Rate My Professor Nerida Newbigin

Nerida Newbigin is Emeritus Professor of Italian Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney. She taught Italian language and literature there from 1970 until her retirement in December 2008, during which time she was appointed to a personal chair in Italian Studies in January 2001 and served as Pro-Dean of the Faculty of Arts. In 1995, she was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Newbigin's scholarly career has centered on the philology and history of theatre and performance in medieval and Renaissance Italy, particularly late medieval lay piety, and the editing, transcription, and interpretation of theatrical texts and archival sources. Her research encompasses the spectacle and drama of fifteenth-century Florence, comedies of sixteenth-century Florence and Siena, the Confraternity of the Gonfalone in Renaissance Rome, and drama in fourteenth-century Umbria.

Newbigin has produced seminal works that have profoundly influenced the field. Notable publications include Acting on Faith: The Confraternity of the Gonfalone in Renaissance Rome (2013, co-authored with Barbara Wisch), the two-volume critical edition and facsimile of Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici's Codice Rustici (2015, with Elena Gurrieri and Kathleen Olive), and the comprehensive two-volume study Making a Play for God: The Sacre Rappresentazioni of Renaissance Florence (2021), which earned the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society's David Bevington Prize for Best New Book in 2022. In recognition of her outstanding contributions, she received the inaugural David Moss Prize from the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies in 2022. Since 2009, she has maintained a website dedicated to transcriptions, texts, and translations for her research and teaching on Italian theatre from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. Newbigin remains active as editor of Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association, advocate for Italian Studies, and mentor to emerging scholars.