People

Charles Burdett

Charles Burdett

Professor, University of Bristol

Charles Burdett is Professor of Italian at Bristol University and Chair of the Society for Italian Studies. In the project he is looking at Italian communities in East Africa from the end of the Second World War to the present. His work centres on the journals, photographs and literature of Italians who have lived or who are living in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Carlo Pirozzi

Carlo Pirozzi

Research Fellow, University of St Andrews

Carlo Pirozzi is a Research Fellow at the University of St. Andrews and his research focuses on cultural translation and the visual history of the Italian community in Scotland.  He is also responsible for coordinating the creation and development of the TML website.

Jennifer BurnsJennifer Burns

Associate Professor, University of Warwick

Jennifer Burns is Associate Professor (Reader) in Italian at Warwick University. Her individual research has focused on contemporary literature in Italian authored by African and Middle Eastern migrants. Through the TML project, she is shifting the focus of her enquiry into transnational Italian cultures to look at the histories of self-representation of Italian communities in the UK, and particularly London.

Luisa PercopoLuisa Pèrcopo

Research Fellow, University of Cardiff

Luisa Pèrcopo’s research interests are on photography and travel writing, World and Italian cinema, the literatures and cultures of islands, the Mediterranean as a post-colonial space, autobiographies by ethnic minority Australians and the Italian ‘diasporas’. She is one of the founders of the Italian Cultural Centre Wales and her research for the TML project will focus on the most recent waves of Italian migration to Wales and the influence that social media exerts on such an experience of mobility.

Jacopo ColombiniJacopo Colombini

Postgraduate student, University of St. Andrews

Jacopo Colombini’s PhD focuses on discourses around migration in Italy. In particular, he explores different forms of practices used to represent the “Lampedusa issue” and the progressive transnationalization of the signifiers attached to it.

Loredana PolezziLoredana Polezzi

Professor, University of Cardiff

Loredana Polezzi’s research interests focus on the intersections between migration and translation. Within the TML project she will be looking at the relationship between language politics and policies on the one hand, and individual as well as group translation strategies on the other, with specific attention to the history of Italian American cultures.

Derek DuncanDerek Duncan

Professor, University of St Andrews

Derek Duncan’s work focuses on migrant communities in Italy especially those with some historical link to Italy’s colonial past. He is particularly interested in questions of the migrant voice and accent working with a range of visual and print media. He is collaborating closely with the Archivio Memorie Migranti in Rome. He also co-ordinates the project’s work with Drummond Community High School in Edinburgh.

Marco SantelloMarco Santello

Lecturer, University of Leeds

Marco Santello is a Lecturer at the University of Leeds. His research focuses on multilingualism and migrant experiences in Australia, where he explores the use of linguistic and semiotic resources among Italian communities. He works in collaboration with Monash University and the Italian Historical Society (Melbourne).

Margaret Hills de ZarateMargaret Hills de Zàrate

Senior Lecturer, Queen Margaret University

Margaret Hills de Zárate is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader of the MSc Art Psychotherapy (International) at Queen Margaret University. Her research interest is in the area of trans-generational migration and material and visual culture. Within the TML project she will be focussing on the experience and representation of Italian communities in Latin America.

Barbara SpadaroBarbara Spadaro

Research Fellow, University of Bristol

Barbara Spadaro will look at the memories and historical experience of “Italians” from the former Italian and French colonies of North Africa. Her work draws on interviews, public and family records, photographs and objects that link past and present in individual and collective narratives. She investigates how memory, imagination and material culture shape ideas of subjectivity, citizenship and “Italianness” inside and outside of Europe.

Georgia WallGeorgia Wall

Postgraduate student, University of Warwick

Georgia Wall is a PhD student at the University of Warwick. Her project, provisionally entitled ‘Consuming Italianità: Authenticity, Class, Heritage, and Nostalgia’, considers the experience and expression of historic and contemporary Italian migration to London, and examines ideas of ‘italianità’ (‘Italian-ness’, or ‘being Italian’) through stereotypes and spaces identified as ‘Italian’. More generally, she is interested in ethnography in Modern Languages research and teaching.

Naomi WellsNaomi Wells

Research Fellow, University of Warwick

Naomi Wells is a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick and her research interests include multilingualism and language ideologies. Within the project her work will develop a comparative understanding of patterns of mobility and translation in relation to Italy and Spain, focusing specifically on the language use of contemporary migrant communities.