University of Sydney / Faculty of Arts / Department of Italian Studies / Research / Research Overview

Research overview for Italian Studies

The Department of Italian Studies is a vigorous centre of research activity across all aspects of Italian Studies, supported by outstanding library resources and services. Members of the department maintain strong interdisciplinary links with a wide range of research clusters across the Humanities as well as with Social Science disciplines of Education and Politics. Research Associates make a vital contribution to the Department's research culture.

Proposals are invited from potential Honours, Doctoral and Postdoctoral students. Supervision and mentoring is available in literary studies, from medieval to modern; cultural and translation studies; sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.

Research Networks and Clusters

Medieval Studies

Nerida Newbigin (research associate, Italian Studies), Diana Modesto (research associate, Italian Studies)

See also Louise Marshall (Art History and Theory), John O. Ward (Research Associate, History), and the Centre for Medieval Studies and Network for Early European Research

Recent theses

  • Anthony Cuzzilla, “Time, Telos and Mysticism in the Divina Commedia” (PhD, 2006)
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Renaissance Studies

Nerida Newbigin (research associate, Italian Studies)

See also Nicholas Eckstein (History), Ros Pesman (Research Associate, History), Louise Marshall (Art History and Theory)

Recent and current PhD theses

  • Kathleen Olive, “Creation, Imitation, Fabrication: Renaissance self-fashioning in the Codex Rustici” (PhD, 2004)
  • Diana Bryant, “The life and letters of Eleonora of Aragon, Duchess of Ferrara”
  • Sally Grant (associate supervision, with Art History and Theory), “The Idea of the Garden in Early Modern Venice”

Recent and current Honours theses

  • Isabella Jacomb, “Courtesans and Whores: Redefining prostitution in sixteenth-century Venice” (Honours, 2006)
  • Tim Robinson, “Peter Martyr Vermigli and Reformation Thought” (Honours, 2006)
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Eighteenth Century

Suzanne Kiernan (research associate, Italian Studies); Iain McCalman (research professor, History)

Current thesis

  • Natasha Mitchell, “Onesto, illuminato e educato: Conduct, Enlightenment and the Didactic in the Giornale enciclopedico, 1774-1796”
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Twentieth-century Italian and Comparative Literature

Paolo Bartoloni, Giorgia Alù, Maria Cristina Mauceri; see also Anthony Dracopoulos, Vrasidas Karalis (Modern Greek); Andrea Bandhauer (Germanic Studies)

Current PhD theses

  • Andrew Wright, “‘Negativity’ in the works of Melville, Kafka, and Blanchot”
  • Gloria De Vincenti, “‘Oltrarealtà’ e il Secondo Futurismo Fiorentino”
  • Margherita Zanoletti, “Brett Whitely: a Literary Approach” (Analysis, commentary and Italian translation of Brett Whiteley’s writings)
  • Theodore Ell Piero Bigongiari's Rogo (1944-1952)

Recent and current honours theses

  • Theodore Ell, Pasolini and Morante
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Literature and Culture of Migration and Travel

Antonia Rubino, Giorgia Alù, Maria Cristina Mauceri

Current PhD theses

  • Francesco Ricatti, “Embodying Italian Migrants: Impossible dialogues, spectral fantasies, and the body. Letters to Mamma Lena (La Fiamma, Australia, 1956)” (PhD, 2007; jointly awarded the Premio Altreitalie 2008 for the best foreign thesis on Italian emigration.)
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Italian Cultural Studies

Antonia Rubino, Giorgia Alù, Maria Cristina Mauceri, Paola Marmini (research associate, Italian Studies)


Recent and current Honours theses

  • Kelly Marks, “Resistance past and present” (2004)
  • Jessica Forwood, Dante and Milton (2005)
  • Stephanie Low, “Italian Immigration Policies, 1996-2006” (2006)
  • Romina Accurso, “The Hero that got a facial: How Buffy the Vampire Slayer revitalises the hero-myth” [on Dante and Buffy] (2008)
  • Maria Capobianco, Harry Potter in Italian Translation (in progress)

Theatre and Drama

Nerida Newbigin (research associate, Italian Studies), (associate professor, Performance Studies)

Recent PhD thesis

  • Jennifer Gargiulo, “Vivere sul serio: Eduardo De Filippo and the Art of Life” (PhD 2007)

Recent Honours theses

  • Justine Marshall, “Goldoni Unmasked: From La serva amorosa to In the Service of Love” (2008)
    Kerry Hardman, “Goldoni's Le Bourru bienfaisant and Il burbero benefico: Questions of translation” (in progress)
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Sociolinguistics

Dr Antonia Rubino

Recent Honours theses

  • Ella Ellwood-Shoesmith, “Language dynamics in an infants’ immersion classroom” (Honours, 2004)
  • Carmel Cordaro, “Language Shift and exogamy among second generation Italo-Australians” (Honours, 2004)
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Applied Linguistics

Recent PhD Thesis

  • Antonella Strambi, “The impact of Web-enhanced interaction and collaboration on the language learner. A longitudinal study of beginning learners of Italian at tertiary level.” (PhD, 2002)

Recent Honours theses

  • Christina Spaccavento (joint Honours in Italian and Linguistics), “Exploring appraisal resources within the Australian and Italian print media: comparing Hard News and Comment articles” (Honours, 2006)
  • Rebecca Joyce, “To speak or not to speak: A critical analysis of the Study Abroad experience and its effect on second language acquisition” (Honours, 2007)
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