[Silvia Guslandi]

My name is Silvia Guslandi. I hold a Ph.D. in Euro-American Comparative Literature and I am currently a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literature at the University of Chicago (working on Emanuel Carnevali, among other things). Thank you for the honor of considering me as a candidate for the Delegate Assembly. As my research interests are situated at the crossroads of different languages and literary traditions, I am committed to fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration particularly among marginalized fields, such as Ethnic American literatures. As a scholar who works on Italian American studies as well as Italian literature, American literature, transnational modernism, translation studies, migration and diaspora studies, I am aware of the crucial methodological contributions provided by what some would consider secondary fields. Scholars in areas such as Italian American studies draw from a diverse range of intellectual disciplines and provide new and exciting insights to more canonically established areas of research. I am eager to advocate for the expansion of Italian American programs and initiatives and their inclusion at the table alongside other fields, in the face of increasing cuts to foreign language departments and the humanities in general. Having studied and worked both in Italy and the US, I aim to strengthen professional and cultural networks between North American scholars and their European counterparts. If elected, I will support research and teaching of Italian American literature, history and culture within broader contexts and through interdisciplinary connections, in order to increase its visibility and highlight its relevance outside of what is still viewed as a disciplinary niche. As an early career researcher, I will strive to be a gracious, attentive and intentional representative particularly of my peers, who, in addition to the disciplinary challenges mentioned above, have to also reckon with a harsh academic job market, labor contingency, personal and family responsibilities and financial obstacles to mobility for research purposes.

This topic was also posted in: LLC 20th- and 21st-Century Italian, LLC Late-19th- and Early-20th-Century American.

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