About
I am trained in both Italian and Brazilian Studies and my work focuses on the circulation and reimagination of ideas across time and space. In my work I explore the ways in which the concept of Italian identity has evolved beyond the strict geographical confines of the Italian nation-state and how it has impacted the way we imagine the bel paese. At the same time, I look at how the emigration of millions of Italians has shaped notions of class, race, and gender in the Americas—specifically in Brazil. The central questions that I grapple with in both my research and teaching include: What does it mean to be Italian in a culture defined by border crossing and internal diversity? How do we map the circulation of ideas that are supposedly anchored in a particular national context?
My forthcoming book The Italian Colony of São Paulo: Race, Class, and Cultural Capital in Brazil (Critical Studies in Italian Migrations, Fordham University Press, 2025) argues that Italians first became racialized as white in São Paulo, Brazil at the turn of the twentieth century. Whereas Italians in the United States struggled with xenophobia and were often not fully acknowledged as white, in São Paulo, due to a series of social, economic, and cultural factors, Italians became closely associated with ideas of whiteness, modernization, and civilization. This book brings to light how the overlooked experiences of Italians in Brazil complicate conventional narratives about the racial ambiguity and oppression of Italians in the Americas, on the one hand, and the conflation of Italians with cultural and economic backwardness in Europe, on the other. In the book, close readings of a wide array of texts—the travel writings of Gina Lombroso Ferrero, the short stories of Antônio de Alcântara Machado, the columns of José Correia Leite, the political essays of Miguel Reale, and the memoirs of Zélia Gattai—trace a "New World Italian discourse," or the overlapping narratives about Italian racial, economic, and cultural superiority which constructed and mantained Italians' status as model minority in São Paulo. These discursive practices represent important antecedents to the racial nationalism that reared its ugly heads in Italy proper throughout the twentieth century and remain central to contemporary debates about national identity in the Italian public sphere. For an updated list of publications and projects please read here.
My teaching interests reflect the interdisciplinarity and transnationalism of my research. I teach courses on the circulation of fascist ideas across the Atlantic, on the contributions of Italians to ideas of race, gender, and class in the USA and Brazil, on the literature of Elena Ferrante, on youth culture and politics in a multiracial Italy, and on the migration between Italy and Latin America during the 20th and 21st centuries.
I am originally from Vignola, a picturesque borgo nestled in the hills of Modena and Bologna, famous for its cherries (morette and duroni) and for the torta Barozzi cake, named after the architect Jacopo Barozzi who gave the town its renowned spiral staircase. I am a former American Field Service (AFS) student, and I have been affiliated with the Universidade Clássica de Lisboa, the University of California Davis, the Universidade de São Paulo, and the Global South Studies Center of the Universität zu Köln.
Research Areas
- Italian Studies
- Brazilian Studies
- Fascism
- Migration
- Global South
- Translation Studies
- Race and Ethnic Studies
