Italian research

Italian at Leeds is a vibrant and collaborative research community, working across two main areas: Dante studies and contemporary Italian literature and culture, especially narrative fiction, film, and media. Our work places Italian literature and culture in broader contexts, engaging with narrative theory, world literature (from Dante to Elena Ferrante), transnationalism, multilingualism, transmedia storytelling, and digital humanities.

Questions of identity are central to our research: we explore centre–margin dynamics, including linguistic perspectives, and adopt gender and intersectionality as key analytical frameworks.

As part of Languages@Leeds, our research also embraces innovative approaches to language acquisition and pedagogy, particularly through the integration of the CEFR to support progression in language learning.

We are actively engaged with research centres across the University and with international research communities. Over the years, a number of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers have joined us from both the UK and abroad. We welcome expressions of interest and applications from researchers working across our areas of expertise.