ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
University of Texas Austin – Austin, TX, AY 2023–
Associate Professor of Instruction, Department of French and Italian
University of Texas Austin – Austin, TX, AY 2022–23
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of French and Italian
University of St. Andrews –Scotland, UK, July 2019- July 2022
Visiting Assistant Professor (Lecturer), Departments of Comparative Literature and Italian
Maternity leave in AY 2021-2022.
University of California Davis – Davis, CA, AY 2018–19
Lecturer, Department of French and Italian
University of California Berkeley – Berkeley, CA, Spring 2018
Lecturer, Department of Italian Studies
Chabot Community College – Hayward, CA, Spring 2018
Lecturer, Language Arts Program
San Francisco State University – San Francisco, CA, Fall 2017
Lecturer, Department of Modern Languages
New York University – New York City, AY 2014–15
Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, College of Arts and Sciences
European University Institute – Florence, Italy, AY 2013–14
Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History and Civilization
EDUCATION
M.A./Ph.D., Italian Studies, New York University, 2013
B.A., Comparative Literature, Columbia University, 1999
PUBLICATIONS
Academic Book
Italy’s Sea: Empire and Nation in the Mediterranean, 1895-1945 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020).
Edited Volumes
Italian Fascism in Rhodes and the Dodecanese Islands, 1923-43. Coedited with Aron Rodrigue. (Under contract with Routledge, anticipated in 2023).
Power and Image in Early Modern Europe. Coedited with Jessica Goethals and Gaoheng Zhang. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals
“Anthropology, Ethnography, and ‘Primitive Cultures’: Gabriele D’Annunzio’s ‘Worldly’ Empire.” Conditionally accepted by Italian Culture. (Anticipated in 2023)
“Bringing the Empire Home: Italian Fascism’s Mediterranean Tour of Rhodes.” California Italian Studies 8, no. 2 (2019).
“The Jewish Communities of Rhodes and Kos: A Transnational Community between Ottoman Collapse and the Italian Empire.” Αρχειοτάξιο/Archeiotaxio: Journal of Contemporary Social History Archives 19 (2017): 141–59.
“Crimes of Diction: Language and National Belonging in the Fiction of Amara Lakhous.” Journal of Romance Studies 15, no. 2 (2015): 1–21.
Book Chapters in Peer-Reviewed Volumes
“Reading Donna Leon as Mediterranean Eco-noir.” In Routledge Companion to Crime Fiction and Ecology, Nathan Ashman, ed. London: Routledge, 2023.
“Italian Identity, Global Mediterranean: Heritage and the Cultural Politics of Tourism in the Aegean.” In Transcultural Italies: Mobility, Memory and Translation, edited by Loredana Polezzi, Charles Burdett, and Barbara Spadaro. Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 2020.
“An Imperial Education in Times of Transition: Occupation and Administration of the Aegean.” In Italy in the Era of the Great War, edited by Vanda Wilcox. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
“Remnants of Empire: Local and Provincial Views of the Mediterranean.” In MedWorlds7, proceedings of 7th International Conference of Mediterranean Worlds, edited by Jacques-Emmanuel Bernard. (Toulon: Babel-Revues, 2016).
“From Ottoman to Mediterranean Empire: Italian Colonial Rule in the Dodecanese Islands and the Second Treaty of Lausanne.” In War and Collapse: World War One and the Ottoman State, edited by Hakan Yafuz and Feroz Ahmad. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2015.
“Arcadian Histories: Italian Encounters in the Eastern Mediterranean.” In New Perspectives in Italian Studies, edited by Graziella Parati. Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 2012.
Shorter Papers
“Making Italy Postcolonial, Challenging Regional Stereotypes.” Italian Studies in South Africa 35, No 1 (2022): 45-48.
“One Face, One Race: Citizenship and the Culture of Fascist Empire in the Dodecanese Islands.” European University Institute Working Papers, 2014.
Book Review
Bruce Strang, ed., Collision of Empires: Italy’s Invasion of Ethiopia and its International Impact. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 20, no. 5 (2015): 749–52.
Translation
Translation of Italian-language chapters. Giorgos Kallis, Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico Demaria, Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era. Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2015.
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS
American Institute of Maghrebi Studies, Travel Grant, 2020-22
Travel award for 1.5 months research in Tunisia and Algeria for the project, “Invisible Migrants’: Italian Repatriations from French North Africa,” Accepted in 2021 – to be used in summer 2022.
Royal Irish Academy Charlemont Grant Scheme 2020-21
Research funding for partnership with Trinity College Dublin: “Rethinking the Avant-Garde: Radical Politics in Europe and the World,” collaborative workshop to be held in May 2022.
University of California Berkeley, Professional Development Fund
Research funding in 2018–19 for project entitled, “Global Approaches to Italian Studies,” for research on the Italian communities of Tunisia and diasporic identities in Italian culture.
European Commission Funding Scheme [finalist]
Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, Seal of Excellence, for the 2016–17 application cycle.
Council of American Overseas Research Centers
Andrew R. Mellon Multicountry Research Fellow for the Mediterranean, 2015–16.
Affiliations with American Academy in Rome, American School of Classical Studies in Athens, and the Centre d’études maghrébines à Tunis.
Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection – Sacramento, USA
Visiting Library Research Fellowship, 2015.
California State University, Sacramento.
European University Institute – Florence, Italy,
Individual Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, September 1-December 31, 2014.
Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies Postdoctoral award [declined]
Research Stream: Global Governance Program
Fulbright U.S. Student Program – Athens, Greece
Pre-doctoral Fellowship for Dissertation Completion, 2012–13.
Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of Aegean, Rhodes.
New York University – New York, USA
Dean’s Pre-Doctoral Dissertation Grant, 2010.
US Department of Education
Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for Summer Language Study, Modern Greek, awarded twice, 2006 and 2007.
UNIVERSITY TEACHING
Graduate Seminars
- “Crossing the Mediterranean,” University of Texas, Austin, Fall 2022.
- “Postcolonial Theory (Intro): Geographies and Mobilities,” U of St Andrews, Spring 2021.
- “Italian Colonialism and Postcolonialism,” U of St Andrews, Fall 2020.
- “Empires and Nations in Modern Europe,” Department of History, EUI, Winter 2014.
PhD Supervision
- Cecilia Ascoli, thesis title, “Cultural intersections and welfare education: a study of Carlotta De Saxy Visconti’s role as reformer, writer and educator in eighteenth century Milan.”
Undergraduate Thesis Supervision
- Alessandra Antuzzi, “A Climate of Fear: How is the securitisation of migration in Italy affected by Italian national identity construction?”
- William Singleton, “North and South: Comparing the Experiences of Italians in the American South after the American Civil War and the Federal Republic of Germany after World War Two.”
- Evie Kerr, “Representation and perception in film of migrant prostitutes in Italy: moving beyond the victim-criminal binary to restore agency”
Comparative Literature Courses
- “Crossing the Mediterranean,” St Andrews, Spring 2021.
- “World Literature,” St Andrews, Fall 2020.
- “Petroculture,” St Andrews, Spring 2020.
- “Good and Evil,” St Andrews, Fall 2019.
Italian Cultural Studies Seminars
- “Travelers and Tourists in Italian Culture,” St Andrews, Fall 2020.
- “Italian Geographies,” St Andrews, Fall 2020.
- “Black Italians,” St Andrews, Spring 2020.
- “Emigrant Nation,” St Andrews, Fall 2019.
- “Italian Histories,” St Andrews, Spring 2020.
- “Italian Migrations,” UC Davis, Winter 2019.
- “Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia,” UC Davis, Fall 2018.
- “Italian Language and Culture through Cinema,” New York University, Spring 2010.
- “Readings in Modern Italian Culture,” New York University, Fall 2009.
Introductory Literature and Humanities Courses
- “Viva Verdi: Literature, History and the Arts in Italy from the Risorgimento to Fascism,” Core Curriculum Program, New York University, Spring 2015.
- “Antiquity and the Nineteenth Century,” Core Curriculum Program, NYU, Fall 2014.
- “Antiquity and the Renaissance,” Core Curriculum Program, NYU, Fall 2008.
Italian Language
- Intermediate Italian, University of California Davis, AY 2018-19.
- Elementary Italian, UC Berkeley, Spring 2018.
- Elementary Italian, Chabot Community College, Spring 2018.
- Advanced Italian Grammar and Composition, San Francisco State University, Fall 2017.
- Beginning and Intermediate Italian, Pace University, AY 2014–15.
- Intensive Summer Italian, New York University in Florence, Summer 2010.
Teaching portfolio available on request.
SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS
Invited
“The Many Ends of the Italian Empire” Research seminar at Durham University, United Kingdom, March 8, 2023.
“The Jewish Communities of Rhodes and Kos: Between Italians and Ottomans,” Sephardic Genealogical Society, September 19, 2021. (https://youtu.be/Gn7NBllS0tU)
“Why ‘ius culturae’ and not ‘ius soli’?: The colonial histories that underpin Italian citizenship reform,” Columbia Modern Italian Studies Seminar. September 10, 2021.
“The Mediterranean Alternative: A Blessing or a Curse for Diversity in Italian Studies,” Roundtable on Diversity, Decolonization, and Italian Studies; hosted by Stony Brook University, Dartmouth College, and the University of British Columbia, May 3-12, 2021.
“Everyday Fascism in the Dodecanese,” British School Rome, Round Table on Fascist Violence, April 8, 2021.
“Italy’s Eastern Question: Ottoman Collapse and Italian Mobilities in the Mediterranean, 1895–1947,” lecture given at Columbia University, European Institute, Mediterranean Colloquium, New York, November 1, 2018.
“Belonging in the Archipelago: Mapping the Italian Empire through Mediterranean Mobilities,” lecture given at University of British Columbia, Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies, Vancouver, Canada, February 8, 2018.
“Les juifs de Rhodes et Kos: Perspectives critiques sur l’insularité etl’identité euro-méditerranéenne dans les îles du Dodécanèse,” lecture given at Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 15, 2016.
“Refugees, Migration and Ethnic Identities in Italy’s Illiberal Empire,” paper presented at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence, Italy, May 24, 2016.
“Una faccia, una razza: Negotiating Difference and Race in Italian Imperial Rule of the Dodecanese,” lecture given at Center for European Mediterranean Studies, New York University, New York, April 1, 2015.
“Fascism’s Mediterranean Empire: Italian Colonial Modernity in the Dodecanese Islands,” Villa La Pietra Seminar Series, New York University, Florence, Italy, March 4, 2014.
“Fascism’s Mediterranean Empire: Representations, Legacies and Italian Colonial Governance in the Dodecanese Archipelago,” lecture given at Department of Italian, Columbia University, New York, February 28, 2013.
“Citizenship and Belonging in the Mediterranean under Italian Fascist Rule,” lecture given at University of Aegean, Mediterranean Lecture Series, Rhodes, Greece, December 5, 2012.
“Fascism’s Mediterranean Empire and the Conquest of the Levant,” lecture given at University of Michigan, Department of Romance Languages, Ann Arbor, Michigan, January 17, 2012.
“Verso una letteratura del viaggio postcoloniale: Antonio Tabbucchi e Notturno Indiano (1984),” lecture given at Libreria Fahrenheit 451, Rome, Italy, November 4, 2011.
Conference Papers (selected)
“From the Aegean to the Amazon: Anthropology, Ethnography and (Pre-)Colonial Exploration in the Fin de Siècle Literature of Gabriele D’Annunzio,” (abstract accepted) Modern Languages Association Convention, .
“Scuole mediterranee: istruzione italiana nell’Egeo ‘coloniale’ (il Dodecaneo), 1912-43,” Migrazioni, Scuola, ed Educazione: Fonti, Ricerche, e Metodologie, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Scienze dell’Educazione, Università degli studi di Torino, December 2-4, 2020.
“Visions of the Mediterranean: Italian Design, Architecture and Tourism in Rhodes,” Society for Italian Studies, Themed Conference, “Visions of Italy,” Kent, United Kingdom, September 10-11, 2020.
“Italians in Tunisia: Italianità in the Mediterranean,” paper presented at the Convention for the American Association of Italian Studies, Sorrento, Italy, June 16, 2018.
“Between Privilege and the Prospect for National Unification: The ‘City of Aegean’ under Italian Occupation, 1912–23,” paper presented at the Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, Washington DC, USA, November 19, 2016.
“Mobility in Insular Spaces: Mediterraneanism and Italian Rule in the Dodecanese Islands,” paper presented at Insularities Connected: Bridging Seascapes, from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and Beyond, Institute of Mediterranean Studies, Rethymo, June 10, 2016.
“The Jewish Communities of Rhodes and Kos between Assimilation, Anti-Semitism, and Expulsion,” paper presented at Italy and Italian Jews in Colonial Territories During WWII: Libya, Dodecanese and East Africa, Roma Tre University, June 15, 2016.
“East of Eden: Orientalism and the Italian Afro-Mediterranean Imagination,” paper presented at the Italy’s Heart of Darkness: Africa in the Italian Literary Imagination, special session of Modern Language Association, Austin, Texas, January 7, 2016.
“Remnants of Empire: ‘Provincializing’ the Mediterranean,” paper presented at Socio-economic and Cultural Exchange in the Mediterranean: Continuities and Ruptures, University of Toulon, Toulon, France, September 15, 2015.
“At the Borders of Belonging: Italian Imperial Citizenship, Jus Sanguinis, and Fascism’s Mediterranean Empire (1912–47),” paper presented at Max Weber Postdoctoral Contribution to the Social Sciences, European University Institute, Fiesole, Italy, June 12, 2015.
“Reflections on a Marine Venus: Gender and Race in the Inter-war Eastern Mediterranean,” paper presented at the Convention of the American Association for Italian Studies, Boulder, Colorado, March 27, 2015.
“Una Faccia, una razza: Citizenship and the Culture of Fascist Empire in the Dodecanese Islands,” paper presented at Deportation of the Jews of Rhodes and Cos: 1944–2014, a Commemorative International Symposium on the Holocaust in the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece, July 22, 2014.
“Who were the Levantines? The Protean Legacies of the Merchants of Venice in Post-Unification Italy,” paper presented at Foreigners in the Heart of Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Florence, Italy, June 18–20, 2014.
“Insular Citizenship in the Dodecanese: Les îles en Méditerranée, perspectives critiques sur l’insularité,” paper presented at the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 14, 2014.
“Empires and Colonial Conquests in Japan, Italy, and Germany (c.1860–c.1950),” paper presented at the Department of History, European University Institute, January 31, 2014.
“A Harem for the Pasha: Reverse Colonialism and Women as Symbolic Rapprochement in Libyan-Italian Relations, 2008–2011,” paper presented at Postfeminism? The Culture and Politics of Gender in the Age of Berlusconi, Bologna, Italy, June 7–9, 2012.
“Post-Ottoman Re-colonization: Fascist Rule in the Dodecanese Archipelago,” paper presented at The Ottoman Empire and World War I, Turkish Studies Project Conference III, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, May 16–20, 2012.
“Arcadian Histories: Italian Encounters in the Eastern Mediterranean,” paper presented at the Italian Studies Conference, Dartmouth College, May 6–9, 2011.
“Between Myth and History: Italy’s Forgotten Islands of Empire,” paper presented at the Northeast Modern Language Association (awarded merit-based travel award), Boston, Massachusetts, February 28, 2009.
PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS
Modern Greek Seminar, Athens Kapodistrian University; September 2012–May 2013; passed state proficiency exam
Advanced Oral History Summer Institute, Regional Oral History Office, University of California Berkeley, August 10–18, 2014
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Editorial Board Member, Chronica Mundi (www.chronicamundi.org), an online history and cultural journal with articles in English, Spanish and Italian, published by Italica (2014-15)
NETWORK
Co-organizer of the research and networking project “Mediterranean Insularities,” co-funded by the Institute of Mediterranean Studies (Rethymno, Greece) and the AKMED Research Center for Mediterranean Civilizations (Antalya, Turkey)
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Member of the Modern Language Associaton, American Comparative Literature Association, American Association of Italian Studies; the Modern Language Association; American Historical Association; Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies; Middle East Studies Association; and the Oral History Association.
LANGUAGES
English, mother tongue; Italian, near-native fluency; Spanish, French and Modern Greek, good.