My research interests are firmly in the area of comparative and interdisciplinary studies, especially the intersection of the verbal and the visual, and the role of Italian visual culture in the construction of Italian identity both in Italy and abroad. I am very interested in curatorial practice and, in 2010, I co-curated the exhibition Against Mussolini. Art and the Fall of a Dictator (London, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art) as part of the AHRC funded research grant The Cult of the Duce (www.mussolinicult.com). I am currently co-investigator of the AHRC funded project Interdisciplinary Italy 1900-2020: Interart/Intermedia (http://www.interdisciplinaryitaly.org/). The project will run until 2018. My contribution focuses on Italian Modernism and the intersection between the fine arts, design (pre- and postwar) and Italian culture as part of the project’s collaboration with the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, official partner of the project.

My teaching is closely related to my research, and it includes courses on Italian Fascism, its history, culture and legacy; Italian crime fiction; Italian Renaissance art and its reappropriation in the 19th century; and postwar Italian fashion and design.

I am currently the Head of the School of Modern Languages, Literature and Culture and I am responsible for the many degree programmes which the School runs: Comparative LIterature and Culture; LIberal Arts; and degrees in the four major European lanaguges that we teach in the department: French, German, Italian and Spanish. I am also the Director of Royal Holloway's Languages for All programme which is open to all students and staff on campus. Language for All allows our students to study the following languages outside of the their degree programmes: French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish.