Fourth-Year PhD Student
Email:
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Multispecies Studies, Data-feminism, Virgin Mary Paradigm, Italian Contemporary Women Writers, Queer studies, Motherhood
Diletta Pasetti graduated cum laude from the Università Cattolica in Milan with a BA in Italian Literature and an MA in Modern Philology. Afterwards, she furthered her graduate studies, shifting her focus to book production and publishing where she obtained an MA in Digital Publishing at Oxford Brookes University. Before coming to Rutgers, she worked extensively in the Publishing and Digital Communication industries. Her previous academic work focused on Giacomo Leopardi's Zibaldone, circular writing, and Father Mazzolari's conscientious objection. Her dissertation research explores the archetype of the Virgin Mary and its influence on paradigms of female performance, both human and non-human.
She is currently the book review editor at Italian Quarterly and the Assistant Director of the Rutgers in Rome Summer Program.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & CONFERENCES
Articles
- Pasetti, Diletta. “And Blessed Be the Fruit of Thy Womb: The Practice of Surrogacy in the Inspiring Unconventionality of the Virgin Mary.” Queer Kinship: Affects, Families, Bonds, edited by Silvia Antosa, Paolo Frascà, and Charlotte Ross, vol. V, TransCulture, Mimesis, forthcoming 2025.
- Pasetti, Diletta, and Nicoletta Marini Maio. “Almost like a Virgin: Strategic Appropriation of Marian Symbolism, femminismo della differenza, and Fascist Feminism in Giorgia Meloni’s ‘Reverse Discourse.’” gender/sexuality/italy, no. 10, 2023–2024, pp. 83–110. https://doi.org/10.15781/jdb5-4d12.
Recent Conference Presentations
- “Le conversazioni with SIAE. Giulia Caminito, Ginevra Lamberti, Paolo Nori.” A Two-Day Roundtable at Rizzoli NYC Bookstore on Italian Contemporary Literature. Panelist. (December 10th, 2024).
- “A Call for Disobedience: The Unexpected Revolution of Two Priests in Post-War Italy” Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, NYU. Panelist in discussion with Vanessa Roghi. (October 17th, 2023).
WORKS IN PROGRESS
- She is currently organizing a digital exhibition on the intertwining of the iconography of the Virgin Mary and the image representation of wild and farm animals
- With Prof. Stefano Albertini, she is co-editing a special edition of the journal “Italian Quarterly” dedicated to Catholic radical figures of the XX and XXI centuries, to be published in 2026.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
- Cultural Courses taught in English, Instructor: Italian Culture II.
- Cultural Courses taught in English, Grader: Italian Food Culture.
- Language Courses, Instructor: 101, 102, 131, 132, 250, 105, Italian through Music.