Alessandra Montalbano

Associate Professor of Italian

Education

  • PhD, Italian Studies, New York University
  • MA, Italian Studies, New York University
  • Laurea, Philosophy, Università degli Studi di Verona

Bio

Dr. Montalbano’s research interests focus on modern and contemporary Italian literature, culture, philosophy, and history. She adopts an interdisciplinary approach to Italian Studies that includes literary criticism, aesthetics, phenomenology, and gender and trauma studies. Her work explores criminal and political violence and their representation in memoirs, media, and film; testimony and victim-centered narratives; the relationship between body and language; and feminism and biopolitics.

 

Selected Publications

Ransom Kidnapping in Italy: Crime, Memory, and Violence. Toronto: Toronto University Press, January 2024.

“Immagine, fenomenologia e fotografia in Italo Calvino,” Modern Language Notes138.1 (2023), in press

Hannah Arendt’s Embodied Theory in Giorgio Agamben’s Biopolitics and Adriana Cavarero’s Vulnerability,” Journal of Italian Philosophy, 6 (2023): 134-153.

“Il femminismo fa la storia a Verona: la risposta al World Congress of Families,” in Malora, March 30, 2020.

“Feminism Makes History in Verona: The Response to the World Congress of Families,” gender/sexuality/italy, 6, August 31, 2019, 143-158.

“La memoria privata degli anni di piombo.” In Era mio padre (He Was my Father) Italian Terrorism of the Anni di Piombo (The Years of Lead) in the Postmemorials of Victims’ Relatives, edited by Sciltian Gastaldi and David Ward. (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2018).

“Sulla mafia: la memoria e la parola responsabile.” In Curiosa di mestiere. Saggi su Dacia Maraini, edited by Manuela Bertone and Barbara Meazzi. (Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2017).

“Un’emergenza lunga trent’anni: lo Stato e i sequestri di persona a scopo di estorsione.” In Democrazia insicura. Violenze, repressioni e Stato di diritto nella storia della Repubblica (1945-1995), edited by Patrizia Dogliani and Marie-Anne Matard-Bonucci. (Rome: Donzelli Editore, 2017).

“Snatched from the World: The Phenomenology of Captivity in Italian Ransom Kidnapping,” Modern Language Notes, 132.1 (2017): 204-222.

“Ransom kidnapping: The anonymous underworld of the Italian Republic,” Modern Italy, 21.1 (2016): 35-49.

“Femminismi e movimenti delle donne nell’Italia del Duemila,” Narrativa, 37 (2015): 31-47.

“Diario di un satiro militante: il cinema di Sabina Guzzanti.” In Zoom d’oltreoceano: istantanee sui registi italiani e sull’Italia, edited by Daniela De-Pau and Simone Dubrovic. (Manziana, Rome: Vecchiarelli, 2010).