Research

My doctoral research lies at the intersection of antifascist militancy and feminist struggle in the works of Fausta Cialente (1898-1994), Alba de Céspedes (1911-1997) and Goliarda Sapienza (1924-1996), with a focus on the notion of resistenza.

Teaching 

For the 2026-2027 academic year, I am the non-stipendiary lecturer in literary translation (English into Italian) for second-year undergraduate students at the University of Oxford.

In 2026, I delivered a lecture on Virginia Woolf and feminism at Università degli Studi di Milano, as part of the Moral Philosophy course taught by Professor Gianfranco Mormino.

In Trinity term 2026, as part of the Oxford Postgraduate Lecture Series, I delivered a lecture titled ‘New Forms of Womanhood in Alba de Céspedes’ Narrative Case Study: Quaderno Proibito (1952)’

Pastoral activities 

In 2026, I delivered supervision sessions to international students in the context of the Oxford-based summer course offered by Oxford Prospects Programmes.

During the 2021-2022 academic year, I served as a mentor for the MFL Mentoring Program in Wales.

Selected publications

Cercarelli, S. & Soroldoni, A. Virginia Woolf. Una stanza tutta per sé (Catania, Villaggio Maori Edizioni, 2025)

Cercarelli, S. ‘Prosaic Settings, Unepic Loves, and Grotesque Muses: Patrizia Cavalli and Her Poetics of Disenchantment’ (Oxford, Bluestocking Oxford, 2025)

Conference papers

‘The Intersection of Writing and Spatiality in Alba de Céspedes’ Novels. Case Studies: Quaderno proibito (1952) and Dalla parte di lei (1949)’, Lo spazio della parola Conference, Università per Stranieri di Perugia, 2026

‘Queering the boundaries of pleasure in Goliarda Sapienza’s L’arte della gioia (1994)’, International Women's Writing Association conference, Università degli Studi di Pescara, 2026

‘Identity Formation and Crisis of Values: Nomadism as Resistance in Fausta Cialente’s Cortile a Cleopatra’, Approdi Doctoral Conference, University Colege Cork, 2026

‘Redefining Kinship in De Céspedes and Ferrante, Or on the Need for Feminist Genealogies’, AAIS Conference, Università degli Studi di Sassari, 2026

Prizes and awards

Entrance Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Aberystwyth University, 2019

Barbinder Watson Fund, University of Oxford

St Hugh’s College Travel Grant, University of Oxford

Departmental service

I am the co-convenor of the Italian Research Seminar series at the University of Oxford.

I am the co-convenor for the 2026 Postgraduate Colloquium funded by The Society for Italian Studies (SIS).

Public engagement

‘Un Salotto tutto per noi. Virginia Woolf e Fausta Cialente attraverso le trame del limite: spazio e identità nella scrittura’

Toponomastica femminile, selected translations (IT>ES), 2024-2025