Silvia Valisa Florida State University Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics 625 University Way - PO 3061540 Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1540 Office: 352 Diffenbaugh Hall Email: svalisa@fsu.edu Please also see my Selected Works Webpage at http://works.bepress.com/silvia_valisa/ Current Position Assistant Professor Italian Studies, Florida State University (since 2008). Research Fields Modern Italian Literature and Culture and the Technologies of Modernity (Theory of the Novel, History of Publishing, Visual Culture); Gender Studies; Comparative Literature (Italian-French); Trauma Theory and Post-Colonial Studies. Education 2007 Ph.D. in Italian Studies, University of California Berkeley. 1997 D.E.A. (Diplôme d Etudes Approfondies) in French Literature, Université Paris 3, la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Mention très bien. 1995-6 Exchange Program in Italian and Comparative Literature, Collegio Ghislieri and University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. 1995 Laurea Modern Literatures, Università di Pavia, Collegio Ghislieri. 110 e lode. Fellowships and Grants 2012-2013 Faculty Research Library Materials Grant (Sonzogno Project, phase II). 2012-2013 Planning Grant, FSU. Sonzogno Digital Metadata Repository. 2011 Faculty Research Library Materials Grant (Sonzogno Project, phase I). 2009 Post-Doctoral Fellow in International Humanities, Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University (Italian Studies and Gender Studies). 2009 First-Year Assistant Professor Summer Grant, FSU. 2006 Departmental Grant for Dissertation Writing, University of California. 2005-6 Dean s Normative Time Fellowship for dissertation writing. 2001-2004 Departmental Fellowship, Italian Studies Department, University of California, Berkeley. Peer-reviewed Publications Book Manuscript Gender, Narrative, and Dissonance in the Modern Italian Novel. Forthcoming with the University of Toronto Press (2015). Second book project: News, Notes and Novels: Sonzogno s Circuit of Knowledge in 19 th century Italy. In progress. Articles and Solicited Essays In preparation: Across the Sea : The 1893 Chicago Fair Woman s Building Library and its Italian Books Collection. 1
Sulla preparazione di un catalogo digitale delle edizioni Sonzogno. Solicited contribution, La Fabbrica del libro. Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, (Franco Angeli), Milan. XIX 2/2013, 47-54. An Imaged Life. Wanda Wulz and the Familiar Archive. Solicited contribution to A 'Window' on the Female Modernist 'I': from Neera to Elsa Morante, Rossella Riccobono ed. (Cambridge Scholars). 45-77 Casa editrice Sonzogno: mediazione culturale, circuiti del sapere ed innovazione tecnologica nell Italia unificata. Technology and the Printed Media in Italy between 1870 and 1914 Ann. H. Caesar and Gabriella Romani eds. (Legenda, UK, July 2011). Accompanying website: http://www.progettosonzogno.org/ Still Figures: Neera s Fotografie matrimoniali and The Epistemology of Photography. Rethinking Neera. Supplement to The Italianist 30. Catherine Ramsey-Portolano and Katharine Mitchell eds. (December 2010). Corpi estranei and Moving Stereotypes: Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Trauma of the Other in L odore dell India. MLN (Modern Language Notes, 2009). Gendered Quests: Analysis, Revelation and the Epistemology of Gender in Neera s Teresa, Lydia and L indomani. The Italianist (2008.i, 92-112). Co-authored: Oh, S., Choi, W., & Valisa, S. (2014). The sonzogno digital library project. In Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (pp. 1-4). Wiley. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/meet.14505001138/ Book Reviews Ed. by Luca Di Blasi, Manuele Gragnolati, and Christoph Holzhey. The Scandal of Self- Contradiction. Pasolini's Multistable Subjectivities,Traditions, Geographies. MLR, Modern Languages Review. (forthcoming). Deborah Amberson. Giraffes in the Garden of Italian Literature. Modernist Embodiment in Italo Svevo, Federigo Tozzi and Carlo Emilio Gadda. (Oxford, Legenda, 2012). Quaderni d italianistica, 2014. Francesca Billiani, Culture nazionali e narrazioni straniere, Italia 1903-1943 (Le Lettere, Florence, 2007). Italica, 2010. Wood, Sharon, editor. The Challenge of Modernity. Essays on Grazia Deledda. Leicester, Troubadour, 2007. JMIS, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2009. Benedetti, Laura. The Tigress in the Snow. Motherhood and Literature in Twentieth-Century Italy. University of Toronto Press, 2007. H-Italy, January 2009. Link: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23578 Weinapple, Fiorenza. Le foglie levi di Sibylla. L opera e la scrittura di Maria Pascoli. Preface by Elio Gioanola. Milan: Jaca Book, 2007. 288 pages. Annali d italianistica, Fall 2008. Curzio Malaparte, Woman Like Me. (Donna come me). Translated and introduced by Robin Monotti Graziadei. Leicester: Troubador, 2007. 81 pp. Annali d italianistica, Fall 2008. 2
Bonsaver, Guido. Censorship and Literature in Fascist Italy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. H-Italy, March 2008. Link: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14302 Internet Web Site Development Sample 1885 : Sonzogno Digital Catalog. URL: http://sonzogno.cci.fsu.edu/ by Valisa, Silvia, Oh, Sanghee, & Choi, Wonchan (contract). Progetto Sonzogno. Currently in progress with FSU Digital Library: creation of online platform for consultation of the newspaper Il Secolo (1866-1927), Sonzogno. Conference Papers and Lectures Invited Lectures Across the Sea : The 1893 Chicago Fair Woman s Building Library and its Italian Books Collection. FSU Symposium. Invited Lecture. March 2012. News, Notes and Novels. Sonzogno s Circuit of Knowledge in 19 th century Italy. HOTT (History of Text Technologies) and Digital Humanities Colloquium. Invited lecture, FSU, March 2012. The Philosopher in the House: On Characters, Bodies and Narrative in Italian Novels Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University, September 2009, and Department of Italian Studies Colloquium Series, Brown University, Sept. 09. Gender, Narrative and Fascism: The Uncooperative Protagonist in Paola Masino s Nascita e morte della massaia. San Francisco State University, Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literature, December 2007 and Florida State University, Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics, January 2008. Conference Papers January 2015 Printing Networks and A National Scandal - Raffaele Sonzogno's Murder (1875). Paper to be presented at MLA (Modern Languages Association) Yearly Meeting 2015, Vancouver, CA. May 2014 "Her Eye: Wanda Wulz's Portraits". Paper presented at AAIS (American Association for Italian Studies) Yearly Conference, Zurich, Switzerland. November 2013 Progetto Sonzogno, Campione 1885: A Digital Project on the History of Italian Publishing". Paper presented at SAMLA Yearly Conference, Atlanta, GA. January 2013 "The Industrial Origins of Text-Image Intermediality: Sonzogno Periodicals in the 1860s 80s". Paper presented at MLA Annual Meeting, Boston, MA. March 2013 Gertrude s Smile: Irony and Gender Dissonance in I promessi sposi. Conference on The Monk, the Priest, the Nun. University of Pennsylvania, PA. January 2013 The Industrial Origins of Text-Image Intermediality: Sonzogno Periodicals in the 1860s 80s". MLA, Boston, MA. May 2012 Present Absence: Sexual Politics in Sibilla Aleramo s Una donna and Colette s La vagabonde. AAIS, Charleston. January 2012 Verism, Folklore, and Narrative Revenge: Marchesa Colombi s In risaia MLA, Seattle, WA. June 2011 Sexuality and Body Politics in Sibilla Aleramo s Una donna and Colette s La vagabonde. Canadian Society for Italian Studies, Venice, Italy. November 2010 Still Figures: Neera s Fotografie matrimoniali and The Epistemology of May 2009 Photography. SAMLA, Atlanta, GA. The Mule and the Ghost: Freedom, Phantasy and Death in Giovanni Verga s Le storie del castello di Aci Trezza. AAIS, New York, NY. 3
October 2008 Progetto Sonzogno: A Publishing House s History and its Role as Cultural Mediator. Conference on Technology and the Printed Media in Italy between 1870 and 1914, Seton Hall University. July 2008 Il lupo e il topolino: Laura Cereta and Humanist Women s Self- Representation. Conference on Gender and Sexuality Studies Italian Style, Monash University Center, Prato, Italy. May 2007 The Speculative Housewife: Paola Masino s Nascita e morte della massaia as a Philosophical Project. AAIS conference, Colorado Springs. May 2007 March 2007 Narrative, Masculinity and Homosexuality: Gender Ideology in Elsa Morante. CICIS Conference, California State University, Long Beach. October 2006 Sacrificial Resistances: Gender Politics and Poetics in Sibilla Aleramo s Una donna and Colette s La vagabonde. Literature Matters Conference, University of Oregon, Eugene OR. May 2006 Il modo con cui gli indiani dicono di sì: Pasolini e il trauma postcoloniale ne L odore dell India. AAIS Conference, Genoa, Italy. February 2006 The Failures of Storytelling: Elsa Morante s Aracoeli. 20 th Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville, KY. April 2005 Gender Negotiations. Tradition and Subversion in Neera s Representation of Women. AAIS Conference, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC. Other Conference Activities May 2014 Panel Organizer: Her Eye: Women s Presence in Early Italian Photography. AAIS, May 2014, Zurich, Switzerland May 2012 Panel Organizer: European Women in 19 th and 20 th century: Italy and Beyond. AAIS. May 2012, Charleston, SC. May 2012 Round Table Participant: In & Out: What Kept Women out of Mainstream Culture? AAIS, May 2012. February 2009 Chair of the panel Gender, Ethics and Littérature-monde at the International Conference organized by the Winthrop-King Institute, FSU, on Littératuremonde: New Wave or new Hype? Nov. 2008 Organizer of a book reading and discussion of Lily Tuck s biography of Italian writer Elsa Morante: Woman of Rome: a Life of Elsa Morante, Winthrop-King Institute, FSU. May 2007 Chair of the panel Le signore dei salotti. Creatività femminile e cultura nel sette-ottocento. AAIS, Colorado Springs. February 2006 Panel organizer and Chair: Revising Gendered Figures and Structures: Three Postmodern Italian Novels. 20 th Century Conference, Louisville. Teaching Experience Below is a selection of introductory, upper division and graduate classes taught at the University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco State University, Brown University and Florida State University. Florida State University: Fall 2014 Gender in Italian Literature. Seminar on a gender-based approach to the study of literature. Summer 2014 Multicultural Humanities in Practice: Italian Films and Diversity. (FSU Study Center in Florence) Spring 2013 Italian Cinema: History, Theory and Practice. Writing course organized around Italian cinematic culture. Fall 2013 Moderni e no. Gli italiani e il Novecento. Seminar on the Italian Modernity Spring 2013 Masterpieces in Italian Literature and Culture. Introduction to Italian literature and culture. 4
Summer 2011 Visual Culture: Urban Spaces and Visual Traces in Italian Culture. Seminar on Italian photography and cinema (FSU Center in Florence). Brown University: Fall 2009 Gender, Literature and Nation: Writing Nations, Writing (and Reading) Subjects. Seminar on Italian cultural ideologies and nation-building rhetoric. San Francisco State University: Spring 2008 Il romanzo italiano: Modernità e modernismi. Seminar on the Italian novel, Pirandello, Borgese, Deledda and Svevo, modernism and the figure of the inetto. Fall 2007 Scrittrici italiane: Che cos è la letteratura, che cos è una donna. Seminar on Italian women writers. Gender ideology, the politics of representation, and the development of literary canons. University of California, Berkeley Spring 2005 Romanzi complici e personaggi sovversivi. Seminar on nineteenth and twentieth century Italian novels and films and their political context. Fall 2001 Special Topics in Film Genre: Avant-Garde Film. Lecture course featuring works by avant-garde film directors (course assistant). Academic Service at FSU 2014-2016 FSU Faculty Senate, elected member. 2011-ongoing Undergraduate Advisor Italian Program, Department of Modern Languages 2010-ongoing Academic Advisor for FSU International Exchanges (Pavia and Perugia Universities) 2010-ongoing Member of the Lecture Series Committee, Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, FSU. 2008-2012 Director and Coordinator of the Italian Language Program, Florida State University. Other Academic Service Guest Reviewer for Refereed Journals 2012 Small Axe, A Caribbean Platform for Criticism and Quaderni di italianistica. Language Textbook Reviewer 2012 Italiamania. Reviewer. 2011-present Untitled manuscript - Textbook for Advanced Italian Classes, Cengage Publishers. Reviewer. 2010-present Parliamo Italiano, 4 th edition. Reviewer. Other Professional Experience: Publishing 1999-2001 Publishing consultant for Italian literature for Albin Michel publishers, Paris, France. 1997-2001 Publicity manager for Editions de l Olivier publishers (Editions du Seuil), Paris, France. Memberships MLA; AAIS; AATI; SHARP Foreign Languages: Italian, native. French, near native level. Arabic, beginner. Greek and Latin, reading competence. 5