Writer, professor, snowboard race coach and noted lecturer, Marc Cirigliano was born and spent the early part of his life in north central Ohio, near Cleveland. Growing up he engaged in music, sports and the arts. A broadly based scholar fluent in Italian and able to read French and German, Marc completed undergraduate school at Baldwin-Wallace College with a BA in history. While earning his MA, M.Phil. and Ph.D. at Syracuse University, he was awarded a prestigious Florence Fellowship, studying art history in Florence under Luisa Becherucci, former Director of the Ufizzi Gallery, and Ugo Procacci, former Director of Art Restoration for Florence. He completed his Ph.D. under the direction of Sidney Thomas, writing a dissertation on William Blake. Currently a tenured professor of the arts at SUNY/Empire State College, Marc teaches students in a wide array of humanities subjects: art history, Western Civilization, aesthetics, criticism, select areas of literature and creative writing.