Erica Moretti, assistant professor of Italian in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, has been awarded the Rome Prize for Modern Italian Studies. This top honor for scholars and artists, awarded annually by the American Academy in Rome, will allow her to conduct work in the city for an extended time period.

Moretti is one of 36 winners selected this year by an independent jury of artists and scholars. Fellows receive a stipend, workspace, and room and board at the Academy’s eleven-acre campus on the Janiculum Hill in Rome, for a period of four or nine months.

This year’s application process saw 988 applicants from nearly every U.S. state and four different countries, and the winners include “some of America’s most gifted scholars and artists,” said Mark Robbins, the academy’s president and CEO.