Mia Cocco

Dr. Mia Cocco earned her Ph.D. in French at the University of California, Riverside, her M. A. in French at the University of Southern California and her B.A. With Honor at California State University, Los Angeles.  She taught at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, before coming to UGA.  

Her research focuses on Italian and French Renaissance literature; Italian lyric poetry, especially Petrarch and Poliziano.  She is the author of La tradizione cortese ed il petrarchismo nella poesia di Clément Marot (Firenze: Olschki), 320 pp.  Her research articles and book chapters have been published in Rivista di studi italiani; Quaderni d'italianistica; Origini del dramma pastorale in Europa; Forma e parola. Studi in memoria di Fredi Chiappelli; Pacific Coast Philology; Italian Women Writers; Il Veltro. Rivista della civiltà italiana; and Mid-Hudson Language Studies, among others.  Her scholarly work also appears in reference works, including Enciclopedia Europea (Ed. Garzanti), and Letteratura francese, Guide Bibliografiche (Milano: Garzanti).  Her research has been supported with a one year NEH Fellowship (National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for Independent Study and Research, in Los Angeles and Rome, Italy), and various research fellowships and grants from The State University of New York at Stony Brook and The University of Georgia.  

Dr. Cocco has been instrumental in the development of the Italian undergraduate program at UGA and in the inclusion of Italian as a minor or major field of study in both the MA. and the Ph.D. programs in Romance Languages.  She taught all levels of undergraduate and graduate courses in Italian literature, culture, and language.  For many years, she also served as the Supervisor of the graduate teaching assistants in Italian.  At SUNY, Stony Brook, she also taught courses in Comparative Literature.  She is the former President of Gamma Kappa Alpha, National Italian Honor Society (GKA) and currently serves on its Board of Directors.  She is the founder of the “Gamma Kappa Alpha Award for Scholarship,” which is awarded annually to one eligible university student in the United States.  Dr. Cocco was also the founder and director of the Florence Program, sponsored by the International Intercultural Studies Program (IISP) and administered by The University of Georgia (1986 and 1987); she was the Director of Italian Studies and also taught in the UGA Classics in Rome, Italy (1985). Throughout her teaching career, she mentored undergraduate and graduate students, some of whom presently hold professorships in prestigious European universities.  

RESEARCH

Research Areas:

Italian and French literature. 

Literary Periods.

Research Interests:

Italian and French Renaissance literature: lyric poetry, theater and prose.  

Petrarch, Poliziano, Dante.