Biography

Research interests:

• Late nineteenth-century and twentieth-century Sicilian narrative
• Italian Cultural Studies
• Literature and emigration
• Post-Unification Italian literature and society
• Detective fiction

Publications:

• 'Dei cavalieri, della morte e del diavolo: Sciascia e gli scrittori svizzeri', in «Troppo poco pazzi». Leonardo Sciascia nella libera e laica Svizzera, a cura di Renato Martinoni (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, forthcoming), «Sciascia, scrittore europeo», 1
• 'Impegno da vendere: società e politica nella serie del commissario Montalbano di Andrea Camilleri', in Specchi di realt à: narrativa e societ à, a cura di Roberto Bertoni (Dublin-Torino: TCD-Trauben, forthcoming)
• 'Crime and the South', in Crime Fiction in Italian, edited by Giuliana Pieri (Swansea: U of Wales P, forthcoming)
• with Marco Amici, ‘Unearthing collusions:  the socio-political dimension of crime in the conspiracy novel’, in Nicoletta Di Ciolla, Uncertain Justice: Crimes and Retribution in Contemporary Italian Crime Fiction, Chapter 1, ‘Rewriting Histories’ (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, forthcoming), pp. 35-70 
• 'Vittorini, Sciascia and the Historiography of the Vespro siciliano', in Un secolo con Vittorini (Atti della giornata di studi. Trinity College , Dublino, 18-4-2008), a cura di Roberto Bertoni (Dublin-Torino: TCD-Trauben, 2009), pp. 91-100
• Presentazione a Leonardo Sciascia, 'Un romanzo "fascista" di Brancati', A futura memoria, n. 3 (aprile 2009)
• ‘Sicilians reading Lawrence writing Sicily’, in Le Mezzogiorno des écrivains européens. Europeans Writing the Mezzogiorno, edited by Béatrice Bijon, Yves Clavaron and Bernard Dieterle (St-Étienne: Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne, 2006), pp. 203-213
• Translations: Vincenzo Consolo, ‘Tuna Fishing’, ‘Views of the Strait of Messina’, ‘The Eruption of Mount Etna’, ‘The Rebirth of the Val di Noto’, in Reading and Writing the Mediterranean; Essays by Vincenzo Consolo, edited by Norma Bouchard and Massimo Lollini (Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 2006), pp. 159-187, pp. 188-209, pp. 210-213, pp. 214-224
• 'Of Garibaldini and Pugnalatori: Revolution and Reaction in Sciascia's Sicily', in Risorgimento in Modern Italian Culture: Revisiting the Nineteenth-Century Past in History, Narrative, and Cinema, edited by Norma Bouchard (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2005), pp. 195-216
• Review of Anne Mullen, Inquisition and Inquiry: Sciascia's 'Inchiesta' (Market Harborough: Troubadour, 2001), Rivista di Studi Italiani, 21:1 (June 2003), 311-314
• 'Vitaliano Brancati', in Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 264: Italian Prose Writers, 1900-1945, edited by Rocco Capozzi and Luca Somigli (Detroit: Gale Research, 2002), 75-89
• 'Emilio Lussu', in Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 264: Italian Prose Writers, 1900-1945, edited by Rocco Capozzi and Luca Somigli (Detroit: Gale Research, 2002), 147-158
• 'Giallo sarai tu! Hegemonic Representations and Limits of Heteroglossia in Carlo Lucarelli', Spunti e Ricerche, "Il Giallo", 16 (2001), 45-58
• '"Cos'è questa Sicilia?" Sicilian Intellectuals and the Question of Regional Identity', in Arts et Identité Régionale - D'un Sud à l'autre: des rives de la Méditerranée au golfe du Mexique, edited by Paul Carmignani and Tony Jappy, Cahiers de l'Université de Perpignan, 32 (2001), 151-170
• 'Someone Else's Southerner: Opposed Essences in the "Italian" Novels of Michael Dibdin, Magdalen Nabb and Tim Parks', in Crime Scenes: Detective Narratives in European Culture since 1945, edited by Anne Mullen and Emer O'Beirne (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000), pp. 73-85. Link to list of 'Mysteries set in Italy'
• Bulletin of the Society for Italian Studies, no. 33 (2000), edited by Mark Chu, Penny Morris and Simon Gilson
• Review of Valentina Olivastri, Sicily (Oxford: Clio Press, 1998), Italian Studies, LV (2000), 188-189
• 'La meridiana della Matrice: Il Consiglio d'Egitto e la cultura della Rivoluzione francese', Segno, XXV, n. 209 (settembre-ottobre 1999), 79-84
• Review of Italy's "Southern Question": Orientalism in One Country, edited by Jane Schneider (Oxford and New York: Berg, 1998), Italian Studies, LIV (1999), 163-165
• 'Sciascia and Sicily: Discourse and Actuality', Italica, 75:1 (Spring 1998), 78-92
• Review of Luigi D'Alessio, Lo zolfo come metafora: Luigi Pirandello, Leonardo Sciascia, D. H. Lawrence, Selma Lagerlöf (Salerno: Edizioni "Il Sapere", 1996), Pirandello Studies. Journal of the Society for Pirandello Studies, 17 (1997), 82-84
• Review of Joseph Farrell, Leonardo Sciascia (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995), A futura memoria. Giornale dell'Associazione degli Amici di Leonardo Sciascia, n. 0 (dicembre 1996), 2
• Review of Joseph Farrell, Leonardo Sciascia (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995), Italian Studies, LI (1996), 223-25
• 'Federico De Roberto e le ragioni del potere', Modern Language Notes, 111 (1996), 74-88
• 'Un grande comunicatore: le ragioni del potere in Federico De Roberto', in Power and Italian Culture and Literature, Proceedings of the IX International A.P.I. Congress (Johannesburg: A.P.I., 1996), pp. 278-290
• 'Sciascia e Dürrenmatt: il giallo e l'epistemologia', in Sciascia, scrittore europeo. Atti del Convegno internazionale di Ascona, 29 marzo - 2 aprile 1993, edited by M. Picone, P. De Marchi, T. Crivelli (Basle: Birkhäuser, 1994), pp. 103-18
• 'Le Royaume de la folie: "Power" and "Reason" in Sciascia's Last Narrative Works', Italian Studies, XLVII (1992), 68-79

Conference participation

• 'The Ideology of the Fait-Divers: Murder and Violence in Verga’s Vita dei campi', AAIS Convention, New York, 7-10 May 2009
• 'L'enigma dei termini istituzionali: alcuni strumenti per decifrare il linguaggio dei media', Giornata di formazione per insegnanti di italiano come lingua 2, University of Leicester, 28 March 2009
• 'Impegno da vendere: la politica del commissario Montalbano', Giornata di studi in onore di Eduardo Saccone, UCC, 19 May 2008, and AATI/AAIS Convention, Taormina, 22-25 May 2008
• 'Vittorini, Sciascia and the Vespro siciliano', Giornata di studi : 'Elio Vittorini: A Hundred Years after His Birth', Trinity College Dublin, 18 April 2008
• Participant in Roundtable on 'Teaching the Ottocento: Perspectives, Approaches, and Praxis', MLA Convention, Washington DC, 27-30 December 2005
• Invited participant at International Conference on ' Le Mezzogiorno des écrivains européens/Europeans Writing the Mezzogiorno', organized by the Centre d'Etudes sur les Littératures Etrangères et Comparées: "Contextes culturels et construction de l'identité", Université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne, 14-15 October 2005
• 'Constructing Immigrant Identity: A Media Case Study', Session on 'Issues of Identity Construction', Society for Italian Studies Biennial Conference, Salford/Manchester, 7-10 July 2005
• 'Representations of Immigrants in Contemporary Italian Literature and Media: A Critical Analysis', Session 62: 'Understanding Structural Racism in the Fight against Bigotry: A Literary Perspective', MLA Convention, Philadelphia, 27-30 December 2004
• 'The Savage "I" in the Sicily of Leonardo Sciascia', Conference on 'Murder and Mayhem in the Mare Nostrum: Contemporary Configurations of Mediterranean Detective Genres', Monash University Prato Centre, 5-7 July 2004
• 'The Savage "I" in Sciascia's Sicily', Conference on 'Critical and Cultural Trajectories', University of Essex, 30 June-3 July 2004
• '"Il passato che si fa presente": Sciascia's Re-reading of the Risorgimento', Society for Italian Studies Biennial Conference, UCC, 4-6 July 2003
• 'The Development and Delivery of a Team Taught Course and the Portfolio Experience', co-presented with Silvia Ross and Laura Rascaroli, Conference on 'The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning', UCC, 23-24 May 2003
• 'Orientalism - Italian Style: Representations of the Other in Some Recent Italian Crime Fiction', Conference on 'Cultural Identities: Noir Fiction in France and Italy', Institute of Romance Studies, London, 12-13 April 2002
• Teaching Portfolio Seminar. Tuesday, 4 December 2001. Council Room, 12.30-14.30. Presenters: Mary Breen, Department of English; Mark Chu, Department of Italian. Facilitator: Grace Neville, Department of French
• 'Delitto passionale: Representations of Italian Identity in Crime Fiction', Modern Italian History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, London, 21 November 2001
• 'Orientalism - Italian Style: Representations of the Other in Some Recent Italian Crime Fiction', University of Connecticut, 22 October 2001 (visiting lecturer)
• 'Maria Messina e la sconfitta della superdonna', "ECRIRE AU FEMININ" - Journée internationale d'étude, CERCLI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur la Culture et la Littérature de l'Italie, Université de Rennes 2-Haute Bretagne, 12 May 2001
• 'Bellodi among the cannibals: Montaigne, Certeau, Sciascia', Society for Italian Studies Biennial Conference, University of Exeter, 30 March-1 April 2001
• '"Cos'è questa Sicilia?" Sicilian intellectuals and the question of regional identity', International Regional Studies Colloquium on 'Arts et Identité Régionale/The Arts and Regional Identity', Université de Perpignan, 21-23 September 2000
• '"A Woman's Place...": the Fall of the Superdonna in Maria Messina's L'amore negato', panel on 'Women's Spaces in Literature', AAIS Convention, New York, 13-16 April 2000
• 'The Mafia at the Movies', National University of Ireland, Galway, 5 April 2000 (visiting lecturer)
• 'Sebastiano Aglianò and the "qualità italiche" of Sicily: the construction of regional/national identity', Symposium on 'Italian Cultural Studies', Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 29-31 October 1999
• 'Horses Sickly and Pale: Reflections on a Topos in Apocalyptic Art', Conference on Cross-Currents in Literature: 'Apocalypse', School of Language and Literature, UCC, 23-25 April 1999
• '"Passion" and "Deviancy": Constructions of the South in Contemporary Crime Fiction', University of Victoria, British Columbia, 13 April 1999 (visiting lecturer), and AAIS Convention, Eugene, Oregon, 15-17 April 1999
• 'Death and the Pale Horse: Apocalyptic Visions from the Trionfo della morte to Guttuso and Sciascia', Society for Italian Studies Biennial Conference, University of Bristol, 9-11 April 1999
• Organizer of and participant in panel on 'Literary Representations of Sicily', AAIS Convention, Chicago, 2-5 April 1998
• '"But he is a Sicilian. And here lies the difficulty": the Textual Construction of a Sicilian Psyche', Royal Irish Academy Symposium on 'Intertextuality: Continuities & Discontinuities', Trinity College Dublin, 7-8 November 1997
• 'Someone Else's Southerner: Opposed Essences in the "Italian" Novels of Michael Dibdin, Magdalen Nabb and Tim Parks', Conference on 'The European Detective Since 1945', University of Exeter, 15-17 September 1997
• 'A Fiction Stranger Than Truth: Leonardo Sciascia and the Representation of Sicily', Conference on Cross-Currents in Literature: 'Metafiction', School of Language and Literature, UCC, 25-26 April 1997
• 'Sciascia and Sicily: Discourse and Actuality', Society for Italian Studies Biennial Conference, University of Glasgow, 17-19 April 1997
• 'La spiegazione di tutte le cose del mondo: Problems of Knowledge in Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno and Kim', symposium on 'Tutte le "realtà" e le "fantasie" possono prendere forma solo attraverso la scrittura'. Italo Calvino ten years after, Trinity College Dublin, 18 November 1995
• 'War on Reason: Brancati and the Fascist Martial Myth', Royal Irish Academy Research Symposium on 'War and Literature', University College Cork, 10-11 November 1995
• 'Un grande comunicatore: Federico De Roberto e le ragioni del potere', Conference on 'Power and Italian Culture and Literature', University of the Witwatersrand, 13-17 September 1995
• 'Sciascia e Dürrenmatt: il giallo e l'epistemologia', Convegno Internazionale su 'Sciascia, scrittore europeo', Ascona, Switzerland, 29 March-2 April 1993
• 'Scientific Investigations: Leonardo Sciascia and Friedrich Dürrenmatt', Conference on Cross-Currents in Literature: Detective Genres , UCC, School of Language and Literature, 19-20 February 1993
• 'Popular Myths of America in Irish and Italian Literature', Royal Irish Academy Research Symposium on 'Quest and Discovery: the New World in Literature', University College Galway, 16-17 October 1992, and at Society for Italian Studies Biennial Conference, University College Dublin, April 1993
• 'Sciascia, Dürrenmatt and the Impotence of Reason', Conference on Sicilian Culture, University of Strathclyde, Department of Modern Languages, Glasgow, 1-2 November 1991

Other information

• Co-ordinator: II-Year culture programme
• Programme Co-ordinator (Italian Department), BComm (European/International) with Italian
• Executive Committee Member, Society for Italian Studies (2000-2003; 2003-2006; 2007-2009 co-opted)

Links