The Humanities Research Group presents Domenico Pietropaolo delivering a free public lecture entitled “Text and the Impromptu Tradition,” Thursday, February 9, at 7 p.m. in Assumption University’s Freed-Orman Centre.

Dr. Pietropaolo is principal of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, holds the Goggio Chair in Italian Studies and is chair of the Italian studies department. He is also a professor of drama and is cross-appointed to the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, the Centre for Comparative Literature and the Centre for Medieval Studies.

He currently has two books in progress -Il dialetto di Maierato, a study of living and historical maieratese in southern Calabria and Aracangelo Spagna’s Poetics of the Oratorio Libretto: Edition Translation and Commentary. Pietropaolo wrote the stage script, translation and adaptation for Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author produced by the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Thursday’s lecture is part of the group’s Distinguished Speaker Series and will be followed by a reception.