Michele Cometa is full professor of Cultural Studies and Visual Culture at the University of Palermo, Italy. He has been a fellow of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (2015), of the Italian Academy (2015-2016) and held the Chair “De Sanctis” at the ETH Zurich (2022). In 1999 he received the Ervino-Pocar Prize of the City of Gorizia for literary translation. In 2017 he was awarded the Pozzale Luigi Russo Prize for the book "Why do stories help us to live". In 2019 he was awarded the Winckelmann-Medaille of the City of Stendal.