Carla Cucina is Full Professor of Germanic Philology in the University of Macerata, Department of Humanities, Sect. of Linguistics, Literature and Philology (SeLLF), Italy. She was previously researcher and assistant professor at the IULM University in Milano (from 1986 to 1995) and at “La Sapienza” University in Rome (from 1995 to 2000). In 1998 she started teaching in Macerata University and in 2000 she became associate professor. Full professor since 2004, she has kept teaching in and collaborating with “La Sapienza” University in Rome. She is currently Director of Teaching for L-11 and LM-37 Courses (Department of Humanities, University of Macerata). She is also Coordinator of the Departmental Research Center for the Anthropology of Text (Department of Humanities, University of Macerata), and Director of “Classiconorrœna”, an academic society of scholars interested in the history of mutual cultural interactions between the Nordic and the (neo-)classical world, seated in the University of Perugia. She is the elected member of the Area Committee for Research (CAR) 10 in ancient, philological-literary and historical-artistic sciences, having held this role for the past four rounds (from 2019 to 2021 also as a member of the University Research Committee [CAT]). She has been invited to join and is a member of the International Research Network "Crossing Frontiers: Medieval Visions of Modern Science", Queen's University Belfast, School of Arts, English and Languages. She is a member of the scientific steering committee of the open-access journal "Polythesis. Filologia, interpretazione e teoria della letteratura" (eum edizioni università di macerata) and of the book series "Intersezioni filologiche" (Prometheus, Milano). She has joint as editor and member of the scientific commettee for the monographic issues 10, 2018 (Old English Religious Poetry) and 15, 2023 (Metre and Rhythm in Medieval Germanic Texts) of the class-A journal "Filologia Germanica - Germanic Philology", published by the Italian Association of Germanic Philologists (AIFG).

Experienced in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse literature, she has been investigating most extensively on Scandinavian runic inscriptions from the Viking and Medieval Ages (see her books Il tema del viaggio nelle iscrizioni runiche, Pavia, Gianni Iuculano Editore, 1989, and Vestr ok austr. Iscrizioni e saghe sui viaggi dei vichinghi, Roma, Editore “il Calamo”, 2001), as well as on the Nordic runic lore in post-medieval times (for instance within Johannes and Olaus Magnus’ Historiae; Olaus Celsius' writings about the staveless runes, or Olaus Verelius' Notae to the Hervarar saga); on the circulation of runes in Renaissance Europe; on Scandinavian connections with Italy concerning the runic evidence and lore, and on Medieval and Renaissance runic calendars (see her book on a special class of 'runstavar' Libri runici del computo. Il calendario di Bologna e i suoi analoghi europei, Macerata, EUM, 2013), also from the Baltic region (see her edition and study of a Swedish-Estonian 'runbok' preserved in the Vatican Library: Il calendario runico nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana [Vat. lat. 14613], "Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae" 22 [2016]; A runic calendar in the Vatican Library, "Futhark" 9-10 [2020]).

In the field of Old Icelandic studies, she has been investigating especially about the social background, the doctrinal implications and the literary function of pilgrimage in Medieval Iceland (see Il pellegrinaggio nelle saghe dell’Islanda medievale, “Rendiconti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche”, ser. 9, vol. 9:1 [1998]), and about Old Icelandic allegorical literature, publishing new editions and studies of some neglected homiletic pieces about ship and respectively rainbow allegories (see En kjǫlrinn jarteinir trú rétta. Incidenza di tropi classici e cristiani sulle tradizioni anglosassone e scandinava, “RILD. Rivista Italiana di Linguistica e Dialettologia” XII [2010], pp. 9-78; The Rainbow Allegory in the Old Icelandic Physiologus Manuscript, “Gripla” XXII [2011], pp. 63-118). Her latest book is Audun e l'orso. Un racconto medievale islandese (Macerata, eum, 2017).

Within the field of Anglo-Saxon studies, she has published a new annotated edition of the Old English poem The Seafarer (Il Seafarer. La navigatio cristiana di un poeta anglosassone, Roma, Edizioni Kappa, 2008) and has extensively worked on religious poetry in its literary, socio-historical and manuscript context, including its interrelations with (homiletic) prose. One of her most recent essays is an analytical survey of the textual representions of poverty in Anglo-Saxon England, especially within the corpus of Old English poetry (Mid thearfan waedum. Rappresentare la povertà nella poesia anglosassone, in "Filologia Germanica - Germanic Philology" 10 [2018], pp. 81-155). Her latest articles are respectively about Anglo-Saxon childhood as reflected in some Old English poetical scenes (Di vesti colorate e oscuri panni: scene d'infanzia nell'Exeter Book, "RILD. Rivista Italiana di Linguistica e Dialettologia" XXIII [2021], pp. 9-40); about approaching the Exeter Riddles through epigraphic and archeological contemporary sources (Wordum min spel gesecgan: Speaking voices and written words in the Exeter Book Riddle 4, in Miscellanea di studi in onore di Diego Poli, a cura di F. Chiusaroli, Roma 2021, pp. 371-387); about Old English Christian poetry and homiletic prose (Guida spirituale e interferenze omiletiche nei Precepts dell'Exeter Book, in Luflice ond freondlice. Studi in onore di Maria Elena Ruggerini, a cura di C. Cucina, L. Lozzi Gallo, V. Szoke, Milano 2023, 89-126; «Because they eat oil in that country with their food as we do butter»: Daily life, adjustments and explanation of exotic items in Ælfric’s homilies, "RILD. Rivista Italiana di Linguistica e Dialettologia" XXV [2023], pp. 97-124).