Faculty

Laura Benedetti, Professor & Chair

Laura and Gaetano De Sole Professor of Contemporary Italian Culture
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
email: lb227@georgetown.edu 
website

Interests: 20th -Century Literature, Women Writers from the Origins to the Present, Gender Studies, Torquato Tasso, Renaissance Chivalric and Epic Poems, the Past-Present Continuum.

Francesco Ciabattoni, Professor

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University 
email: fc237@georgetown.edu
website

Interests:  “Medieval and contemporary literature; the interplay of literature and music, language teaching and linguistics. Intertextuality, literary theory and cultural studies.”

Gianni Cicali, Professor & Director of Graduate Studies

Dottorato di ricerca, University of Florence
Ph.D., University of Toronto
email: gc227@georgetown.edu
website

Interests: 15th-18th century Italian theater; Italian opera and librettists; the relations between theater and the fine arts; Pietro Trinchera, religious theater; cinema.

Anna De Fina, Professor

Ph.D., Georgetown University
email: definaa@georgetown.edu
website

Interests: Discourse analysis: oral narrative, narratives in interaction and the relationship between storytelling and identity. Discourse an identities: processes of identity construction among migrant and transnational communities. Language use in Italian communities abroad. Dialects and language varieties in Italy. Italian American studies.

Nicoletta Pireddu, Professor

Dottorato di Ricerca, Università di Venezia Ca’Foscari
Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles
e-mail: pireddun@georgetown.edu
website

Interests: Comparative literature; European studies; Italian, English, French literatures; critical theories; cultural studies; history of ideas; early science-fiction; translation studies.

Louise Hipwell, Teaching Professor & Coordinator of the Italian Language Program

Ph.D., Rutgers University
e-mail: lfh5@georgetown.edu
website

Interests: Language pedagogy, using technology to enhance student learning, integrating culture into all levels of language instruction, translation studies.

Donatella Melucci, Teaching Professor

Ph.D., Arizona State University
e-mail: dm527@georgetown.edu
website

Interests: Syntax, methodologies for teaching Italian as a second/foreign language, use of technology in foreign language classes, translation studies. 

Fulvia Musti, Associate Teaching Professor

Laurea in Lingue e Lettere, University of Bologna
Ph.D Candidate, DLS, (’16)
e-mail: mustif@georgetown.edu
website

Interests: Teaching Italian language and culture using a drama-based approach; integrating web resources and technology.

Giuseppe Tosi, Associate Teaching Professor

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
e-mail: tosig@georgetown.edu
website

Interests: Modern and contemporary Italian literature; cultural studies; interdisciplinary approaches to literature; creative writing; translation.