Research

Italian at Bristol has an international reputation in the field of Cultural Studies.  We have a range of interdisciplinary interests that stretch from the Middle Ages to the present day. All members of the Department are actively involved in projects that allow us to combine our expertise with that of colleagues working in other leading universities in the UK and abroad. We regularly organize research events and give papers at major international conferences.

In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (2008), 95% of our research activity was judged to be internationally recognized, internationally excellent, or world-leading. This result built on the grade 5A obtained in RAE 2001 and confirmed Italian at Bristol as a major department in the discipline of Italian Studies.

Staff interests:

Dr Charles Burdett, European travel writing of the inter-war period; Italian Fascism; the cultural history of Italian colonialism; the memory of Fascism and the Second World War.

Professor Derek Duncan, Gender and sexuality in 20th-century Italian literature and film; race and sexuality in the colonial and postcolonial context; writing, film and migration.

Dr Ruth Glynn, Late 20th-century Italian culture: representations of the anni di piombo; postmodernism and the historical novel; philosophy of history; women and violence.

Dr Elena Lombardi, Dante; early Italian poetry.

Dr Catherine O'Rawe, Italian popular cinema; the reception of Italian film in post-war culture; Sicilian literature and culture.