Her teaching and research interests focus on 20th and 21st Italian literature, cinema, and culture, and Italy’s global connections, as resulting from migrations (old and new, from and to Italy), colonization, cultural crossings and syncretism. She holds a Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literatures/English (University of Palermo, Italy), M.A.s in Translation and Comparative Literature (University of Essex, U.K.) and Italian Language and Literature (University of Pittsburgh), and a Ph.D. in Italian Studies (Brown University).