<P> Carlo Rotella is an American non-fiction writer, and academic . </P> <P> He graduated from Wesleyan University and from Yale University, with a Ph. D. At Boston College, he directs both the American Studies Program and the Lowell Humanities Series . He also teaches writing in the English department and courses in the department of American Studies . </P> <P> In 2006, he gave lectures in Bosnia and Herzegovina on a U.S. Speaker and Specialist Grant from the State Department . He is an editor of the "Chicago Visions and Revisions" series at the University of Chicago Press . </P> <P> He writes for the New York Times Magazine and the Washington Post Magazine . His work has appeared in "The New Yorker," Critical Inquiry, American Quarterly, The American Scholar, Raritan, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, Transition, Harper's, DoubleTake, Boston, Slate, The Believer, TriQuarterly, Yale Alumni Magazine, and The Best American Essays . </P>

Carlo rotella refers to the baptism scene in the godfather as