Demetrio Yocum's scholarly interests are varied, but center mainly on Italian and English languages and literatures, which reflect his own background as a bilingual Italian-American. Since returning to the United States in 2004, Professor Yocum has been researching issues in Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature, particularly Petrarch's views on monasticism and church reform. His most recent work is the English translation of Raniero Cantalamessa’s book, Easter: Meditations on the Resurrection (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2006). His article "De otio religioso: Petrarch and the Laicization of Western Monastic Asceticism," is forthcoming in the Journal Religion and the Arts.