I have been employed as an Associate Professor of Italian at the Dept. of World Languages and Literatures from 2007 until 2019. I have also worked - as a professoressa a contratto - for the University of Modena/Reggio, Venezia and Siena.
My academic interest spans from contemporary history to Italian contemporary literature, film studies, art history and visual culture
- Research
1) My research on Women’s Studies focuses on dissenting women writers in Italy before and during fascism. I have consistently published in this field in academic journals, and contributed to text books . Among these chapters are “Annie Vivanti: History in her Stories between two Continents and two Centuries”; a work on Dacia Maraini, entitled “La Vacanza: dal Vuoto alla Ricerca del Senso”. In the last few years I have investigated Leda Rafanelli's anti-colonialist and political novels, together with Paola Masino 's and Paola Drigo's works.
2) Another aspect of my research is my dedication to contemporary history. Since 2014 I have been a member of the Association of Contemporary History, the purpose of which is to investigate history from the point of view of the everyday person, revealing and analyzing little known stories that actually made history.
I have researched and then published book chapters about historians and activists such as Eugene Debs, Robert Blatchford, and more recently, Howard Zinn.
Due to my investigation in contemporary history, I started exploring the field of visual and figurative arts within the same period, specifically in reference to the works of the anti-fascist sculptor Eugenio Baroni.
3) My research in cultural studies includes works on the Italian Diaspora, with a specific reference to Irish – Italian Communities.
4) In the area of film studies, I have recently started working on the film production by Costanza Quatriglio and Laura Bispuri.
2. Teaching
My academic research has contributed to my teaching in significant ways. Along with language and culture classes I designed and taught 300-level course ranging from Introduction to Italian Literature, to Italian Women Writers, to Film Criticism, to Italian Detective Stories, and History of Italian Language. These courses, due to their comparative nature, focus on different narrative codes and genres, historic periods, identity issues within the history of Italy and Europe, and theories of literature. Through these courses, students have become familiar with a new set of information about Italy, learning about its diversity, its varied yet cohesive culture, and the role of Italy within European culture. I encourage my students to practice critical thinking while examining works which have been and still remain essential to the formation of the socio-political consciousness of Italy within a global perspective.
