Rebecca Messbarger is an American historian and academic whose research centers on the Italian Enlightenment, in particular the intersection of anatomy and art, and medicine and religion, and the shifting roles of women in civic and academic life during the age. She was educated at Loyola University (BA), the University of Wisconsin, Madison (MA), and the University of Chicago (PhD). She is Professor of Italian; Affiliate Professor of History, Art History, International and Area Studies, Performing Arts, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Director of Undergraduate Studies in Italian; and Founding Director of Medical Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis.