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Davide Vitali
Director, Rome Center for Architecture and the Humanities, Rome, Italy

*1 p.m., May 9
Arkansas Union Ballroom

The Fay Jones School of Architecture will celebrate 20 years of offering students semester-long study in Rome with a commencement address by Professor Davide Vitali, who has headed the program since its inception.

A native of Rome, Vitali obtained his first professional degree from the University of Rome, La Sapienza, and subsequently earned a Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1984. His affiliation with the University of Arkansas began in 1985. Under his direction the school of architecture initiated a summer study program in Italy in 1986 and in 1989 began offering students the opportunity to live and study in Rome for a semester. The program has since expanded to include students from the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Among other endeavors, Vitali is currently working to establish a multinational, interdisciplinary center in Cervara di Roma, an Italian hill town on the Lazio Apennines, where he serves as Counselor for Culture. His service to the University of Arkansas and his collaboration with the Università degli Studi Roma Tre contributed to the development of three formal educational exchange protocols between the two universities, formalized in 2001.

In addition to directing the Rome Center for Architecture and the Humanities, Vitali is in practice, leading an architecture, interiors and furniture design firm based in Rome. He has won recognition in an international architectural design competition. His furniture designs have been published in Architectural Digest, Arte, Brava Casa, Elle Décor, Grazia Casa, La Repubblica, and Vogue Maison and exhibited in Florence and Rome. Vitali has served as a guest design critic and speaker at international programs sponsored by the University of Washington, Ohio State University, Temple University, Penn State, Washington University, the Pratt Institute and Yale University. He received the Tau Sigma Delta Silver Medal for Teaching Excellence in 1994.