italy, gender relations, Italian Emigration and ethnic relations and multi-culturalism. She collaborates with the contemporary culture center "Corte dei Miracoli" of Siena as a cultural mediator and with the center at the Università per Stranieri that specializes in the Italian spoken by immigrants in Italy.

Marianna Bolognesi – Professor

Holds a degree in linguistics from the University of Pavia where she concentrated her studies on language acquisition of bilingual children. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in linguistics and didactics through a consortium between the Universities of Torino, Basel, and London. Marianna is also founding member of Nema Frontiera, a volunteer association that aids a number of cities in Bosnia that were destroyed by the recent war.

Pazit Barki - Professor

Università di Bologna: M.A. in Contemporary History, Music Degree from Music Institute of Modena. Holds the DITALS specialization in teaching Italian as a second language from the Università per Stranieri di Siena. Has extensive experience in teaching Italian language at several American universities and at the Università per Stranieri di Siena. Pazit has also published several books for foreign students learning Italian.

Patrizia Brogini - Professor

Università degli Studi di Siena: M.A. in Italian Literature. Holds the DITALS specialization in teaching Italian as a second language from the Università per Stranieri di Siena. Patrizia is also an expert in the field of special education. She has several publications on Linguistics and Italian language acquisition, and has worked for 10 years as professor at the Università per Stranieri di Siena.

Alfonso Casella - Professor

Università degli Studi di Siena: Degree in Law with specialization on the History of the Italian Legal System. In addition to teaching, he works as a journalist for a local newspaper. Alfonso currently works for the University of Siena and has worked for the European Parliament in France.

Piergiacomo Petrioli - Professor

Università degli Studi di Firenze: M.A. in Art History and Art Criticism, PhD in Art History and Art Criticism from the University of Torino. Piergiacomo has extensive teaching experience with American study abroad programs and is a professor at the University of Florence. He has published numerous articles in the field of Art History.