Mara Mauri Jacobsen, Ph.D. Italian, University of California, Berkeley, Laurea in History and Philosophy, University of Milan, is co-author of Prego!: An Invitation to Italian and of Il reale e il possibile, An Intermediate to Advanced Reader. She has published on Italo Calvino and postmodern philosophy, on Giacomo Leopardi, and on Italian feminist writers in Italica, Quaderni ditalianistica, Italiana, La Rivista, and Leggere donna. At Berkeley she brought to the classroom her interest in diverse aspects of Italian culture: language, literature, history, film, philosophy, politics, feminist theory and the role of the media in the rapidly changing Italian society. She retired in June 2020.