Many students find that their study abroad experience at  ISI Florence opens doors to future study, work, love of the city of Florence. Kelli Robeson Wood is no exception. Kelli Wood, Ph.D. candidate for Art History at the University of Chicago, is currently a Fulbright fellow in Florence supported by  ISI. In June 2010, Wood participated in the first series of the Translating the Past workshop on codicology, palaeography, and philology, coordinated at Palazzo Rucellai by Prof. Stefano U. Baldassarri. The knowledge she gained from the workshop has been invaluable to her research and career. Wood works now at the Kunsthistorisches Institut and at various archives in Florence researching her dissertation, “The Space of Play: Games in Early Modern Italy.”

On January 24, she gave a lecture to students for Francesca Marini’s course, The Art of Florence in Context: Exploring Visual Culture. Her lesson, Perspective and the Piazza: Calcio fiorentino and conceptualizing urban space, incorporated elements of her work on the relationship between art and sports in Florence’s piazze in the 16th century. “I am so impressed by the enthusiasm and level of engagement of the students at ISI,” Wood commented on her interaction with Marini’s classes. “It was a pleasure to share part of my research on art and games and for the undergraduates to open a dialogue about how spaces for sports in the 16th century resonate with their experiences of football now.”