Associate Professor of Italian
Mellon Associate Professor in Global Racial Justice
https://globalracialjustice.rutgers.edu/Named-Term-Chairs-2022-2023
Ph.D. Stanford, 2009
B.A. (Honors), Connecticut College, 2003
Joined Rutgers in 2022
Address: AB 5113- 15 Seminary Place
Phone: 848-932-5193
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Global Migrations and Postcolonial Theory, Environmental and Public Humanities, Food Studies,
Italian Cinema and Media Studies
COURSES REGULARLY TAUGHT
Undergraduate
Courses in: Migration Cultures in Italy/Europe, Global and Mediterranean Food Studies, Italian Cinema
Graduate
- Postcolonial Italy: Race, Migrations, Diasporas
HONORS AND AWARDS
- Andrew W. Mellon Named Term Chair in Global Racial Justice, 2022-2027
- Outstanding Faculty Award For Study Abroad Program "Food and Culture: The Italian Experience" - University Professional & Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), 2013
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books
Articles
- Edible Nation: Imagining Somalia Through Cuisine.” In Longing for an African Future: Mal d’Africa, Afro Optimism and Somalia, Routledge Press (Forthcoming)
- “From Intersectionality to Interstitiality: Theoretical Pathways in Italian Race, Migration and Diaspora Studies.” (Forthcoming)
- “Hybridize or Decline: Practical Solutions towards a sustainable future for Italian Studies.” In Diversity in Italian Studies. Siân Gibby and Anthony Julian Tamburri, eds. New York: John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 2021
- “Nuovo Cinema Inferno: The Affect of Ambivalence in Giuseppe Tornatore’s La sconosciuta.” in From Terrone to Extra-Comunitario: The New Manifestations of Racism in Contemporary Italian Cinema, ed. Grace Russo-Bullaro et al. (Troubador Italian Series, 2010)
- “Mimic Nation – Mimic Men: Contextualizing Italy’s Migration Culture through Bhabha” in National Belongings: Hybridity in Italian Colonial and Postcolonial Cultures, ed. Derek Duncan et al. (Peter Lang Editors, 2010)
- “L’altrove è sempre qui: L’eredità della commedia all’italiana in Scontri di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio di Amara Lakhous.” ("The Other is always Here: The Legacy of Italian Comedy Film in Amara Lakhous' Clash of Civilizations for an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio.") In L’altro e l’altrove nella cultura italiana (pp.197-205), Nerosubianco Press, Cuneo, Fall 2011
- "Transgression, Integration, Suspension: The Sense Wars/Space Wars of the Body in Italian Literature and Film of Immigration." In The Cultures of Italian Migration: Diverse Trajectories and Discrete Perspectives (pp. 169-184). Lanham, Maryland: Farliegh Dickinson University Press, Fall 2011
Selected Recent Invited Lectures and Conference Papers
Invited Speaker, “On Interstitial Identities” AAIS Executive Council Conference Series on “Broadening Perspectives, Intersections, Italies”, May 2022 (Virtual)
Invited Roundtable Participant, “Transmediatic Creative Nostalgia in Migrant Diasporic Communities” Virtual Symposium of the Central New York Humanities Corridor on “Borders, Captivity and Memory in Transnational Italy and the Mediterranean”, March 18, 2022
Invited respondent, Lecture by Professor John Champagne “Categorical Miscegenation and Queer Italia” Columbia Seminar in Modern Italian Studies, February 4, 2022
“Pathways between Critical Race Theory and Italian Studies” American Association of Italian Studies (AAIS) Conference, Virtual, May 2021
“Intersectionality and Hybridity: Disrupting the “Vision” of Italian Studies” Diversity and Decolonization in Italian Studies, Roundtable Series, Virtual, May 2021
Invited Respondent, Seminar, “Black Italian Lives across Centuries and Disciplines” Mediterranean Studies Group, University of Colorado, Boulder, April 2021
Workshop Co-Facilitator “Teaching Social Justice through Italian Food Studies: Personal Reflection and Community Engagement.” Teaching Italian XIII, Equity in the Italian Curriculum, Montclair State University, October 2020
“Brown/Black Bodies in an Italian Classroom: An Inevitable Disruption?” Symposium on Diversity in Italian Studies, John D. Calandra Institute, Queens College, NY, January 2019
Moderator/Discussant, Public Film Screening of “The Order of Things” by Director Andrea Segre, Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco, CA, October 12, 2018
“Cinematic Perceptions of Italy’s Migrant Crisis”, Graduate Symposium, with Professor Thomas Harrison (UCLA) and film director Andrea Segre, Stanford University, October 11, 2018
Cinematic Responses to Italy’s Migration Crisis, Panel Discussion with Film Director Andrea Segre, Stanford University, October 8, 2018
Public lecture, “Of Stereotypes and Mimics: Imagining Immigrants in Contemporary Italy”, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, September 19, 2016
Public Lecture, “Guess Who’s Coming to an Italian Dinner?: Black Bodies in Italy’s New Migrant Cinema”, Department of Romance Languages, Boston College, March 30, 2016
Guest Lecture “Why read Dante?” UMass Boston, September 23, 2015
“Food as Culture: Developing a Study Abroad course in Italy”, Italian Studies Colloquium, California State University Chico - Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, Chico, November 2013
Workshop, "Why Should I Watch Antonioni? Unmasking the Art Film." California State University, Chico, November 2011
