A first-generation college student, Dylan Gilbert holds a PhD in Italian Studies from The University of Texas at Austin where his dissertation, On Radioactivity: (Im)materiality in the Work of Alberto Burri and Yves Klein, was awarded the Michael H. Granof Outstanding Dissertation Award in Humanities and Fine Arts. It examines the material impacts of the Atomic Age on postwar European painting. More broadly, his research engages 20th-century  visual culture through an ecocritical lens, exploring such themes as toxicity, waste, and memory.

Prior to coming to Saint Mary's, he worked as an enseignant-chercheur at Université Paris Cité. He was also the recipient of a Fulbright grant to teach English in Italy in the southern Lucanian town of Policoro, which has since informed much of his research and pedagogy. Additionally, he holds a BA and MA from Middlebury College.