Michele Dantini is Full Professor of Art History at the Università per Stranieri di Perugia, where he has been teaching since 2016; since the same year, he has also served as Visiting Professor at IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca. He obtained both his MA and Ph.D. in art history and philosophy from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, with Remo Bodei as supervisor of his MA thesis, and Paola Barocchi as supervisor of his doctoral dissertation. From 2006 to 2016, he taught at the University of Eastern Piedmont "Amedeo Avogadro"; from 2011 to 2013, he directed the MAED (Educational Management for Contemporary Art) Master's Program of the University of Eastern Piedmont|Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art; and from 2018 to 2021, he was a member of the Scientific Committee of OGR|CRT Officina Grandi Riparazioni|Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, Turin.

His research focuses on the history of art from the Early Modern period to the present, examining works, artists, movements, and contexts. Main research areas include: a) the Grand Tour and the figurative “construction” of the myth of Italy; b) the crisis of the Ancien Régime interpreted through its long-term impacts on art history; c) the European avant-gardes of the early twentieth century, with particular attention to the Italian “valori plastici”, as well as the French and German-Slavic fields; d) art under totalitarian regimes between the World Wars and the cultural policies of the Cold War; e) European and American neo-avant-gardes of the 1960s and 1970s, especially regarding geopolitical and cultural issues, the environment, and travel; f) art in the first two decades of the twenty-first century; g) art historical methods and the relationship between art history and cultural history; h) art criticism and its recent history.

Formerly a member of the editorial board of «ROARS. Return on Academic Research and School», Michele Dantini is currently an editorial board member of the class A journals «Predella Journal of Visual Arts» and «piano B». He is a contributor to “Rivista il Mulino”, “Il Foglio”, and “Corriere della Sera.”

Between 2017 and 2018, he curated two major international exhibitions: Paul Klee. At the Origins of Art”, MUDEC, Milan; and “Georges Braque vis-à-vis. Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp”, Palazzo Reale, Mantua.