I am assistant professor of Italian Literature and Translation Studies, and the coordinator of the Italian Studies Programme.

I read Classics at the University of Palermo, received an MA in Italian Studies with a specialization in Literary Translation (>< Dutch) from the University of Amsterdam, and hold a PhD in Comparative Literature awarded by Utrecht University.

My research focuses on the aesthetics and philology of reception. In this area, I am interested in the relationships between writers, particularly the creative dynamics of stylistic appropriation (displayed or concealed), and the practice of poet-translators. The authors I pay most attention to are Dante and Michelangelo for the early tradition, Sandro Penna and Elsa Morante for the modern one. Furthermore, I investigate philological matters concerning native digital texts, from preservation to archiving.

I authored the monographs Michelangelo in Parnaso. La ricezione delle “Rime” tra gli scrittori (Marsilio 2019, English translation: Brill 2022); Dolci detti. Dante, la letteratura e i poeti (Marsilio 2021, partial Dutch translation: IIC 2021); and have published articles in top tier journals, such as “Paragone Letteratura”, “Nuovi Argomenti”, “Studi Novecenteschi”, “I Tatti”, “Forum Italicum”, “Rivista di Letteratura Italiana”, “Contemporanea”, “Testo a Fronte”, “Letteratura & Arte”, “Mythos”. Currently, I am working on A Concise Handbook of Literary Reception Studies, to be published by Brill.
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My teaching and academic work find a synthesis in the Observatory on Dante Studies, which was founded in 2016. The project involves graduate and PhD students that carry out analysis from an interdisciplinary and transmedia perspective which offers an up-to-date, plural and transnational view of Dantean reception and readership. 

I also serve as editor-in-chief of the series Literary Reception & Art Reception, i quaderni di poesia, the poetry translation section of “Letteratura e Pensiero”, and curate the re-edition of Silvana Grasso's works (ETS and Feltrinelli paperbacks).

Alongside my professional duties, it is important to me to feel part of a wider and open community, and I am committed to sharing knowledge. I regularly participate in the cultural debate with columns and talks, collective books, public lectures and advisory activities. My aim is to broaden audiences and topics, to challenge normative modes of thinking and to strengthen shared critical thinking.