Giovanna Faleschini Lerner Professor of Italian, Program Chair of Comparative Literary Studies
Biography
I am a scholar of twentieth-century and contemporary Italian cinema, literature, and
culture. I studied Russian and English literatures at the Catholic University of Milan,
where I obtained my laurea, and completed my MA and PhD in Italian at the University
of Pennsylvania. My research interests include cinematic and literary interpretations
of history, visual and inter-art studies, women's and gender studies and theory, motherhood
studies, and Mediterranean studies, as well as the literature and cinema of migration
in Italy.
My most recent book, Women and Migration in Contemporary Italian Cinema: Screening
Hospitality (Transnational Italian Cultures Series, Liverpool University Press, 2022),
examines cinematic representations of transnational migration from a gendered perspective.
I have also served as co-editor of Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies 7.2
(2019) and guest editor for the journal gender/sexuality/Italy 5 (2018). Together
with Maria Elena D'Amelio, I co-edited the volume Italian Motherhood on Screen (Palgrave
2017). My first book, Carlo Levi's Visual Poetics: The Painter as Writer, was published
by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012. I have also published numerous articles and book chapters
on Italian cinema and twentieth-century Italian literature and critical theory. In
2011-2012, I was a Mellon Regional Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn
Humanities Forum on "Adaptations" and, in 2014, I returned to Penn as a Visiting Scholar.
At Franklin & Marshall, I teach all levels of Italian language and have created many
new courses in Italian cinema and literature, including "Mafia, Film & TV," "Italy
and the Mediterranean," "Italian Cinema & the Arts," and "Italian Urban Cultures."
I designed and coordinated a multi-instructor course on "Forced Migration" for the
program in International Studies, and contributed to "Bodies, Technologies, and Social
Media," an introduction to the digital humanities.
At F&M, I have served as the Chair of the Department of Italian Studies and Hebrew,
the Language Studies Council, and the programs in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and
in Comparative Literary Studies. I also contribute to the programs in Film and Media
Studies and Africana Studies. I am member of the F&M Forced Migration working group
and, in 2018-2019, I directed the Faculty Humanities Research Colloquium on "Environments." Together
with Professor Scott Lerner, I created and taught in the F&M in Italy Summer Program (2007-2022).
I have served as a member of the Executive Board of the MLA Forum in 20th- and 21st-century Italian Literature from 2018-23, and am currently the Forum's representative on the MLA Delegate Assembly. I am also a member of the Executive Board of the F&M Chapter of the AAUP.
Publications
Books and Edited Volumes
Italian Motherhood on Screen. Edited with Maria Elena D'Amelio. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Carlo Levi's Visual Poetics: The Painter as Writer. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Reviewed in Choice, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Poetiche, Italian Culture, Italica.
Journal Issues
"Reproduction, Fertility, and Parenthood: The Italian Case." Themed section of the peer-reviewed open-access journal gender/sexuality/italy 5 (2018). Edited with Nicoletta Marini Maio.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
"Spike Lee e gli afroitaliani dietro la cinepresa." Migrazioni, cittadinanze, inclusività Narrazioni dell’Italia plurale, tra immaginario e politiche per la diversità. Ed. Leonardo De Franceschi. Roma: Tab Edizioni Università, 2022. 293-304. Open Access.
"Migrant stories between the archive and the garbage dump in the Mediterranean." Transnational Narratives of Migration and Exile. Perspectives from the Humanities. Eds. Camilla Erichsen Skalle and Anje Muller Gjesdal. Oslo: Scandinavian UP (Universitetsforlaget), 2021. 166-188. Open Access.
"Toxic Fruits: Tomatoes, Migration, and the New Italian Slavery" (co-authored with Elena Past). Journal of Modern Italian Studies 25.5 (2020): 592-619.
"Archives of Migrant Motherhood: Andrea Segre’s 'Ibi'." EuropeNow 30 (October 2019). Open Access.
"Millicent Marcus and the Ethics of Adaptation." Editorial (co-authored with Nicoletta Marini-Maio and Elena Past). Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies 7.2 (2019): 179-189.
"Cybermoms and Postfeminism in Italian Web Series." gender/sexuality/italy 5 (2018): 142-159. Open Access.
"Liquid Maternity in Italian Migration Cinema," Italian Motherhood on Screen. Eds. Maria Elena D'Amelio and Giovanna Faleschini Lerner. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 211-232.
"Introduction" (co-authored with Maria Elena D'Amelio), Italian Motherhood on Screen. Eds. Maria Elena D'Amelio and Giovanna Faleschini Lerner. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 1-18.
“Sogno, memoria e storia: la Roma di Carlo Levi e di Federico Fellini.” Poetiche. Rivista di letteratura italiana 17.1 (2015): 107-139.
“Il fascino dell'altra: Le straniere nel cinema italiano.” Storie in divenire: le donne nel cinema italiano. Eds. Lucia Cardone and Cristina Jandelli. Special issue of Quaderni del CSCI 11 (2015): 204-209.
“Forme di ospitalità urbana nel cinema delle donne: Marina Spada, Anna Bernasconi e Giulia Ciniselli,” Filmare il femminismo. Studi sulle donne nel cinema e nei media. Eds. Lucia Cardone and Sara Filippelli. Pisa: ETS, 2015. 141-150.
"Contemporaneità and Ecological Thinking in Carlo Levi's Writing." Thinking Italian Animals: Human and Posthuman in Modern Italian Fiction and Film. Eds. Elena Past and Deborah Amberson. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 197-214.
"Ksenia Rappoport and Transnational Stardom in Contemporary Cinema." Journal of Italian Media and Cinema Studies 1.1 (2013): 7-20.
“From the Other Side of the Mediterranean: Hospitality in Italian Migration Cinema.” California Italian Studies 1.1 (2010): 294-9. Open Access.
"Il cinema come strumento d'incontro: Vittorio Moroni e il nuovo documentario italiano." Zoom "d'oltreoceano": istantanee sui registi italiani e sull'Italia. Eds. Simone Dubrovic and Daniela De Pau. Manziana: Vecchiarelli, 2010. 319-344.
“Ending ‘ventriloquistic’ discourses and creating a dialogue of difference: Lettere dal Sahara and Le ferie di Licu.” From Terrone to Extra-Comunitario: The New Racism in Contemporary Italian Cinema. Ed. Grace Russo Bullaro. Leicester, UK: Troubador Publishing (Italian Studies Series), 2010. 366-390.
“Francesco Rosi’s Cristo si è fermato a Eboli: Toward a Cinema of Painting.” Italica 86.2 (2009): 272-292.
“Carlo Levi’s L’orologio: A Revolution in Words and Images.” Creative Interventions: The Role of the Intellectual in Contemporary Italian Culture. Eds. Eugenio Bolongaro, Rita Gagliano, and Mark Epstein. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009. 63-91.
“Carlo Levi’s New Humanism.” Annali d’italianistica 26 (2008): 283-97.
“Visconti’s Senso: The Art of History.” Forum Italicum 41.2 (2007): 342-58.
“La stanza degli orologi: Storia e memoria in Rinascimento privato di Maria Bellonci.” Narrare la storia. Dal documento al racconto. Ed. Fondazione Bellonci. Milan: Mondadori, 2006. 113-124.
Interviews
"Speaking of collaboration, friendship and the future of Italian film studies: An interview with Millicent Marcus" (co-authored with Elena Past and Nicoletta Marini-Maio). Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies 7.2 (2019): 191-198.
"L’immagine della migrazione." Valeria G. Castelli in conversazione con Nicolò De Giorgis, Giovanna Faleschini Lerner e Alessandro Triulzi. FlashArt 337 (February - March 2018).
Reference and Other Work
"Teaching Italian within a Transnational Framework: Mahmood's "Soldi" in the elementary Italian classroom." Blog of the Transnational Italian Studies Working Group. H-Net ItalianDiaspora. Co-authored with Arianna Fognani and Maya Greenshpan. November 8, 2021.
"Cecilia Mangini: Documentary Filmmaking as Freedom." Gynocine Project: Women Filmmakers, Feminism, and Film Studies. Ed. Barbara Zecchi. www.gynocine.com/cecilia-mangini (2021)
"Costanza Quatriglio e il cinema dell'attenzione." Gynocine Project: Women Filmmakers, Feminism, and Film Studies. Ed. Barbara Zecchi. www.gynocine.com/costanza-quatriglio (2021)
"Paola Randi and the Power of Imagination." Gynocine Project: Women Filmmakers, Feminism, and Film Studies. Ed. Barbara Zecchi. www.gynocine.com/paola-randi (2021)
“Wilma Labate.” Storie in divenire: le donne nel cinema italiano. Eds. Lucia Cardone and Cristina Jandelli. Special issue of Quaderni del CSCI 11 (2015): 294-95.
Review Article
“Reading Carlo Levi Beyond Eboli: Joseph Farrell’s The Voices of Carlo Levi and Levi’s Fear of Freedom.” Forum Italicum 42.2 (Fall 2008): 416-21.
Book and Film Reviews
Ferrara, Enrica Maria, ed. Posthumanism in Italian Literature and Film. Boundaries and Identity. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Arabeschi - Rivista internazionale di studi su letteratura e visualità 2021.
Hom, Stephanie Malia. Empire's Mobius Strip: Historical Echoes in Italy's Crisis of Migration and Detention. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2019. Pp. 255. Annali d'italianistica 38 (2020): 405-407.
Quatriglio, Costanza. Sembra mio figlio (2018). gender/sexuality/italy 7 (2020).
Calabretta-Sajder, Ryan. Divergenze in celluloide. Colore, migrazione e identità nei film gay di Ferzan Özpetek. Milano: Mimesis, 2016. Pp. 246. Annali d'italianistica 35 (2017): 521-24.
Marini, Alessandro. Bertolucci: Il cinema, la letteratura, il caso Prima della Rivoluzione. Alessandria: Falsopiano, 2012. Pp. 267. Annali d’italianistica 32 (2014): 690-692.
De Franceschi, Leonardo, ed. L’Africa in Italia. Per una controstoria postcoloniale del cinema italiano. Roma: Aracne, 2013. Pp. 512. Quaderni del CSCI 9 (2013): 313.
Bartalesi-Graf, Daniela. Voci dal sud: A journey to Southern Italy with Carlo Levi and his Christ stopped at Eboli. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011. Pp. 419. Annali d’italianistica 29 (2011): 545-547.
Binetti, Vincenzo. Città nomadi: Esodo e autonomia nella metropoli contemporanea. Verona: Ombre corte, 2008. Pp. 140. Annali d’italianistica 28 (2010): 582-584.
Bruck, Edith. Letter to My Mother. Ed. Gabriella Romani. Trans. Brenda Webster. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2006. Pp. 250. Forum Italicum 41.2 (Fall 2007): 536-7.
Recent Conference Papers
"Guest Stars: Performing Hospitality in the Italian Film Industry." The Politics of
Casting in Media International Conference, University of South Wales, November 20,
2021. (Online)
"Spike Lee and Black Italians' Film Narratives." Migrations, Citizenships, Inclusion:
Narratives of Plural Italy, between Imaginary and Diversity Politics. XXVI International
Conference of Film Studies, Roma Tre University, May 7, 2021. (Online)
"A Transnational Approach to the Undergraduate Italian Studies Curriculum: A Case
Study." Transnational Italian Studies Working Group. 2021 MLA Annual Convention,
January 2021. (Virtual)
"The Rohrwacher Brand: Women's Cinema, Celebrity, and Slowness." XXV International
Conference of Film Studies, Roma Tre University, Rome, November 22, 2019.
“Maternal Bodies, Maternal Gazes: The Case of Andrea Segre’s Ibi.” Mobile Bodies:
The Migrant Subject in Film and Media. Panel at the JICMS International Conference,
Global Intersections and Artistic Interconnections: Italian Cinema and Media Across
Times and Spaces, American University in Rome, June 15, 2019.
"Migrant Stories between the Archive and the Garbage Dump in the Mediterranean." Transnational
Narratives on Migration and Exile, International Conference, University of Bergen,
Norway, June 4, 2019.
“Afterlives: Migrant Trash in the Mediterranean.” Afterlives. Panel at the 2019 AAIS
Conference, Wake Forest University, March 16, 2019.
"Transmedia Approaches to Postfeminist Motherhood: Una mamma imperfetta, Bad Moms,
and Consuming Mothers." Media Tactics and Engagement. NECS 2018 Conference. Amsterdam
and Utrecht, The Netherlands, June 27-29, 2018.
"Cyber-Moms and Postfeminism in Italian Web Series." Reproduction and Fertility in
Film and Media: Italy in the Mediterranean. Panel at the MLA Annual Convention, New
York, NY, January 5, 2018.
Recent Invited Lectures
"Film, Women, and Migration in the Mediterranean." Scripps College, November 7, 2023.
Courses Taught
Language Courses
- Elementary Italian I (ITA 101)
- Elementary Italian II (ITA 102)
- Intermediate Italian I (ITA 201)
- Intermediate Italian II (ITA 202)
- Intensive Intermediate Italian (ITA 275)
Cultural and Literary Studies Courses
- Women and Gender in Modern Italian Literature and Cinema
- Italian Literature and the Visual Arts
- Italy and the Mediterranean
- Multicultural Italy
- Contemporary Italian Fiction
- Modern Italy
- Intro to Italian Literary Studies
Film Studies Courses
- Neorealism
- Italian Cinema and the Arts
- History of Italian Film
- Mafia, Film & TV
- Race and Gender in Mediterranean Migration Cinema
Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Courses
- Bodies, Technologies, and Social Media (Intro to the Digital Humanities), co-taught with Alexis Castor, Alison Kibler, Brianna Gormly
- Forced Migration Seminar
General Education Courses
- Mediterranean Migrations (Connections Curriculum)
- What is Friendship? (Foundations Curriculum)