Visiting Scholar from Italy

Leonardo Angeletti

Ph.D. Student - National Ph.D. program in European Studies

University of Genoa, University of Palermo

Hi, my name is Leonardo Angeletti and I'm a visiting researcher from Italy. I am working on my PhD in “European Studies” at the University of Palermo, with administrative headquarters in Genoa. I come from a small village in Sabina, called Cottanello – just an hour from Rome. You should come to visit; we have an amazing church hollowed out in the rock that is a Unesco heritage site called Eremo di San Cataldo. However, since 2017 I have been living in Milan, where I graduated in Philosophy at the University of Milan La Statale.

My research interests concern the study of the history of modern and contemporary political thought, and especially the crisis of representative democracy and Western culture in the 20th century. For this reason, my dissertation is about the life and thought of American historian Christopher Lasch, former professor and chair of the Department of History here at the University of Rochester. Following his intellectual analyses of American society through the 1950s to the 1990s, I aim to identify the spread of a “culture of narcissism” in contemporary Western society. I am assessing the impact and consequences this may have had on the democratic system not only in America but in Europe as well.

I am going to stay here in Rochester until April (although I hope to come back soon already!), so feel free to reach out or stop by my office in the Department of History. I love meeting and talking with new people, especially in front of a good cup of coffee!