Assistant Professor of Italian Studies
Evelyn Ferraro is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at Santa Clara University. Her scholarship explores the relationships between Italianità perceived and constructed as national belonging and the transnational identities resulting from old and new mobilities. Her teaching and research interests include late 19th, 20th and 21st century Italian literature, culture, and cinema, with a focus on Italy’s global connections, as resulting from migrations (from and to Italy), colonization, liminal spaces and cultural crossings. She holds a Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literatures/English (University of Palermo, Italy), MAs in Translation and Comparative Literature (University of Essex, U.K.) and Italian Language and Literature (University of Pittsburgh), and a Ph.D. in Italian Studies (Brown University).
Her scholarly work addresses questions of human mobility, identity crises, exclusion, and practices of resistance in transnational narratives that belong to and expand the framework of Italian Studies, along with challenging essentialist notions of italianità/italianness and national belonging. Some of her published works include the American experience of Italian Jewish writer Ebe Cagli Seidenberg in California Italian Studies, NeMLA Italian Studies, and Carte Italiane; and the co-authored essays on Gabriella Ghermandi’s music and storytelling in the journal altrelettere and the volume Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis. Currently, her research projects investigate memory, space, and identity in Italian American narratives in California. She is also a Book Review Editor for Altreitalie, an International Journal of Studies on Italian Migrations in the World.
In addition to her research, she has a strong personal commitment to teaching, student learning, and the promotion of diversity within the Italian Studies curriculum. She has taught all levels of Italian, from communicatively-oriented elementary Italian courses and first-year core requirement courses (e.g., “Italy, Gateway of Cultures”) to advanced language and upper-division interdisciplinary courses on the Italian American experience, immigration in Italian cinema, and ecocriticism. Her courses encourage students to connect historical and contemporary subjects of interest and become well-informed, compassionate, and engaged global citizens.
Research Interests:
· Transnational Italy: Italy at the crossroads of transnational phenomena like migrations (emigration from/immigration to Italy) and colonialism
· Post-Risorgimento Italian Literature and Culture
· Italian American Studies
· Sicilian Literature and Culture, representations of Otherness
· Postcolonial theory; theories of space, memory, and liminality
· Digital Humanities in research and teaching
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About Evelyn Ferraro
Evelyn Ferraro is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at Santa Clara University. Her scholarship explores the relationships between Italianità perceived and constructed as national belonging and the transnational identities resulting from old and new mobilities. Her teaching and research interests include late 19th, 20th and 21st century Italian literature, culture, and cinema, with a focus on Italy’s global connections, as resulting from migrations (from and to Italy), colonization, liminal spaces and cultural crossings. She holds a Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literatures/English (University of Palermo, Italy), MAs in Translation and Comparative Literature (University of Essex, U.K.) and Italian Language and Literature (University of Pittsburgh), and a Ph.D. in Italian Studies (Brown University).
Her scholarly work addresses questions of human mobility, identity crises, exclusion, and practices of resistance in transnational narratives that belong to and expand the framework of Italian Studies, along with challenging essentialist notions of italianità/italianness and national belonging. Some of her published works include the American experience of Italian Jewish writer Ebe Cagli Seidenberg in California Italian Studies, NeMLA Italian Studies, and Carte Italiane; and the co-authored essays on Gabriella Ghermandi’s music and storytelling in the journal altrelettere and the volume Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis. Currently, her research projects investigate memory, space, and identity in Italian American narratives in California. She is also a Book Review Editor for Altreitalie, an International Journal of Studies on Italian Migrations in the World.
In addition to her research, she has a strong personal commitment to teaching, student learning, and the promotion of diversity within the Italian Studies curriculum. She has taught all levels of Italian, from communicatively-oriented elementary Italian courses and first-year core requirement courses (e.g., “Italy, Gateway of Cultures”) to advanced language and upper-division interdisciplinary courses on the Italian American experience, immigration in Italian cinema, and ecocriticism. Her courses encourage students to connect historical and contemporary subjects of interest and become well-informed, compassionate, and engaged global citizens.
Research Interests:
· Transnational Italy: Italy at the crossroads of transnational phenomena like migrations (emigration from/immigration to Italy) and colonialism
· Post-Risorgimento Italian Literature and Culture
· Italian American Studies
· Sicilian Literature and Culture, representations of Otherness
· Postcolonial theory; theories of space, memory, and liminality
· Digital Humanities in research and teaching
| September 2018 - Present | Assistant Professor of Italian Studies, Santa Clara University ‐ Department of Modern Languages and Literatures | |
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| September 2013 - August 2018 | Adjunct Lecturer of Italian Studies, Santa Clara University ‐ Department of Modern Languages and Literatures | |
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Disciplines
Research Interests
Italian and Italian American literature and culture (post-1861), Migrations (from and to Italy), Italian national identity, transnational literature and cinema, Postcolonial theory, gender studies, theories of space and liminality, intermediality, Digital Humanities in research and teaching, and Instructional technology
Professional Service and Affiliations
| 2012 - Present | Book Review Editor, Altreitalie, International Journal of Studies on Italian Migrations in the World |
Honors and Awards
- Leonardo Award 2020 in the Humanities. Leonardo da Vinci Society of San Francisco and the Italian Scientists and Scholars of North America Foundation
Courses
- ITAL 187 (in English) and ITAL 187I (in Italian): Destination Italy: Immigration in Film and literature (Core Curriculum: Civic Engagement; Pathway: Cinema Studies)
- ITAL 197 (Special Topics): Immigration Culture in Italy
- ITAL 1: Introduction to Italian Language and Culture I
- ITAL 113: Introduction to Italian Cinema
- ITAL 106: Advanced Italian Conversation
- ITAL 101: Introduction to Cultural Analysis
- ITAL 12A: Italy, Gateway of Cultures (Core Curriculum: Cultures & Ideas 2)
- ITAL 2: Elementary Italian 2
- ITAL 100: Advanced Italian 1- Italian through Italian Cuisine
- ITAL 154: Nature and the Italian Literary Imagination
- ITAL 185: The Italian American Experience (Core Curriculum: Diversity; Pathway: American Studies)
| 2010 | Ph.D. in Italian Studies from Brown, Brown University | |
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| 2004 | M.A. in Italian Language and Literature, University of Pittsburgh | |
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| 1999 | Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literatures, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy | |
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Links
Contact Information
408-551-3039
Kenna Hall
Email: