My research addresses modern and contemporary Italian culture. My current project, 'Naples and the Nation: Image, Media and Culture' (funded by an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, 2018-20) interrogates how cultural products addressing Naples represent the city and its relationship with Italy, and 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. Publications on Naples include articles on 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 the Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels.

Previous research was dedicated to cultural representations of Italy’s experience of political violence in the anni di piombo. My monograph, Women, Terrorism and Trauma (2013), pioneers 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 a series of articles addressing women and terrorism through the prism of trauma theory, and 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 research addressed 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 PhDs on wide range of topics in the field of modern and contemporary Italian culture and welcome enquiries from potential reserarch students. 

I am currently Chair of the Society for Italian Studies (2024-). Previous contributions to the discipline include serving as Member of Faculty of the British School at Rome (2018-22) and as Senior Co-Editor of Italian Studies (2016-21).