P.M. Forni is an award-winning professor at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught for the past twenty years. H
e graduated from the University of Pavia in 1974 and received his Ph.D. in Italian at UCLA in 1981. He has written and edited several books on the work of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). He was a Fellow at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence and is an Honorary Charter Member of the International Association of Protocol Consultants.
In 1997 Dr. Forni co-founded the Johns Hopkins Civility Project. An aggregation of academic and community outreach activities, the JHCP aimed `at assessing the significance of civility, manners and politeness in contemporary society. He was also the co-director of “Reassessing Civility: Forms and Values at the End of the Century,” an international symposium which took place at Hopkins in March 1998. He now directs The Civility Initiative at Johns Hopkins.
Over the years, he has continued to illustrate the connections among civility, ethics and quality of life. In his lectures and workhops he frequently talks about the rewards of fostering a culture of civility in today’s workplace.
His book Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct (2002) has been translated into German and Italian. He contributed to a chapter on ethics and international protocol in the Convention Industry Council International Manual (2005). His article “The Other Side of Civility,” appeared in the November, 2005 issue of Johns Hopkins Magazine. In 2008 he published The Civility Solution: What to Do when People Are Rude.
On the occasion of the launching in Los Angeles of a Civility Project inspired by Dr. Forni’s work, the Mayor and the Los Angeles City Council declared May 13, 2009 “Los Angeles Civility Day.”
National and foreign publications that have mentioned his work include The New York Times, The Times of London, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and Forbes Magazine.
Dr. Forni has appeared on a number of radio and television shows, including the ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Sunday Morning, Oprah and BBC’s Outlook
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