My research focuses on modern and contemporary Italian literature, cinema, ecocriticism, food studies, gender studies as well as language pedagogy and applied technology. My work is centered upon representations of transgressive femininity in Italian literary and cinematic works from the 15th to the 20th century. I am is also interested in the interconnectedness and overlapping of the ecological work of some of the most renowned artists of the Po River Valley in Italy, such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Luigi Ghirri, Gianni Celati, and Tonino Guerra.
My research contributions featured in this section include:
- peer-reviewed journal articles
- conference presentations
- public talks
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
“Folle audacia femminile: metamorfosi entomologiche in Nascita e morte della massaia di Paola Masino,” in Epifanie Entomologiche: gli insetti nella cultura italiana, edited by Daniela Bombara and Ellen Patat, Troubador Publishing, 2023.
“Weaving Hope: Tonino Guerra, Fairy Tales and Edenic Holism in Red Desert,” Special Issue on Tonino Guerra, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies (JICMS), 11:1, 2023.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“Riso amaro: A Cultural History of Rice in Modern Italy,” California Interdisciplinary Consortium of Italian Studies, 2023 CICIS: Hybridity, PhD-in Progress Roundtable, California State Long Beach, February 24-25 2023.
“Weaving Hope: Tonino Guerra, Fairy Tales and Edenic Holism in Red Desert,” American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS), Tonino Guerra’s Roundtable, Bologna, May 2022.
“La cucina de l’uno, niente, poco e senza : Hunger and Privation in Petronilla’s ricettari,”
Modern Language Association, 2021 MLA Conference, Panel: The Trauma of Food: Literary Depictions of Women’s Relationships with Food During WWII, Toronto (Canada), January 2021.
47th Annual Teaching Assistant Conference, UCLA, Panel: Experienced Lanuage TA: Discussion and Shock Lesson, UCLA Center for the Advancement of Teaching, UCLA, September 2020.
“Fenomeni da Baraccone? Federico Fellini’s Monstrous Women,” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, 2019 PAMLA Conference: Send in the Clowns, San Diego, November 2019.
“From Backdrop to Backbone: The Po Valley’s Environmental Degradation in the Works of Michelangelo Antonioni, Gianni Celati, and Luigi Ghirri,” California Interdisciplinary Consortium of Italian Studies, 2019 CICIS: Italy’s Centers and Peripheries, Stanford University, March 2019.
“Mad Female Audacity against Fascism: Entomological Metamorphoses in Birth and Death of the Housewife by Paola Masino”, American Association of Teachers of Italian, 2018 AATI International Conference in Cagliari, Italy, June 2018.
Co-Chair of Terra e Mare/Land and Sea, 2017 Italian Graduate Student Conference, UCLA, January 2017.
PUBLIC TALKS
“Italian Female Writers of the Fascist Era”, Patrons of the Italian Culture (PICLA), Santa Monica College, Los Angeles, September 2019.
“Hybrid Course Training Program,” Department of Italian, University of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, June 17-19, 2019.
RESEARCH