I am a cultural historian, interested in History of Publishing and Intellectual History, Sociology of Translation and Sociology of Cultural Production.
- My research to date has explored the relationship between translation and publishing institutions in post-WWII Italy (1951-1977). Drawing on a sociological approach, intersecting histoire croisée, Bourdieu's theoretical framework and Actor-Network theory, my doctoral thesis investigates unpublished materials from the archives of some key Italian poetry publishers (Mondadori, Einaudi and Scheiwiller) to reconstruct the meta-discourses related to the publication of foreign poetry. It argues that translation was a way to modify power relations within the publishing field and to reshape publishers’ identity as intellectuals, by fostering cultural projects of political engagement.
- Building on the composite methodology of my doctoral thesis, my current strand of research explores the processes of identity formation of Italian intellectual networks. Precisely, by analysing the national and transnational dimensions of three journals, Politecnico, Risorgimento and Sud (1945-1947), it aims to highlight the ways in which post-WWII journals and publishers interwove translation and political commitment to forge their role in the Republican years.
- My future research will explore the cultural and political dynamics informing literary translation practices in post-WWII Italy (1946-1972). It will do so by charting the strategic influence of the Italian Communist Party on the publication of translated literature and the role of translation in forging a politically committed narrative in 'post-hegemonic' Italy.