Marie Irene Joseph

Marie Irene Joseph is a scholar of Hispanic and Italian Studies and a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Georgia.  Her research focuses on the portrayal of the Virgen Mary in the visual arts and literature in both Spain and Italy primarily during the 16th - 18th centuries. As a Marian scholar, she focuses on the connections between Mary of Nazareth as both an earthly figure and an inspirational embodiment of humanity's highest aspirations within Christianity.  Her dissertation will center on the portrayal of Mary in Spanish and Italian poetry and painting in their reflection of her beauty. 

She serves as Managing Editor for the Bulletin of the Comediantes and has received a Mellon grant and a Willson Center Graduate Research award.

As an instructor, she teaches communicative based lessons with emphasis on Hispanic and Francophone culture and her teaching philosophy centres around student learning and their individual needs to be successful in Spanish and French language learning.  She sees her role as very much of guidance and support in order to assist her students achieve their language goals.  

Research interests:  Spanish Golden Age poetry and painting, Italian Marian poetry, Baroque and Counter Reformation art; Marian scholarship, Mariology, the Virgin Mary in the Mediterranean, Mary in North Africa, Marian gardens, iconography, statues, sacred architecture and apparitions; Spanish, French and Italian mystical writing; Catholic theologians and saints; women saints; Mary in Islam