Joseph Buttigieg

Joseph Anthony Buttigieg II ( ; ; May 20, 1947 – January 27, 2019) was a Maltese-American literary scholar and translator. He served as William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame until his retirement in 2017. Buttigieg co-translated and co-edited the three-volume English edition of Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks.

Early life and education Buttigieg was the eldest of eight children born to Joseph Anthony and Maria Concetta Buttigieg in Hamrun, Malta.

Their son, Pete Buttigieg, was elected as mayor of South Bend, Indiana in 2011, ran for the Democratic nomination as presidential candidate in the 2020 election, and became the Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration. Pete said in his first book, Shortest Way Home, that his father was called racial slurs, even though he was European, because of his darker skin.

Buttigieg specialized in modern European literature and theory. He was translator and editor of the three-volume English edition of Marxist philosopher and politician Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, published from 1992 to 2007 with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Buttigieg also served as chair of the English Department at Notre Dame and was promoted to William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English. He died on January 27, 2019.