Provost Alan M. Garber announced today that Harvard art and architecture history professor Alina Payne will become director of the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence, Italy. She will take up her new role this summer.

Payne succeeds Lino Pertile, the Carl A. Pescosolido Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and I Tatti’s seventh director, who has run the center since 2010. Under his leadership, opportunities for Harvard students at the undergraduate and graduate levels significantly expanded. In addition, new fellowships brought scholars to I Tatti from Argentina, Brazil, China, Cyprus, Greece, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Russia, Spain, and Turkey. In many of these countries, I Tatti also now sponsors conferences, supports teaching initiatives, and promotes translations of Italian Renaissance classics.

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