Education
Harvard University; Brigham Young University.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Madison Sowell
Edit ProfileCareer
He is also a professor emeritus of Italian and comparative literature at Brigham Young University (Brigham Young University), where he taught for three decades (1979-2009). He served as the chair of Brigham Young University"s department of French and Italian (1989-1998), an Alcuin Fellow, a Karl G. Maeser General Education Professor, Scheuber and Veinz Professor of Humanities and Languages, and as the director of the Brigham Young University Honors Program and an associate dean of undergraduate education (2006-2009). He is a specialist in the epic tradition of Italian literature from Dante to Tasso and the author and editor of several books, including Dante and Ovid: Essays in Intertextuality and a translation of The Cabala of Pegasus by Giordano Bruno (Yale University Press).
He has also served as the organizer of various library and museum exhibits of rare dance books and prints.
Sowell was born and reared in Piggott, Arkansas, where he still owns and maintains family cotton and rice farms. He then served a mission in the Italy North Mission (1971-1973).
At Harvard he studied Italian literature with Dante Della Terza (a pupil of Luigi Russo), Italian Renaissance history with the renowned historian Felix Gilbert, and epic poetry with the celebrated translator Robert Fitzgerald. Sowell has written over 100 articles, book reviews, and essays primarily related to Dante and Italian literature.
He has also served as an editor of the Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association.
On July 29, 2010, he was appointed Interim Provost at SVU. On April 12, 2011, he became the provost at Southern Virginia. The provost reports to and works closely with the president, is the chief academic officer and leads the university’s academic areas and faculty. Sowell served from 1998 to 2001 as president of the Italy Milan Mission.
He has also served as an Latter- Day Saints (Mormons) high councilor, bishop, a Missionary Training Center branch president, a ward Young Men"s president, and a counselor in the West Virginia Charleston Mission presidency.
Achievements
-
Sowell has a bachelor"s degree summa cum laude from Brigham Young University (1975) and a master"s degree (1976) and Doctor of Philosophy (1979) in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University, where he won the Jacoby Prize for scholarship and his department"s travel-study prize for outstanding teaching.
Membership
In early 2009, Sowell was appointed a member of the board of trustees of Southern Virginia University, where he lectured on Dante and medieval and Renaissance art and participated in the Executive Lecture series.
-
Born
-
Died
2009 (aged 30) -
Nationality
United States -
Religion
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints