Instructor: Gabrielle Orsi

Biography: Originally from southern California, Gabrielle Orsi studied as an undergraduate at the Universit� di Bologna and in Florence while earning her BA in comparative literature at Brown University. She has also lived in Milan, Rome, Munich, and New Zealand. She earned her PhD in Italian at the Department of Italian of Columbia University in New York in 2008. She has taught Italian language at CUNY, Columbia University, the University of Kentucky, and the World Languages Institute of Bellevue College, WA. She also taught Italian literature and history at the University of Denver. Gabrielle is also passionate about the outdoors and is a certified Leave No Trace trainer and Wilderness First Responder. She enjoys backpacking, mountaineering, backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, and trail running. She currently works in higher education administration at COCC.

Classes by this instructor

Literature Studies: Exploring Boccaccio's Decameron

In 1348, with the Black Death ravaging Europe, a group of young people flee to a Tuscan villa, where they decide to pass the time telling stories... and so begins Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, a book of 100 stories. We will read several stories for each of our 4 sessions. Discover this vivid, funny, bawdy and always entertaining masterpiece of Italian literature, which influenced Shakespeare, Chaucer and Pasolini among others.
July 8-29, 2026 | 5:30pm-6:30pm PDT | Online