Skye Shirley of Boston, USA joins the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for a three-month fellowship to conduct research on the Sicilian poet Anna Maria Arduino (1672-1700), who addressed the Austrian Habsburg monarchs in a Latin poetry collection printed when she was only fourteen.

Shirley recently submitted her doctoral dissertation at University College London, titled “Three Latin Poetry Books by Women from the Seventeenth Century”. The thesis reveals the inventive and original structures underlying each collection so that individual poems can be understood in the broader context of the author’s literary achievment and historical context. The findings prove that these poets excelled both in poetic compsition as well as arrangement, and the research opens new interpretive possibilities for analyses of printed poetry collections.

Linguistic and educational activism is a central focus in Shirley’s work. She is the founder and director of Lupercal, an international organization dedicated to increasing opportunities for women in Latin language studies. A Latin instructor and curriculum consultant, Shirley draws on over a decade of experience teaching Latin learners of diverse nationalities, ages, and levels. She looks forward to learning more about Latin education and research in Austria during her fellowship.

Shirley hopes that this research into Latin poetry will be informative not only to scholarship on early modern women, but also to educators who hope to expand their curriculum to include forgotten voices from throughout Latin’s long and dynamic literary history.