Education

• Ph.D. in Comparative Languages and Literatures, University of Macerata
• Diploma in Library and Archival Science, Vatican School, Vatican City
• Undergraduate and Graduate Studies, University of Rome "La Sapienza" and Karl Ruprecht University of Heidelberg

Academic Position

Associate Professor of German Literature and Culture (L-LIN/13), Department of Humanities, University of Macerata

Institutional Roles and Appointments

• Departmental Delegate for Internationalisation, Department of Humanities (DSU), University of Macerata

• President, Italian Section of the Theodor Fontane Gesellschaft

• Rector’s Delegate for the University Theatre Workshop, with responsibility for scientific project planning
• Vice-President, HAIT-Italien (Heidelberg Alumni International Italien)

• Former Head of Delegation, FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano), Macerata (2012–2021)

Research Interests

• Literary Anthropology, with a specific focus on autobiographical and biographical writing
• Spatial representation and perception in literature, including intercultural perspectives, with a focus on geopoetics and travel literature (Odeporik) from the Goethezeit to the present
• Anthropological dimensions of German literary realism, particularly the works of Theodor Fontane
• Women’s literature of the Holocaust, especially the work of Gertrud Kolmar, whose fiction and correspondence she is currently translating
• Representations of Otherness, including studies on E.T.A. Hoffmann and Franz Kafka
• Intersections of literature and the visual arts, especially authors with dual artistic vocations (Doppelbegabungen)
• Literary representations of disability
• Performativity in German Literature (Franz Kafka)
• The reception of the myth in contemporary German literature (Friedrich Duerrenmatt, Elfriede Jelinek, Volker Braun)
• Ecocriticism
• Transcultural studies
• Emotional turn in literature and cultural history (focus on the Berlin Wall and DDR memory)

Ongoing Research Projects

• CO-IMA (Controversial Images) – Interdepartmental research group at the University of Macerata (UNIMC) “Costellazioni” – Recently awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action
• In Movimento! Languages, Political Generations, and Contemporary Literature in the Euro-Mediterranean Context.  A national and international research group involving the University of Catania, Østfold University College (Norway), and the University of Vienna
• Theodor Fontane and Hebraism (in collaboration with the University of Potsdam)
• Mediterranean garden as heterotopia in German culture and literature, as part of a research project led by CIRAM (Interdepartmental Centre for Adriatic and Mediterranean Research), University of Macerata
• Migration and Climate change , as part of a research project led by CIRAM (Interdepartmental Centre for Adriatic and Mediterranean Research), University of Macerata

Collaborations and Memberships

• Collaborations with German cultural institutes in Italy as a translator, scientific editor, and cultural event curator, including:
• - Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome
• - Goethe-Institut Rome
• - Casa di Goethe, Rome
• - Austrian Cultural Forum, Rome
• Member of the international research network PETRA-E* (European Network for the Education and Training of Literary Translators)
• Member of CIRAM (Interdepartmental Centre for Adriatic and Mediterranean Research), University of Macerata
• Member of the AIG – Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik (International Association for German Studies)
• Member of Rotary Berlin Potsdam

ERC Research Fields

• SH5_2 – Theory and history of literature, comparative literature
• SH5_4 – Visual and performing arts, film, design
• SH5_8 – Cultural studies, cultural identities and memories, cultural heritage