Curriculum Vitae

Education

PhD, New York University — 1995

With Distinction. Comparative Literature. Dissertation: “All the Regions Do Smilingly Revolt”; co-directors, Professors Margaret Cohen, Timothy Reiss, Richard Sieburth, and Barbara Spackman. Major fields of concentration: 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century, translation studies, theory of genres, nationalism and regionalism.

MA, New York University — 1990

Comparative Literature. Thesis: “The Question of the Origin of Language in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century,” directed by Prof. Michael Hays (Cornell University).

Laurea, Università degli Studi di Catania, Italy — 1986

Cum laude. Foreign languages and literatures. Thesis: “Robert Coover’s Pricksongs &  Descants,” directed by Prof. Maria Vittoria D’Amico. Major fields of concentration: Anglo-American literature and literary theory.

Honors & Awards

Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies Fellowship (2018); Laura Shannon Prize for Best Book in European Studies (2010); Franklin Humanities Seminar Fellow 2004-2005; Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor 2004-2005; National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend (2003); Arts & Science Research Funds, Duke University (2003-04; 2002-03); Oceans Connect Travel Award, Duke University (2001); Center for European Studies Faculty Travel Award, Duke University (2000); Oceans Connect Course Development Grant, Duke University (1999-2000); Center for European Studies Course Development Grant, Duke University (1998-1999); Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, New York University (1994-1995); Fulbright Grant (1988-92); Italian Association for North-American Studies Scholarship (1986); Centro Studi Nord-Americani di Roma Scholarship (1985).

Academic Positions Held

Professor of Literature. Duke University. 20020-present. Docente. Dottorato di Ricerca in Storie, culture e politiche del globale, Università Alma Mater di Bologna. 2019-present. Visiting Professor, Università Alma Mater di Bologna, June 21-July 21, 2021. Visiting Professor, Università di Cagliari, April 21-May 21, 2021.. Professeur invité. Université Paris Ouest – Nanterre La Defense. May-June 2017.. Docente esterno di Analisi, Pianificazione e Gestione Integrata del Territorio, Department of Architecture, Università di Catania, Italy. 2008-2015. Associate Professor of Romance Studies. Duke University. 2005-2008. Assistant Professor of Romance Studies; Duke University. September 1998-2005. Visiting Professor of Italian. Sarah Lawrence College. 1995-96. Adjunct Assistant Professor of Humanities. New York University. 1995-1996. Lecturer of Humanities. New York University. 1991-1995. Lecturer of Italian. New School for Social Research. 1991-1995.

Publications

Co-Editor with Fredric Jameson. Gramsci in the World. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021..

Editor. “Le forme della conoscenza in Giambattista Vico.” Monographic issue of Italian Culture (2016).

The Mafia: A Cultural History (London: Reaktion Books, 2015).

Europe (in Theory). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. [Winner of the 2010 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies].

Place in Literature: Regions, Cultures, Communities. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.

Editor. Racconti americani del Novecento. Milano: Einaudi Scuola, 1999.

With Edna Goldstaub. Portrait of the Artist as a Blind Martyr. Exhibition catalogue for the Ramat-Gan Museum of Contemporary Art. Ramat-Gan, Israel, 1994. [Also partially reprinted as “The Abominable Mirror,” Studio Magazine 59 (1994/95)]

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“Antonio Labriola Knew That Marxism Was a Philosophy of Action.” Jacobin (July 30, 2023) < https://jacobin.com/author/roberto-dainotto>.

“Gramsci e le giostre. Romanzo, cultura di massa, popoo e punto di vista.” Nazione, popolo, nazional-popolare. Eds. Giuseppe Cospito, Gianni Francioni, and Fabio Frosini. Como: Ibis, 2023. 151-72. 

“Max Weber in Southern Europe: The Problem with Work,” Mediterranean Europe(s): Rethinking the Mediterranean from its Southern Shores, eds. Matthew D’Auria and Fernanda Gallo. Londn: Routledge, 2023. 111-129.

“Questioni Di Genere: La Fantascienza in Sirene Di Laura Pugno.” Fantascienza femminista. Immaginare il genere nella cultura italiana contemporanea. Eds. Ramona Onnis, Anna Chiara Palladino, and Manuela Spinelli. Firenze: Franco Cesati, 2022. 21-30. 

“Points of View: Gramsci and “the Question of the Novel”.” Italian Culture 40.1 (2022): 27-37.

“Littérature monde: il caso dell’indizio scomparso.” Transculturalità e plurilinguismi nella letteratura italiana degli anni Duemila. Eds. Silvia Contarini, Benucci, Alessandro, and Giuliana Pias. Firenze: Franco Cesati, 2022. 19-29. 

with Nancy Armstrong. “The Economy of Form: An Introduction.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction..” 55/2 (2022): 161-179.

“Littérature monde: il caso dell’indizio scomparso.” Transculturalità e plurilinguismi nella letteratura italiana degli anni Duemila. Eds. Silvia Contarini, Alessandro Bendi, Giuliana Pias. Firenze: Franco Cesati, 2022. 19-29.

“Questioni di genere: la fantascienza in Sirene di Laura Pugno.” Fantascienza femminista. Immaginare il genere nella cultura italiana contemporanea. Eds. Ramona Onnis, Anna Chiara Palladino, Manuela Spinelli. Firenze: Franco Cesati, 2022. 21-30.

“Gramsci and the Novel,” Italian Culture, forthcoming, 2021.

“Forze materiali e cultura nelle riflessioni americane,” Crisi e rivoluzione passiva. Gramsci interprete del Novecento. Eds. Giuseppe Cospito, Gianni Francioni & Fabio Frosini. Como: Ibis, 2021. 271-296.

“From Catastrophe to Crisis: Francesca Antonini’s Caesarism and Bonapartism in Gramsci,” International Gramsci Journal 4/2 (2021): <https://ro.uow.edu.au/gramsci/vol4/iss2/11>.

“Historical Immanence and the Problem of the New: On the “Necessary Anachronism” of György Lukács,” Diacritics 48/2 (2020): 18-35.

“Romanzo italiano e repubblica globale delle lettere.” Cinergie – Il cinema e le altre arti. 18 (2020): 1-19.

“Lo storicismo nei Quaderni.” Il presente di Gramsci. Letteratura e ideologia oggi. Ed. Paolo Desogus et alia. Bologna: Galaad, 2018. 92-118.

“Before and After the Rise.” Novel 51.1 (2018):  121-126.

“Swept Away: A Short History of Sea and Forms.” Il velo di Maya. Ed. Salvo Marano. Roma: Bonanno, 2017.  pp. 181-198.

“Tre Sud di Ernesto de Martino.” Narrativa. Nuove frontiere del Sud. 39 (2017): 53-64.

“Sud per avventura. Meridionalismo e Global South.” Tragitti del Sud nella cultura italiana contemporanea. Eds, Silvia Contarini e Teresa Solis. Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore, 2017. 21-30.

“South by Chance. Southern Questions on the Global South.” The Global South 11.2 (2017): 39-53.

“Filosofia, filologia, e il «senso delle masse».” International Gramsci Journal 2.3 (2017): 306-30.

“Europa (in der Theorie).” Fluchtpunkt. Das Mittelmeer und die europäische Krise. Eds. Franck Hofmann and Markus Messling. Berlin: Kulturverlag, 2017. 36-69.

“Where Are We Now? Arts and Politics in the Age of Globalization.” Where Are We Now? Eds. Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Christiane Kühl, Andreas R. Peternell, and Wilma Renfordt. Berlin: The Green Box Kunst Editionen, 2017. pp. 64-65.

“Montesquieu, le «storielle dell’harem», e i fondamenti letterari dell’Europa liberale.” Scritture migranti. Rivista di scambi interculturali. 9-10 (2016): 229-251.

“Luckács inattuale. La problematica del romanzo, tra storicismo e ragione.” Moderna: Semestrale di teoria e critica della letteratura XVIII.1/2 (2016): 129-48.

“Introduzione.” Italian Culture Special issue on Giambattista Vico. (2016): 1-9.

“Geographies of Historical Discourse.” The Oxford Handbook of European Romanticism. Ed. Paul Hamilton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. pp. 621-643.

“Machiavellismo e antimachiavellismo: Strauss e l’eccezionalissimo.” Machiavelli Cinquecento. Mezzo Millennio del Principe. Eds. Gian Mario Anselmi, Riccardo Caporal, and Carlo Galli. Milano: Mimesis, 2015. Pp. 109-122.

“República de las Letras. Que es la literatura europea?” Literatura europea comparada. Ed. César Domínguez. Madrid: Arco/Libros, 2013. 37-16. (Translated by César Domínguez).

“Notes on Q6§32: Gramsci and the Dalits.” The Political Philosophies of Antonio Gramsci and B. R. Ambedkar: Itineraries of Dalits and Subalterns. Ed. Cosimo Zene. London: Routledge, 2013. 75-86.

“Fredric Jameson: Postmodernità e Cultural Studies.” Moderna: Semestrale di teoria e critica della letteratura XIV:1-2 (2012): 141-152.

“Translating Laws: Montesquieu and the South.” Translatio/n: Narration, Media and the Staging of Difference. Eds. Federico Italiano and Michael Rössner. Bielefeld, Austria: Transcript Verlag, 2012. 187-202.

“The Politics of the Event (Beginning)/Политика события (начало).” Личность Культура Общество. XIV.1.69-70 (2012): 57-108.

“World Literature and European Literature.” The Routledge Companion to World Literature. Eds. Theo D’haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir. London: Routledge, 2012. 425-434

“With Plato in Italy: The Value of Literary Fiction in Napoleonic Italy.” Modern Language Quarterly 72:3 (2011): 399-418.

“Does Europe Have a South? An Essay on Borders.” The Global South 5:1 (2011): 37-50.[http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/globalsouth.5.1.37].

“L’Europa e la dialettica del confine.” Orizzonte Sud: Sguardi, prospettive, studi multidisciplinari su Mezzogiorno, Mediterraneo e Sud Globale. Ed. Luigi Cazzato. Nardò, IT: Salento Books, 2011. 148-160.

“Gramsci’s Bibliographies.” Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 16:2 (2011): 211-224.

“Luciano Bianciardi e il lavoro culturale.” Italian Studies 65:3 (2010): 361-375.

“Pensiero verticale: negazione della mediterraneità e radicamento terrestere in Vincenzo Cuoco.” California Italian Studies 1:1 (2010). http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7jd2f55z

“Consenso, letteratura e retorica: Gramsci e i literary studies.” Ed. Mauro Pala. Americanismi. Sulla ricezione del pensiero di Gramsci negli Stati Uniti. Cagliari, IT: Centro di Studi Filologici Sardi, 2009. 29-46. 

“Controriforma”;  “Filosofia della praxis”; “Rinascimento.” Eds. Guido Liguori & Pasquale Voza. Dizionario Gramsciano. Roma: Carocci, 2009. 162-163; 312-315; 713-716.

“Antonio Labriola.” Le tre Italie. Dalla presa di Roma alla Settimana rossa (1870-1914). Ed. Mario Isnenghi & Simon Levi Sullam. Torino: UTET, 2009. 729.

“`The Saxophone and the Pastoral: Italian Jazz in the Age of Fascist Modernity.” Italica 2.3 (2009): 271-292.

“Gramsci and Labriola: Philology, Philosophy of Praxis.” Perspectives on Gramsci: Politics, Culture and Social Theory. Ed. Joseph Francese. London: Routledge, 2009: 50-68.

“Historical Materialism as New Humanism: Antonio Labriola’s ‘In Memoria del Manifesto dei Comunisti’ (1895).” Annali d’Italianistica 26 (2008): 265-282.

“Documento, realismo e reale.” Ed. Antonio Vitti. Ripensare il Neorealismo. Cinema, letteratura, mondo. Roma: Metauro, 2008. 99-120.

“Don de Lillo.” Verso il millennio. Letteratura statunitense del secondo novecento. Eds. Caterina Ricciardi and Valerio Massimo de Angelis. Roma: Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, 2007. 261-272. (Revised and updated version of the entry previously published in Voci dagli Stati Uniti. Prosa & poesia & teatro del secondo Novecento).

“Aleardo Aleardi”; “Giosuè Carducci.” The Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Eds. Gaetana Marrone Puglia and Luca Somigli. (London: Routledge, 2006): I.12-14; I.388-394.

“Of the Arab Origin of Modern Europe: Giammaria Barbieri, Juan Andrés, and the Origin of Rhyme” Comparative Literature. 58:4 (2006): 271-292.

“The European-ness of Italy: Categories and Norms” Annali d’italianistica 24 (2006): 19-40.

“The Discreet Charm of the Arabist Theory.” European History Quarterly. 36.1 (2006): 7-29.

“Goethe’s Backpack.” SubStance 105/33/3 (2004): 6-22.

“Stanley Elkin”; “Don de Lillo.” Voci dagli Stati Uniti. Prosa & poesia & teatro del secondo Novecento. Eds. Caterina Ricciardi and Valerio Massimo de Angelis. Roma: Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, 2004. 283-292; 429-442.

“The Other Europe of Michele Amari: Orientalism from the South.” Nineteenth-Century Contexts 26:4 (December, 2004): 18-27.

“Asimmetrie mediterranee: etica e mare nostrum.” NAE. Trimestrale di Cultura 5 (inverno 2003): 3-8.

“The Gubbio Papers: Historic Centers in the Age of the ‘Economic Miracle’.” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 8/1 (Spring 2003): 67-83.

“Globalism and Regionalism: Difference or Identity?” Identity and Difference in the Global Era. Ed. Enrique Rodriguez Larreta. Rio de Janeiro: UNESCO/ISSC/EDUCAM, 2002. 259-279.

“The Canonization of Heinrich Heine and the Construction of Jewish-Italian Literature.” The Most Ancient of Minorities: History and Culture of the Jews of Italy. Ed. Stanislao Pugliese. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. 131-138.

“The Importance of Being Sicilian: Italian Cultural Studies, sicilitudine and je ne sais quoi.” Italian Cultural Studies. Eds. Graziella Parati and Ben Lawton. Boca Raton: Bordighera Press, 2001. 201-219.

“La città e il represso. Moderno, postmoderno, e l’immaginario del(la) capitale.” Metropoli immaginate. Ed. Fausto Carmelo Nigrelli. Roma: ManifestoLibri, 2001. 49-72.

“Tramonto and Risorgimento: Gentile’s Dialectics and the Prophecy of Nation.” Making and Unmaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity around the Risorgimento. Eds. Albert Ascoli and Krystyna von Henneberg. Oxford: Berg, 2001. 241-256.

“Vico’s Beginnings and Ends: Variations on the Theme of Origins of Language.” Annali d’Italianistica 18 (2000): 13-28.

“Made in Italy. Look e identità nazionale nell’Italia del dopoguerra.” Segno 219 (ottobre-novembre 2000): 47-60.

“A South with a View: Europe and Its Other.” Nepantla: Views from South. I/2 (2000): 375-390.

“Die Rhetorik des Regionalismus. Architektonischer Ort und der Geist des Gemeinplatzes.” Die Architektur, die Tradition und der Ort: Regionalismen in der europäischen Stadt. Ed. Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2000. 15-30.

“The Jewish Risorgimento and the questione romana.” The Italian Jewish Experience. Ed. Thomas P. DiNapoli. Stony Brook: Forum Italiacum Filelibrary Series, 2000. 107-116.

“The Bolshevik in the Garden: The Invention of America in Fascist Italy.” American and European National Identities: Faces in the Mirror. Ed. Stephen Fender. Keele, Eng.: Keele University Press, 1996. 57-72.

“All the Regions Do Smilingly Revolt: The Literature of Place and Region,” Critical Inquiry 22/3 (Spring 1996): 486-505.

“The Excremental Sublime: The Postmodern Literature of Blockage and Release.” Postmodern Culture 3.3 (1993). Reprinted in Essays in Postmodern Culture. Eds. Eyal Amiran and John Unsworth. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. 133-172.

“Canon/Gender/Praxis.” Methodologies of Gender. Eds. Mario Corona and Giuseppe Lombardo. Rome: Herder Press, 1993. 407-422.

“Myth and Carnival in Robert Coover’s Public Burning.” Rivista di Studi Nord-Americani 3 (1992): 5-22.

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Review of Tommaso Astarita, Between Salt Water and Holy Water: A History of Southern Italy (New York, 2005). Journal of Modern Italian History 11.2 (2006): 244-246.

Review of Paul  Ginsborg, Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State: 1980-2001 (London, 2003) and James. A. Agnew, Place and Politics in Modern Italy (Chicago, 2002). Journal of Modern Italian History, 62 (2005): 460-462.

Review of Ilvo Diamanti, Bianco, rosso, verde… e azzurro. Mappe e colori dell’Italia politica (Bologna, 2003). Journal of Modern Italian History 10/1 (2005): 110-111.

Review of James Fentress, Rebels and Mafiosi: Death in a Sicilian Landscape (Ithaca, 2000). Italian Culture 20:1/2 (2002): 200.

Review of Daniela Rossini, Il mito americano nell’Italia della grande guerra (Bari, 2000) and Vincenzo Calì et alia, eds. Gli intellettuali e la Grande Guerra (Bologna, 2000). Journal of Modern Italian Studies 7.2 (2002): 309-311.

Review of Martino Marazzi, Misteri di Little Italy. Italian Americana 20.2 (2002): 118-119.

Review of Katherine Jason, ed. and trans., Name & Tears and Other Stories: Forty Years of Italian Fiction (New York, 1990). Italian Americana 12.1 (1993):138-139.

Invited Talks

Keynote. “Of Qanon Shamans and other Right-Wing Insurrections: Antonio Gramsci’s ‘Historiography of Subaltern Social Groups’ in the 21st Century.” Canadian Italian Studies. June 2, 2022.

“We, the People: Strategies of Representation in the Italian Novel.” Notre Dame Italian Research Seminar. March 24, 2022.

Dialoghi attorno alle città invisibili. Ad Alta Voce Special Edition. SDS Architettura, Siracusa, Italy. March 10, 2022.

Meeting up in the spatial Turn. A conversation with Stefan Kipfer. Northwestern University, February 8, 2022.

“The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Southern Laziness: The Rhetorics of Sociology.” Center for European Studies. Rutgers University. February 15, 2022.

“Awakenings: Literary and Decolonial Apocalypses.” Crisis, Apocalypse and Millenarianism in the Contemporary World: A Workshop on Ernesto de Martino. University of Cologne, Eric Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies. November 30, 2021.

“Questioni di genere: Il misterioso caso dell’indizio scomparso.” University of Nanterre, Paris. November 25, 2021.

“‘Just Business!’ The Mafia: A Cultural History.” Trinity College Dublin, November 16, 20121.

“Romanzo, popolo, punto di vista.” Gramsci Summer School, Ghilarza, Italy, September 6-11, 2021.

“Ernesto de Martino: il «risveglio dei popoli coloniali» e la letteratura apocalittica europea.” Università di Cagliari. May 21, 2021.

“L’Africa in casa di Ernesto de Martino.” Connessioni Inventive. Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro & Fondazione Istituto Contemporaneo per le Arti, Milano. May 20, 2021. <https://www.facebook.com/museoman/videos/roberto-dainotto-lafrica-in-casa-di-ernesto-de-martino/464158897984549/?__so__=permalink&__rv__=related_videos>.

“Ernesto de Martino, Decolonisation, and Translation.” A conversation with Dorothy Zinn and Joseph Viscomi. Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI) 2020-2021 series. Istituto italiano di cultura a Londra. <https://iiclondra.esteri.it/iic_londra/it/gli_eventi/calendario/2021/03/ernesto-de-martino-decolonisation.html>.

“European literature ‘in the time of the noose’.” Portuguese Comparative Literature Association. November 12-13, 2020.

“Il brand-Italia nell’epoca della circolabilità on-line.” Global F(r)ictions. Università Alma-mater di Bologna. June 24-25, 2019.

“Cheveux noirs perruque blonde : socio-genèse de Nino dans Pain et chocolat (1973).” Inventions du Sud. Université de Paris Nanterre. June 6-7, 2019.

Special event for NeMLA 2019. “Ernesto De Martino and Frantz Fanon: Forms of Fanonism in the Mediterranean.” NeMLA annual convention. March 23, 2019.

“Leave the gun, take the cannoli’:  Mafia Cinema and the Problems of Daily Life.” College of William & Mary, November 12, 2018.

“La cultura e l’arte nella società di massa.” International Gramsci Society. Ghilarza, September 14, 2018.

“Deoloniality After Decolonization: Higher Education and Globalization.” Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, Stellenbosch, South Africa, August 13, 2018.

Keynote. 9th Annual Symposium of the Research Network on the History of the Idea of Europe. Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici. Naples, 4-6 July 2018.

“Le smanie della climatologia. Il sud dell’Europa è il sud del mondo.” Bersalia. Accademia delle Scienze. Torino. April 18, 2018.

“From Subalterns to the Crisis of Presence.” Comparative Migrations. George L Graziadio Center for Italian Studies, California State University. November 8, 2017

“Algeria and (Southern) Italy.” Arabic Identities Across the Mediterranean and Beyond. Michigan State, November 2-3, 2017.

“Crisi della coscienza e subalternità: il Sud di Ernesto De Martino.” Colloque International. Le nuove frontiere del Sud: Genesi e sviluppo di un pensiero plurale sul Sud nella letteratura e nella cultura italiana contemporanea. Université Paris Ouest – Nanterre La Defense, June 9-10, 2017.

“L’éthique du Sud et l’ « Esprit » (romantique) de l’anticapitalisme.” Université Paris Ouest – Nanterre La Defense, June 1, 2017.

“Le rôle conceptuel/théorique du Sud dans le développement d’une idée de l’Europe.” Université Paris Ouest – Nanterre La Defense, May 18, 2017.

“Vedi alla voce ‘populismo’.” Un secolo di rivoluzioni. Percorsi gramsciani nel mondo. Cagliari, April 27-28, 2017.

“Historical Immanence and the Problematics of the New: On the ‘Necessary Anachronism. of György Lukács.” The Anachronism Conference. New York University, April 14-15, 2017.

“The Law of the Novel and the Form of History” Northwestern University. February 23-25, 2017.

Keynote Address. “Land and Sea.” 2017 UCLA Graduate Students Conference. University of California in Los Angeles. January 13-14, 2017.

“Europe and the South.” Steirischer Herbst Festival. Graz, Austria. October 7-9, 2016.

“South by Chance. Southern Question and Global South.” Conceptual Re-Locations of the Global South. Global Studies Center. Köln, Germany. June 20-21, 2016.

“A Land of Remorse: Tarantella of the Italian Thought.” University of Pennsylvania, March 29, 2016. 

Keynote Address. “Ideas of South.” Graduate Conference, Romance Studies, Cornell University, March 11-12, 2016.

“Naples, November 1861: The Ideal and the Real in the Italian University.” Realisms and Idealisms in Italy, 1300-2016. Dartmouth College, April 15-16, 2016.

Keynote Address. “Mapping North and South in Europe.” University of Helsinki, Finland, September 25-27, 2014.

“’It’s not a Question of Right or Wrong’: The Law in the Age of the Novel.” Vanderbilt University, March 19, 2014.

“Bridging Europe: Notes on the Architecture of Cultural Unity.” University of Pittsburgh. February 21, 2014.

Keynote. “Bridging European Divisions,” University of Iowa, December 5-7, 2013.

“Machiavelli negli Stati Uniti.” Machiavelli Cinquecento: Mezzo Millennio del Principe. Bologna, Pisa, Firenze, October 15-17, 2013.

“Cinema and Literature.” Clemson University, March 27, 2013.

Pittsburgh Humanities Center Short-term Fellow. February 25-March 1, 2013.

“Mediterranean Solutions.” University of California at Berkeley, October 11.2012.

“History and the Novel.” New York University, October 8, 2012.

Keynote. Carolina Conference. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. March 22-24, 2012.

“Europe (in Theory).” Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, February 8, 2012.

“Jazz in Fascist Italy.” Clemson University, November 10-11, 2011.

“Rhymes.” Keynote address to “The Dialectics of Orientalism in Early Modern Europe, 1492-1700,” University of Illinois, 7-8 October 2011.

“The Mediterranean as a Literary and Pedagogic Object.” Keynote address to the 61st Annual Mountain Interstate Conference on Foreign Languages. University of Alabama at Auburn, September 29-October 1, 2011.

“The West and its Others.” Italia “Glocale”/ “Glocal” Italy.  Nanovic Institute for European Studies and University of Rome “La Sapienza.” Rome, June 13-July 1, 2011.

“Mediterraneo, liquido e solido.” Keynote address, Echi d’Oltremare: L’Italia, il Mediterraneo e oltre. Rome, June 17-18, 2011.

“Gramsci’s Bibliographies.” Gramsci Revisited: A Conference in Memory of John M. Cammett. The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America. May 6, 2011.

“Notes on Q6§32: Gramsci and the Dalits.” Gramsci and Ambedkar on Subalterns and Dalits. London School of Oriental Studies. December 13-15, 2010.

“What is European Literature?” Mastrangelo Lecture, Catholic University of America, November 18, 2010.

“Philology and the European Union: Textual Notes on Constitutional Prose.” Michigan University at Ann Arbor, September 30, 2010.

“Europe (in Practice).” Nanovich Institute for European Studies, Notre Dame University, September 23, 2010.

From Organic to Pure Vaseline: Intellectuals and the Society of Spectacle.” Dangerous Pedagogy. New York, April 15-17, 2010.

“Space and Transculturality: Of Borders.” Keynote address, Space and Transculturality. University of Maryland, April 8-9, 2010.

“Nord e Sud: L’europa e la dialettica del confine.” Sguardi dai/sui Sud: Meridione, mediterraneo e Sud globale. Università di Bari, Italy. November, 26-28, 2009.

“Translations, Transfers, and Other Betrayals: Luciano Bianciardi, or the Autobiography of Cultural Labor.” Keynote address, Tradimento/Betrayal. Rutgers University, November 6-7, 2009.

“The Theme of Betrayal in Jewish Italian Literature.” University of Virginia, Charlottsville, September 24, 2009.

“The Youth is Watching Us.” Keynote address, Fourth Annual Student-Faculty Conference in European Studies. College of William & Mary. April 10-11, 2009.

“Montesquieu’s Debauched Other: Comparison, Authority, and Revolution in 18th Century Europe.” London School of Economics. March 17, 2009.

“French Universalism and Local Contingencies: Vincenzo Cuoco’s Enlightenment from the South.” University of Wisconsin at Madison. March 6, 2009.

“Orientalizing and Dis-Orientalizing Early Modern European Poetry: The Question of Beginnings.” Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Binghamton University. October 30, 2008.

Presentation of the book Europe (in Theory). Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. September 15, 2008.

“Viva le tette dell’industria culturale: Luciano Bianciardi da Grosseto a Milano.” Middlebury College, July 23, 2008.

“History of the Histories of the Mediterranean.” Mediterranean Journeys: From Odysseus to Migrant Workers. Franklin & Marshall College. April 15, 2008.

“Italy between Europe and the Mediterranean,” Mediterranean Studies Colloquium, Franklin and Marshall College, April 12, 2008.

“La Grosseto di Luciano Bianciardi, termine di paragone della Milano capitale culturale,” Riflessioni attorno alle piccole città in Francia e in Italia, Università degli Studi di Catania, Italy, February 21, 2008.

“Il realismo degli anni Trenta e il neorealismo,” Circuito Cinema, Venezia, December 13-14, 2007.

“Europe in Theory: Italy and the Euro-zone,” Walker Institute, University of South Carolina at Columbia, December 6, 2007.

“Gramsci, Labriola, and the Philosophy of Praxis,” Gramsci Now:  Cultural and Political Theory. An international symposium. Michigan State University, November 9–11, 2007.

“Making Communism Italian: Antonio Labriola and the Nationalization  of Theoretical Marxism,” Nationalization, Conflict and Cultural Crisis: Making Italians (1870-1914). University of California at Berkeley, October 26-27, 2007.

“Mafia and antimafia,” Center for the Arts, College of Staten Island, October 6, 2007.

“The Forgetfulness of Historiography and the Europeanization of Europe,” Forgotten Conflict, Permanent Catastrophes. Colgate University, April 12-14, 2007.

“’A Beautiful Memory’ by Anthony Fragola,” University of North Carolina at Greensboro, February 23, 2007.

“Swing/Syncope/Race, or the Note Between: Jazz in the Age of Fascist Modernity,” Bucknell University, June 9, 2006.

 “Sicily and sicilitudine: Pirandello to Sciascia,” Wake Forest University, March 22, 2006.

 “The Europeanization of Italy: A Historical Perspective on Recent Questions of Race and Migrations,” University of Oregon at Eugene, February 26, 2006.

 “Sicilian Literature and the Modern Age,” Humanities Western, San Francisco, February 24-25, 2006.

  “Freedom, History, and Democracy: Michele Amari’s Orientalist Europe,” University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, December 1, 2005.

“Michele Amari and the Limits of European History,” University of Ohio in Miami, September 23, 2005.

“The Southern Limits of the Europe of Nations,” 2nd Dombroski Conference, University of Connecticut at Storrs, September 16-18, 2005.

“Note metodologiche sull’uso di Michele Amari e Edward Said,” Università di Catania, Italy, June 23, 2005.

“The Leopard and the Sphinx: Meaning of a Classic,” Program in the Humanities and Human Values, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, April 1-2, 2005.

“The Ratio Studiorum and the Controversy on `Knowledge’,” Universidad de Murcia, Spain, March 12-13, 2005.

“Orientalism, Mediterranean Style: Michele Amari’s Historiography of Muslim Europe,” New York University, March 4, 2004.

“The `Other’ Europe of Michele Amari: Orientalism from the South.” Plenary Panel. 2003 Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Society. July 10-12, 2003.

“Juan Andrés’ Arabist Theory,” The World’s Story: Teaching across the Boundaries. Notre Dame, March 27-29, 2003.

 “Contra Mozart: Hegelian Considerations on the Depravity of Taste.” Musical Degeneracies. Cambridge University, August 8-12, 2002.

“Europe’s Others/Other Europes. “Khan Institute Colloquium, Smith College.” March 12, 2002.

“The Spirit of Verga: la “Cavalleria rusticana” di D. H. Lawrence.” Smith College, “March 11, 2002.

“Writing the Mediterranean.” Oceans Connect: Maritime Perspectives in and beyond the Classroom. Duke University, March 1-3, 2002.

“Region and Regionalism: on the Use of Gramsci in the Discourse of Place.” Northwestern University, February 28, 2002.

“Globalism and Regionalism: Difference or Identity?” UNESCO Conference on Identity and Difference in the Global Era. Rio de Janeiro, May 21-24, 2001.

“The Rhetoric of Warfare and the Culture of Metonymy.” Gramsci in Context. Georgetown University, April 5, 2001.

“The Gubbio Papers: The centro storico in the Age of the Economic Miracle.” Destinations: Architecture of Spectacle. Williamsburgh, February 9-10, 2001; Orlando, October 19-22, 2001.

“The Rape of Europe (and the Regional Bull).” Globalization and Cultural Diversity in Europe. University of Notre Dame, December 8-9, 2000.

“Il ritorno del regionalismo.” Università di Catania, June 24, 2000.

“From `Community’ to `Sociability’: Revising the Paradigm of the Littérature du Midi.” Méediterranée et Méditerranéens: Représentations, Sociabilité. University of Tunis, April 26-29, 2000.

“Revolution and Barbarism: Italian Visions of America.” The Rape of Europe: Exchange and Conflict with the United States. UNED. Madrid, June 19-23, 1999.

“Europe in Theory.” Iberia 2002: Cartograf\’{\ia cultural desde la Frontera Sur Europea. Madrid, February 18-22, 1999.

“Tramonto e Risorgimento in Gentile’s Dialectics of Nationhood.” Making and Unmaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity around the Risorgimento. University of California at Berkeley, November 14-16, 1997.

“What is a Region? The Aesthetic of Regionalism between Place and Commonplace.” Theory and Practice of Critical Regionalism in the Development of European Architecture. Stockholm, July 11-13, 1997.

“At the Theater of Mangiafoco: The True Story of Pinocchio’s Relocation in Padania.” The Relocation of Languages and Cultures: A Transnational and Transdisciplinary Workshop. Duke University, May 6-10, 1997.

“The Bolshevik in the Garden: American Studies in Italy.” Faculty Forum, New School for Social Research, December 5, 1994.

“Canon and Gender.” XI International Biennial Conference of the Italian Association for North-American Studies (AISNA). Messina, Italy, October 24-26, 1991.

Papers Presented

Roundtable. “Global Directions in Italian Studies: Transmediality and Cross-Cultural Translation.” American Association for Italian Studies. Bologna, May 3, 2022.

“Questioni di genere 2: il futuro ipotetico della fantascienza contemporanea.” Congresso AIPI 2020. Online. June 28-30, 2021.

“‘Genere’ e ‘cronotopo’ nel romanzo globale: il caso del nuovo giallo italiano.” Forme, strutture, generi nella lingua e nella letteratura italiane. University of Craiova, Rumania, September 20-21, 2019.

“Gramsci e il gorilla ammaestrato.” American Association for Italian Studies Annual Symposium. March 15, 2019.

“Contemporary.” Biennial Conference of the Society for Novel Studies. Cornell University. May 31-June 2, 2018.

“Sud per avventura. Meridionalismo e Global South.” Associazione Internazionale dei Professori di Italiano, Eötvös Loránd, Budapest, Hungary, August 30-September 3, 2016.

“Regionalism and Its Discontents.” Modern Languages Association Annual Convention. January 9, 2015

“C’era una volta: dai fasci siciliani al pirandellismo nazionale,” American Association for Italian Studies. Zurich, June 15, 2014.

“La disfatta. Crisi economica e crisi della forma nel romanzo parlamentare.” American Association of Teachers of Italian. Strasbourg, June 1-3, 2013.

“Intellettuali e casta.” American Association of Italian Studies. University of Oregon at Eugene, April 11-13, 2013.

“The Fantastic Italian-American: or, The Return of the Repressed Southern Question,” 4th Dombroski Conference. University of Connecticut at Storrs, September 22-23, 2007.

“Der Mensch ist, was er ißt: Historical Materialism, New Humanism and the Philosophy of Praxis,” American Association for Italian Studies Annual Convention, May 3-6, 2007.

“Historiography between Hegel and Amari,” Shifting the Geographies of Knowledge, Duke University, April 27-28, 2007.

“The Saxophone and the Pastoral: Italian Music in the Age of Fascist Modernity,” Modernist Society of America, Chicago, November 3-6, 2005.

“Juan Andrés, and the Muslim Origins of Europe’s Modernity,” Mediterranean Studies Organization, Messina, Italy, May 25-28, 2005

“Mario Soldati’s America of Jazz and Mandolins,” American Association for Italian Studies Annual Convention, Chapel Hill, 27-30 April, 2003

“The Discreet Charm of Arab Europe: Juan Andrès in Italy,” Modern Languages Association Annual Convention, San Diego, 27-30 December, 2003

“Mediterraneanism as Asymmetrical Writing,” Modern Languages Association Annual Convention, New York, 27-30 December, 2002

 “Critica della region pura: Leagues, meridionalisti, and the Europe of Regions.” Canadian Society for Italian Studies. Quebec City, May 24-26, 2001

“The Giufà Method: Il faut Méditerraniser Cultural Studies.” IV Conference of the Portuguese Comparative Literature Association. Evora, Portugal, May 9-12, 2001

“Plurilingualism of the One: Fascist Nationalism and the Prosthesis of Dialect.” American Association for Italian Studies. New York, April 13-16, 2000

“The Importance of Being Sicilian: Cultural Studies and Leonardo Sciascia’s Writing of `Sicily’.” Italian Cultural Studies. Dartmouth College, October 29-30, 1999

“The Jew, the Black, and the Syncopated: Aryan Italy in the Jazz Age.” Spectacle in Italian and Italian American Cultures. State University of New York at Stony Brook, October 20-21, 1999

“The Canonization of Heine and the Invention of Jewish-Italian Literature.” The Most Ancient of Minorities: History and Culture of the Jews of Italy. Hofstra University, April 15-17, 1999

“The Jewish Risorgimento and the questione romana.” State University of New York at Stony Brook, October 24-25, 1998

“The Question of Theory,” Università degli Studi di Catania, July 4-10, 2000.

“Regional Paradises in Victorian England: Topos and U-topos.” VII International Conference of the British Comparative Literature Association. Edinburgh, 12-15 July 1995

“Rousseau à coup redoublé: The State of Language and the Language of State.” Graduate Students Lecture Series, New York University, 1991.

Conference Participation

Sovversivismo: Gramsci on Reactionary Insurrections.” John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute TGIF Series, 2021. 

Co-Organizer. “On Cinema il n’y a pas de rapport audio-visuel”. Duke University, April 12, 2019.

“Egemonia dopo Gramsci: una riconsiderazione.” University of Urbino, October 22-24, 2018.

Co-Organizer. “Gramsci in the World.” Duke University, April 19-20, 2013.

Participant. “Borders, Borderthinking, Borderlands.” UNC/Duke University, November 30-December 1, 2012. 

Participant. “Borders, Borderthinking, Borderlands.” University of Bremen, July 25-28, 2012.

Moderator. “De-Colonial Aesthetics.” Duke University, May 4-5, 2011.

Colloquium participant. “Area Studies and the Challanges of Neo-Liberalism Workshop.” Duke University, May 2, 2011.

Moderator. “Revolutions, Insurgencies, Independencies.” Duke University Romance Studies Workshop. April 28-29, 2011.

Moderator. “Renogotiating the Canon: Spanish Contributions to Western Culture.” Duke University, April 1-2, 2011.

Co-organizer and participant of “Eurocentrism or Euro Crisis? A Conversation with Perry Anderson.” Duke University, March 27, 2010.

Organizer and Chair for a panel on “Praxis, Lebensphilosophie, Vitalism, Actualism.” MLA Conference, Philadelphia, December 27-30, 2009.

Roundtable on “Il cinema d’impegno,” Wake Forest in Venice, December 15, 2005.

Roundtable on Cinema, Duke University, November 3, 2005.

Roundtable on “Antonio Gramsci’s Southern Question,” 2nd Dombroski Conference, University of Connecticut at Storrs, September 16-18, 2005

Chair and organizer of a session on “Migration Immigration, Emigration since the Risorgimento,” Modern Languages Association Annual Convention, Philadelphia, 27-30 December, 2005

Chair and organizer of a special session on “Gramsci, Rhetoric, and Philology,” Modern Languages Association Annual Convention, Philadelphia, 27-30 December, 2004

Roundtable Participant. Critical Theory and Decolonization. Duke University, May 30-June 1, 2004

Co-organizer of the lecture series “Romancing the Humanities,” Duke University, 2003-2004

Chair and organizer of a special session on “Mediterranean Studies,” Modern Languages Association Annual Convention, New York, 27-30 December, 2002

Roundtable Participant. Cross-Genealogies and Subaltern Knowledge. Duke University, October 15-18, 1998

Moderator, “Contamination and Purity.” New York University, February 26, 1994

Service to the profession

Routledge Ideas Beyond Borders: Studies in Transnational Intellectual History Scientific Board, 2019-present; Firenze University Press Studi di italianistica moderna e contemporanea nel mondo anglofono / Studies in Modern and Contemporary Italianistica in the Anglophone World, 2020-present; Scritture Migranti Editorial Board 2017-present; Global South Editorial Board 2017-present; South Atlantic Quarterly Editorial Board 2014-present; Italian Culture Editorial board 2002-2020; Nepantla: Views from South Editorial board, 2002-2004; Duke University Press Editorial Board 2014-2015; National Endowment for the Humanities Jury panelist, 2016; Academy for Global Humanities and Critical Theory Board 2002-2018.

Administrative Positions

Advisory Board, Franklin Humanities Institute, 2019-present; Undergraduate Advisor, International Comparative Studies, 2018-present; Steering Committee of the Duke/University of Bologna Summer School, 2012-208. Chair of the Department of Romance Studies, Duke University, 2010-2013; Academic Programs Committee, Duke University (2008-2009); Arts & Science Common Funds for Research (2008-2009); Academic Council’s Faculty Compensation Committee (2009); Director of Graduate Studies, Duke University (2008-2009; 2007-2008; 2000-2001); Executive Commeettee of Romance Studies, Duke University (2007-2008); Academic Council, Duke University (2008-2009; 2007-2008); Film, Video & Digital Program Advisory Committee, Duke University (2006-2009); Arts & Science Faculty Research Committee, Duke University (2008); Associate Director of Graduate Studies, Duke University (Spring 2007); Jury Panel, Canadian Society for Italian Studies Graduate Students’ Award, Spring 2006; Steering Committee Shifting the Geographies and Biographies of Knowledge, Center for Global Studies and the Humanities, Duke University, 2004-2010; NEH Summer  Duke Nominating Committee (2005-2006); Romance Studies Review Committee (2004-2005); Search Committees Open Rank French Studies, Duke University, 2007-2008 (chair); Assistant Professor of the Practice in Italian, Duke University, 2002-2003; Professor in Spanish, Open Rank, Duke University, 2000-2001; Assistant Professor in Spanish, Duke University, 1999-2000; Lecturing Fellows in Italian, Duke University, 1999-2000; Assistant Professor in Spanish, Duke University, 1998-99; Romance Studies PhD Committee, Duke University (1999-2001; 2002-2003); Chair (2005); Lectures Committee, Duke University (1998-2001; 2002-2003; chair, 2004-2005; 2008-2009); Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, Duke University (1999-2000; 2002-2003); Library Representative, Duke University (1999-2001; 2002-2003; 2004-2005; 2005-2006); Honors by Honors Committee, Duke University (1999-2001); Curriculum Committee, Duke University, (1998-2001);  Convener for Italian and Portuguese, Duke University (1999-2000; 2004-2005);  Italian Major Advisor, Duke University (1999-2000; 2004-2005; 2006-2007; 2007-2008); Standing Committee for the Undergraduate Curriculum, Duke University, 1999-2000; Academic Advisor, New York University (1994-1996).

Theses & Dissertations Directed

Isaiah Mason (Honors Thesis, 2021); Fiammetta Di Lorenzo (PhD 2019); Achille Castaldo (PhD 2019); Giulia Riccò (PhD 2019); Domenico Cangiano (PhD 2015); Giuseppe Prigiotti (PhD 2015); Martin Repinecz (PhD 2012); Jordan Pollock (Honors Thesis 2004); Francesca Polvere (Honors Thesis 2007); Arthur Lei (Honors Thesis 2009); Amir Malek (Honors Thesis 2011).