Education
Nov 2025 – Present PhD Program in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures: Diversity and Inclusion, Modern Languages Studies (LINGMOD) curriculum at the University of Bologna. (Supervisor Prof. Francesco Vitucci, Co-Supervisor Prof. Marina Manfredi)
Sep 2024 – Jul 2025 Single courses: Culture of the Deaf 1 and 2 (18CFU), Italian Sign Language 1 (12CFU), summer course in Intermediate Italian Sign Language at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
Sep 2021 – Jul 2024 Master’s degree in Language and Civilization of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (Japan curriculum) at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Thesis: "Japanese Sign Language and Manually Signed Japanese: Usage and Prestige in the Japanese Deaf Community".
Sep 2022 – Feb 2023 Overseas Exchange at Sophia University of Tokyo (上智大学).
Sep 2018 – Oct 2021 Bachelor’s degree in Language, Culture and Society of Asia and Mediterranean Africa at Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Japan curriculum). Thesis: Translation from Japanese to Italian of "Understanding of Japanese Case Marking in Edo Period Dutch Language Learning: A Comparison between Rokkaku Zenpen and Oranda-goho-ge"
Conferences, Symposiums and Seminars
18-19 Jun 2026 Traces of Japanese in Japanese Sign Language (JSL): Word Formation and Linguistic Creativity in Multimodal Language Contact. LILEC Graduate Conference (Re)searching Traces: Pluralities, Memory and Reconfigurations of Knowledge across Literatures, Languages and Cultures. LILEC, University of Bologna.
25-26 May 2026 Computer-Mediated Communication, Deaf Gain and Vernacular Language Practices: Towards the Construction of a Corpus of “Japanese Deaf Vernacular”. Digital Humanities: (In)convenient Practices, Limits, and Perspectives. University of Genoa.
21-22 May 2026 Computer-Mediated Communication as a Linguacultural Space of Deaf Communication: The Case of Japan. Sixth Postgraduate Symposium on Linguacultural Spaces: Inclusion, Extension and Identification in Discourse and Society. Tilburg University [online].
14-16 Apr 2026 Visual Language, (In)visible Language: Language Ideologies in the Japanese Federation of the Deaf. (In)visibility: seeing, making visible, keeping hidden Interdisciplinary doctoral symposium. Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
Teaching
Feb 2024 – Jun 2024 Academic tutor for the "History of Japanese Language" course at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
Sep 2023 – Dec 2023 Intern and English teacher at the Italian State School of Athens.
Mar 2023 – Jun 2023 Language mediator at Guggenheim High School in Venice.
Public Outreach
Dec 2023 Lecture "La bellezza, l'ambiguo e tutto quanto: scambi letterari tra Giappone e Occidente attraverso la storia" (The Beautiful, the Ambiguous and Everything Else: Literary Exchanges between Japan and the West Throughout History) for the 2023-2024 cultural lectures cycle of the Italian State School of Athens.
Apr 2023 Lesson "Il periodo Sengoku e il cristianesimo in Giappone" (Sengoku period and Christianity in Japan) at Guggenheim High School in Venice.
Other activities
Oct 2024 – Present Writer for Afroditelo, a cultural association based in Val di Fiemme https://afroditelo.com/author/francesca-lupi/
Aug 2023 – Present Translation, transcription and review (EN<>IT, JP>IT e JP>EN) for TED Talks https://www.ted.com/profiles/44905786/translator
Languages
Italian: Native
English: C2 (CAE 203/210, TOEFL 112/120, CELTA)
Japanese: C1 (JLPT N2)
Italian Sign Language (LIS): Intermediate
Japanese Sign Language (JSL): Basic proficiency
