My research addresses modern and contemporary Italian culture as a forum for understanding divided histories and contentious social and political realities. I am currently developing a new project addressing cultural engagements with Italian colonialism in the 21st century.

Recent research addresses Naples and its relationship with Italy. My monograph, Naples and the Nation: Image, Media and Culture in the Second Republic (Palgrave Mamillan, 2025) asks what the view from Naples - a city often marginalised in discussion of 'national' culture but central to state-of-the-nation discourses - reveals about the nation-state, its workings and its discourses. Associated articles on Naples address critical theorizations of the city, from the 1920s to the present; the gendering of city and nation in representations of the Allied Occupation (1943-44); and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels.

Prior research addressed cultural representations of Italy’s experience of political violence in the anni di piombo. This culminated in Women, Terrorism and Trauma in Italian Culture (2013), which pioneered the application of a trauma studies approach to the anni di piombo and to cultural constructions of women's participation in terrorist violence. Associated publications include co-edited volumes on cinematic representations of Italian terrorism (Terrorism, Italian Style, 2012) and the cultural legacy of the 1978 kidnapping and murder of statesman, Aldo Moro (Remembering Aldo Moro, 2012). Prior to that, my research addresed postmodernist literature and critical thought; publications include a study of the historical novel and philosophy of history (Contesting the Monument: The Anti-Illusionist Historical Novel, 2003).

I have supervised research students on a wide range of topics in the field of modern and contemporary Italian culture and welcome enquiries from potential reserarch students. 

I am Chair of the Society for Italian Studies in the UK and Ireland (2024-). I have served as Member of Faculty of the British School at Rome (2018-22) and as Senior Co-Editor of Italian Studies (2016-21).