Joseph Anthony Buttigieg II[1][2] (/ˈbuːtɪdʒədʒ/ BOO-tij-əj;[a] Maltese: Buttiġieġ [bʊtːɪˈd͡ʒɪːt͡ʃ] ⓘ; May 20, 1947 – January 27, 2019)[5] was a Maltese-American literary scholar and translator.

[5] Buttigieg taught at New Mexico State University at Las Cruces starting in 1976 and there met Jennifer Anne Montgomery, also a new faculty member.

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.

[10] 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.

[12] Buttigieg also served as chair of the English Department at Notre Dame and was promoted to William R. Kenan Jr.