I am an assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. I teach courses on Italian language, literature and culture. I am interested in the modernity of Italy and Europe in all of its aspects (the literary, the technological, the visual), and in the broad narrative, epistemological, and scientific shifts that occurred between 19th and 20th century, and that shaped the modern individual. I received my PhD in Italian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley (2007), and I was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in International Humanities at the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University (2009). My first book project, "Gendering Novels. Problematic Characters in the Modern Italian Novel," on the intersection between narrative, epistemology and gender in modern Italian novels, is currently being reviewed for publication. I have also a passion for the history of publishing and print technologies. My second book project is devoted to Milanese publisher Sonzogno. I published articles on fin-de-siecle Milanese writer Neera, on trauma narratives in Pier Paolo Pasolini, on the relationship between literature and photography, on the history of publishing, and on the "familiar" archive of Triestine photographer Wanda Wulz (forthcoming). I am currently developing a digital metadata repository of the Sonzogno historical catalogue, a first sample of which will be available online early 2013. Sample courses taught: "Masterpieces of Italian Literature," "Italiani, Italiane: Literature, Nation and Gender," "Italian Modernisms: Pirandello, Svevo, Borgese, and Deledda," "Modern Italian Novels: from Manzoni to Tondelli," "Twentieth Century Literature and Photography," and "Theory and Practice of Italian Cinema."
Articles and Book Reviews
Still figures: Photography, modernity and gender in Neera’s Fotografie matrimoniali, The Italianist (2010)
This essay discusses author Neera's early novel "Fotografie matrimoniali" (1883) in light of its ambiguous...
Corpi estranei and Moving Stereotypes: Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Trauma of the Other in "L'odore dell'India", MLN - Modern Language Notes (2009)
Gendered Quests: Analysis, Revelation and the Epistemology of Gender in Neera's "Teresa", "Lydia" and "L'indomani", The Italianist (2008)
This essay is devoted to Milanese fin-de-siècle writer Neera, more specifically to the three novels...
Contributions to Books
An Imaged Life. Wanda Wulz and the Familiar Archive, A 'window' on the Female Modernist 'I': from Neera to Elsa Morante (2013)
This essay reviews Italian photographer Wanda Wulz's (1903-1984) artistic production in light of the family...