About

The Italian Research seminar is convened by DPhil students and seeks to bring together members of the sub-faculty at all levels (professors, researchers, and students), as well as anyone interested in any aspect of Italian studies. All of our events take place during term time on Mondays at the Taylor Institution Library. Timings vary; see individual events below for details.

Although the seminars are often examples of cutting-edge research, they are accessible to anyone with some knowledge of Italian literature, language, and culture, allowing for vibrant dialogue among a wide range of specialists. Our events range from seminars on recent and ongoing research, to methodological roundtables, to book presentations, to workshops on various issues connected with graduate and postgraduate life.

We often host speakers from other universities from across the globe. In recent years, our speakers have included Prof Virginia Cox (University of Cambridge), Prof Catherine Keen (University College London), Prof Corrado Bologna (Scuola Normale Superiore), Eva del Soldato (University of Pennsylvania), and Dr Rhiannon Daniels (University of Bristol), as well as current and former members from our own faculty, including Profs Emma Bond, Guido Bonsaver, Simon Gilson, Charlotte Ross, and Francesca Southerden.

We also often hold seminars in tandem with ISO (Italian Studies at Oxford), and occasionally with the Early Modern Italian Italian Seminar, Italian Poetry Today, and LEO (Leopardi Studies at Oxford). 

If you have any questions, or you would like to be in touch with the organising committee, please email italian.res-sem@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

The coordinators for 2025-2026 are Kate McKee and Victoria White.

 

Hilary Term 2026

Week 2 – 26 January, 12 PM

Luigi Pinton (Oxford)

Relationality without Empathy? Form, Translation, and Rewriting in Francesco Pacifico’s Class

Week 3 – 2 February, 12 PM

Anca-Delia Moldovan (Warwick)

Piero Vettori and the Noble Art of Olive Growing: Botanical Knowledge as Environmental and Economic Strategy in Sixteenth Century Tuscany

Week 4 – 9 February, 12 PM

Eleonora Gallitelli (Udine)

The Italian Translations of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (1944-2013): Appropriations, Rewritings and Reception

Week 6 – 23 February, 12 PM

Rebecca Walker (Oxford)

The End of Ends: Elsa Morante and Eschatology

Week 7 – 2 March, 12 PM

Elena Sottilotta (Cambridge)

Seeking Wonder in the Long Nineteenth Century: Women, Folklore and Fairy Tales from a Transnational Perspective

Week 8 – 9 March, 5:15 PM

Lisa Sampson (UCL)

Theatre and cultural politics in the Academies of the Venetian Republic