Theodore J. Cachey Jr. is the Inaugural Academic Director of the Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway. He is a Professor of Italian and the Albert J. and Helen M. Ravarino Family Director of Dante and Italian Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his B.A. from Northwestern University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Le isole fortunate: Appunti di storia letteraria italiana and of A. Pigafetta's "First Voyage around the World." He is also the editor of Dante Now: Current Trends in Dante Studies, a volume in the William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante Studies, which he co-edits with Christian R. Moevs, published by the University of Notre Dame Press.