Teaching

My interdisciplinary research and training mean that I teach Italian literature as well as history. In my courses on Italian colonialism and migration, I bring examples of submitted and rejected citizenship petitions found in archives, oral interviews, and memoirs similar to the ones that I collected during fieldwork. I ask students to write about or investigate their own family histories of migration. In one session, we might search the database of Ellis Island together; in another meeting, we might read a novel by a non-native speaker of Italian and compare it with our own experiences of gaining fluency in another language.

SELECTION OF COURSES TAUGHT

Italian Studies Seminars

  • “The Twentieth-century Novel,” Department of Italian, University of St Andrews, Spring 2021.
  • “Travellers and Tourists in Italian Culture,” Department of Italian, University of St Andrews, Fall 2020.
  • “Black Italians,” Department of Italian, University of St Andrews, Spring 2020.
  • “Emigrant Nation,” Department of Italian, University of St Andrews, Fall 2019.
  • “Italian Migrations,” Department of French and Italian, University of California Davis, Winter 2019
  • “Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia,” Department of French and Italian, University of California Davis, Fall 2018
  • “Italian Language and Culture through Cinema,” Department of Italian Studies, New York University, Spring 2010
  • “Readings in Modern Italian Culture,” Department of Italian Studies, New York University, Fall 2009

Comparative Literature and Humanities Courses

  • “Crossing the Mediterranean,” Department of Comparative Literature, University of St Andrews, Spring 2021.
  • “Petroculture,” Department of Comparative Literature, University of St Andrews, Spring 2021.
  • “World Literature,” Department of Comparative Literature, University of St Andrews, Fall 2020.
  • “Good and Evil,” Department of Comparative Literature, University of St Andrews, Fall 2019.
  • “Between Worlds: Crossing the Mediterranean in Italian Culture,” Readings and Composition, Department of Italian Studies, University of California Berkeley, Spring 2018
  • “Viva Verdi: Literature, History and the Arts in Italy from the Risorgimento to Fascism,” NYU, Spring 2015
  • “Texts and Ideas: Antiquity and the Nineteenth Century,” Core Curriculum Program, NYU, Fall 2014
  • “Antiquity and the Italian Renaissance,” Core Curriculum Program, New York University, Fall 2008

Doctoral Seminars

  • “Empires and Nations in Modern Europe,” Department of History, European University Institute, Winter 2014
  • “On Sources,” Department of History, European University Institute, Fall 2013

Italian Language

  • Intermediate Italian, University of California Davis, Fall 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, Summer 2010
  • Extensive Intermediate Italian, New York University, Spring 2007
  • Beginning Intensive Italian, New York University, Fall 2006

Pedagogical Training

  • Pedagogy Certificate in Italian Language (NYU): six-week program that included sessions on Task-Based-Instruction (TBI) approaches to language pedagogy and integrating culture in the language classroom. March-May, 2010
  • Pedagogy Certificate in Undergraduate Education (EUI): eight-month program that included sessions on course design, teaching for multidisciplinary contexts; and a peer –reviewed teaching training by the Teaching and Language Centre of the London School of Economics. October 2013-March, 2014.