Professor of history at Ohio State University and one of the leading experts on the social and cultural history of Venice.

He is the author of various works on the city and its history, including: Shipbuilders in Venice (Neri Pozza, 1997), The War of the Fists (Jouvence, 1997), The Jews of Early Modern Venice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), and Venice, The Tourist Maze (with Garry R. Marvin, University of California Press, 2004).