Graduate Students - Department of Italian

Viola Ardeni

E-mail: violin2011@g.ucla.edu
M.A. (Italian Studies) University of Bologna
B.A. (Humanities) University of Bologna

A Ph.D. Candidate since 2016, Viola is completing her dissertation on fairy-tale intertextuality and the representation of difference. Her doctoral project intertwines narratology and feminist criticism to highlighting the cultural anxieties to be found in the adaptations of Italian and... » Read More About Viola Ardeni

Nina Bjekovic

E-mail: nina.bjekovic@yahoo.com
M.A. (Italian Literature) University of California, Los Angeles
B.A. (Italian) University of California, Los Angeles

Nina Bjekovic, a Ph.D. Student, specializes in 19th and 20th-century Italian culture and literature, with particular emphasis on literary works produced during Fascism and the Reconstruction, Italian female playwrights, women writers, gender and feminism, issues of identity and representation, and... » Read More About Nina Bjekovic

Sarah Cantor

E-mail: ssvcantor@ucla.edu
M.A. (Italian Literature) University of California, Los Angeles
B.A. (Italian) Vassar College

Sarah Cantor is a doctoral student in the UCLA Department of Italian whose research interests include Medieval and Renaissance Italian literature, in particular Renaissance epic and the influence of classical authors on their Italian successors. Sarah earned her B.A. in... » Read More About Sarah Cantor

Federica Di Blasio

E-mail: fdiblasio@g.ucla.edu
M.A. (Comparative and World Literature) University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
M.A. (Modern Philology) University of Bologna
B.A. (European Literatures) University of Bologna

Federica Di Blasio is a Ph.D. Candidate and Teaching Associate in the Department of Italian at UCLA. She is primarily interested in representations of mobility and conceptions of the global space in modern and contemporary literature, and cinema. She has... » Read More About Federica Di Blasio

Adriana Guarro

E-mail: aguarro@ucla.edu
M.A. (Italian Literature & Language) New York University
B.A. (Italian Literature & Language) New York University

Adriana Guarro is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Italian at UCLA where she is currently working on her dissertation entitled Ties that Bind: Women and Friendship in Early Modern Italy, which traces and examines portrayals of female friendship through... » Read More About Adriana Guarro

Andrew Hiltzik

E-mail: ahiltzik@ucla.edu
M.A. (Italian Literature) University of California, Los Angeles
B.A. (Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities), Minor (Italian) Washington University

Andrew Hiltzik is a Ph.D. Candidate who focuses on the minor comic works of Machiavelli. Other research interests include representations of religion, love, sexuality, and obscenity in popular literature. He has also translated the works of 20th-century poets Valentino Zeichen,... » Read More About Andrew Hiltzik

Marianna Nespoli

E-mail: mnespoli@ucla.edu
B.A. (English and Comparative Literary Studies; Creative Writing emphasis) Occidental College

Marianna Nespoli is a second-year Ph.D. candidate whose research interests primarily focus on Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature and Cinema with an emphasis on the cinematic collaborations of poet and screenwriter Tonino Guerra with world renowned directors such as Antonioni,... » Read More About Marianna Nespoli

Magdalena Panevska Blaisdell

E-mail: magdalendapanevska@gmail.com

Magdalena Panevska Blaisdell is a Ph.D. student with interests in contemporary and modern Italian literature, and in particular the works of Italian women writers. Other research interests include gender studies and feminism, and the representation of women in Italian film... » Read More About Magdalena Panevska Blaisdell

Nathanial Peterson-More

E-mail: peterson.more@yahoo.com
M.A. (Italian Literature) University of California, Los Angeles
B.A. (Comparative Literature) University of California, Berkeley
Laurea Specialistica (Literary Studies) La Sapienza University of Rome

Nathanial Peterson-More, a PhD Candidate, specializes in Italian literature, history, culture, and cinema, and is especially interested in representations and interpretations of historical events in fiction – with a particular focus on La Resistenza and the devastating Civil War fought... » Read More About Nathanial Peterson-More

Kelly Roso

E-mail: kroso001@g.ucla.edu
M.A. (General and Comparative Literature) La Sorbonne, Paris
M.A. (Italian Literature) University of California, Los Angeles
B.A. (Italian and German) University of California, Riverside

Kelly Roso is a doctoral student and Teaching Assistant of Italian. She is interested in the traditions of the Sienese Palio, feminism of all waves, Distant Reading, and the works of Umberto Eco and David Foster Wallace. Kelly earned her... » Read More About Kelly Roso

Adele Sanna

E-mail: adelesanna@ucla.edu
M.A. (Italian Studies) University of Virginia
Laurea Specialistica (Competenze Testuali per l'Editoria e i Media) Università per Stranieri di Siena
Laurea Magistrale (English and German) Università degli Studi di Siena

Adele Sanna, a Ph.D. Candidate, specializes in Italian Contemporary Literature with an emphasis on Italian women authors (writers and filmmakers) and Mediterranean islands. Her interests include Mediterranean Studies, gender studies, film studies, and Latin-American studies. Adele was born in Barletta,... » Read More About Adele Sanna

Cindy Stanphill

E-mail: cstanphi@ucla.edu
C.Phil (Italian Literature) University of California, Los Angeles
M.A. (English) University of California, Long Beach
B.A. (Liberal Arts) University of California, Long Beach

Cindy Stanphill is a Candidate in Philosophy in the Department of Italian at UCLA. She is currently working on her dissertation, The Rise of the Novel in Venice: Carlo Gozzi, Pietro Chiari, Antonio Piazza. She is a Cota-Robles scholar and... » Read More About Cindy Stanphill

Joseph Tumolo

E-mail: jtumolo@ucla.edu
M.A. (Italian Literary & Cultural Studies) University of Connecticut
B.A. (Italian Literature) Fordham University

Joseph Tumolo, a Ph.D. student, is interested in modern and contemporary Italian literature, critical theory, and Italian-American studies. Before beginning his Ph.D. at UCLA, Joseph earned an M.A. in Italian Literary & Cultural Studies from the University Connecticut, and a... » Read More About Joseph Tumolo