We wish to extend our congratulations to Rebecca Bowen (DPhil in Italian, Somerville College), who is the winner of the 2020 Society for Italian Studies (SIS) Postgraduate Prize. The prize was awarded for her thesis titled ‘Figures of Love: Amor from Antiquity to the Italian Middle Ages’, which explores the development of love personified from classical Rome to pre-Renaissance Italy, examining visual and literary sources to arrive at a deeper appreciation of various trends in duecento and trecento Italian poetry.
"I am delighted to have been chosen for such a prestigious award and am very grateful to the rich and thriving Italian studies community at Oxford, from which I have drawn much inspiration and strength. I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Elena Lombardi, without whose impeccable guidance and artful editing I could not have produced this piece of work."