Full Professor, my researches include English studies, gender and cultural studies, with specific reference to utopia, dystopia, memory and trauma studies, history and theories of culture, cultural memory and trauma in contemporary science fiction, utopia, and dystopias as global novels, interconnecting literature and visual culture. I am also working on issues connected to human rights, intercultural and interreligious dialogues.
I graduated in Foreign Modern Languages with an interdisciplinary thesis in English and Persian literatures on women’s travel writings and Orientalism long ago, in 1992. I received my M.A in women’s and literature – the first in Europe on women’s studies – at the University of Hull, UK. My dissertation was on Luce Irigaray’s thougth and feminist radical utopias. I obtained the PhD in Canadian studies in 1998 with a thesis on travel literaure on Canada and the new worlds. Since then I have been working on women’s and gender studies, feminist studies. My research areas include Orientalism, travel literature, utopia and dystopia, science fiction, trauma and memory studies in literature and visual culture. On these subjects i have published essays, articles, volumes, and co-edited books. I have been part of Europen projects: Athena (intercultural women’s studies), with rosi Braidotti, ACUME, for the study of cultural memory in Europe, ACUME 2, Interfacing science and the humanities, the Marie Curie H2020 GRACE, Gender and Culture of Equality in Europe, and Plotina, promoting gender balance and inclusion. I am part of the Academy of Global Humanities and Critical Theory (University of Bologna, Duke, Virginia), with the project on Global Culture, World Literature “Millennium Novel, Global Readers”. I direct the Centre for Utopian studies at the University of Bologna. I coordinate the M.A GEMMA (Gender and women’s studies) for the University of Bologna. I was member of the Board for research evaluation at UNIBO. I have been active for the Equal Opportunities Commettee, and I was part of the Commettee for whom I was in charge of the info-formation section. I work with the Gender Bender festival, the Orlando Association, women’s association, The Foundation Emilia Romagna Teatro (ERT). I teach Feminist Theory, Re-vision of the Body in women’s literature, History of English culture, English Literature, Literatures of English-speaking countries, postcolonial and cultural studies and theories. Together with some colleagues I organise the UNIBO course in Diversity Management. I was Delegate of the Rector for Equal Opportunities (until October 2021), after having been Confidential Councellor for the University of Bologna. I was also member of the Academic Senate. I was a member of the project “Establishing a Regional Research Team Europe in the Framework of the World Humanities Report”, inclufing The Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), the International Council of Philosophy and the Human Sciences (CIPSH), in collaboration with UNESCO, Volkswagen Foundation. I am representative of the University of Bologna for the SSH Deans and the board of the Gender&Diversity group of the GUILD (European Research-Intensive Universities), a member of WDEG, Equality and Diversity of the Coimbra Group. I am advisor for the Horizon2020 EQUALS EU AAC (Europe’s RegionalPartnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age). I am the Director of the project Marie Skłodowska–Curie Actions – Doctoral Network (MSCA DN) EUTERPE - European Literatures and Gender from a Transnational Perspective, at the University of Bologna. I am currently member of the City Council of Bologna, and Delegate for Human Rights, Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue.
