Alfonse D'Amato Chair

in Italian and Italian American Studies

About News & Events Research Projects Links Contacts

About

Loredana Polezzi, Alfonse M. D'Amato Endowed Chair in Italian American and Italian Studies

Loredana Polezzi joined Stony Brook as Alfonse M. D’Amato Chair in Italian American and Italian Studies in September 2020. She studied in Italy, at the University of Siena, and in the UK, where she obtained her MA and PhD at the University of Warwick and where she worked, first at Warwick and then at Cardiff University. She has written on contemporary Italian travel writing, colonial and postcolonial literature, migrant and diasporic cultures, translingualism and self-translation. She is one of the founding editors of the ‘Transnational Modern Languages’ book series, published by Liverpool University Press, and co-editor of Transnational Italian Studies (2020) and Transcultural Italies: Mobility, Memory and Translation (2020). Since 2014 she is co-editor of the international journal The Translator and she is also a previous President of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS). Currently, Dr. Polezzi serves as Italian American Studies Forum Delegate for the Modern Language Association and is an Executive Council Member of IATIS.

Polezzi

News & Events

Recent Events Organized:

Past:

Special interest panel, "Rethinking Ethnic Studies: Affect and the Italian American Experience" (co-organizer & speaker), MLA 2024 Convention Philadelphia, January 2024
"Enabling Environments, Fugitive Spaces, and Restorative Practices for Intercultural Dialogue and Linguistic Justice," Prof. Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow, Sir Run Run Shaw Lecture Series 2023-24, Stony Brook University, September 2023 (co-organized with the Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication)
"(Self-)Censorship & (Self-)Translation: From Fascism to the 'Culture Wars,'" Presidential Panel, American Association of Italian Studies, May 2023 (organizer & respondent)
MIC Distinguished Lecture Series: "Dr YouTube: Multilingualism and Multimodality in Gender Transition Narratives on Polish Social Media," Joanna Chojnicka (Cardiff), Stony Brook University, April 2023 (co-organized with the Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication)
"Multilingualism, Translation, Diaspora: Challenges and Opportunities," Moira Inghilleri (UMass), Jo Angouri (Warwick) in conversation with Loredana Polezzi, Stony Brook University, April 2023
"Confini: A Masterclass," with Valentina Rizzi (BiblioLibrò, Rome), Antonella Veracchi and Michela Tonelli (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome), Stony Brook University, March 2023 (co-organized with the Center for Italian Studies)
Mondo Nuovo / Bitter Trades, guest lecture and book launch by Giovanna Miceli-Jeffries (co-organized with the Center for Italian Studies), Stony Brook University, November 2022
"L’invenzione dell’amore," theatre workshop with Valentina Rizzi & Massimo Zordan, Stony Brook University, November 2022
"Stories Help Us Survive," public talk, guest lecture & school event with Dacia Maraini (co-organized with the Center for Italian Studies), November 2022
"Potere alle parole / Vivo per questo," public lecture & showcase by Amir Issa (co-organized with the Center for Italian Studies), Stony Brook University, October 2022
"Transnational Modern Languages: A Handbook – Book launch," Humanities Institute, Stony Brook University, September 2022
"Tracing the Threads of Migration: Female Narratives of the Italian Diaspora," Stony Brook University, September 2022
"Writing Brick by Brick: Remembering Pietro di Donato," Center for Italian Studies, Stony Brook University, April 2022
"La straniera / Strangers I know : A conversation with Claudia Durastanti," Center for Italian Studies, Stony Brook University, April 2022
"Monolingualism, In/Justice," David Gramling (University of British Columbia), Sir Run Run Shaw Lecture Series 2021-22, Stony Brook University, April 2022 (co-organized with the Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication)
"The Art of Excellent Product: A Conversation with Riccardo Illy," The Spring 2022 Richard Nasti Lecture, Center for Italian Studies, Stony Brook University, March 2022
"Challenging Monolingualism in Language Teaching and Learning: Methods, Materials and Perspectives," Presidential Theme Session: Multilingual US, 2022 MLA Annual Convention (Washington, DC), Jan 2022 (co-organizer- postponed to 2023)
"An Evening Conversation on History, Memory, and Fiction," Maaza Mengiste in conversation with Dr Simone Brioni & Dr Loredana Polezzi, Sir Run Run Shaw Lecture Series 2021-22, Stony Brook University, November 2021
"Citizenship & Nationality," International Online Conference, Stony Brook University, November 2021
"Transcultural Communication: Understanding Cultural Difference," Student Workshop, Language and Social Justice Series, Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication, Stony Brook University, October 2021
"Transcultural Communication," Educator Workshop, Language and Social Justice Series, Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication, Stony Brook University, October 2021
"Un viaggio tra musica e immagini con Gianfranco Cabiddu / A musical and visual journey with Gianfranco Cabiddu," The Spring 2021 Richard Nasti Lecture, Center for Italian Studies, Stony Brook University, April 2021

Keynote Addresses and Invited Talks:

2024

At "Italians in New Haven and Beyond," the First Annual Rossini Symposium at Yale University, Dr. Polezzi will present a talk entitled “Affect and the Diasporic Memory: Narrating the Italian American Experience."

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2023

Dr Polezzi, Dr Matteo Brera (Director, Center for Italian Studies) and Italian children's literature author Ms Valentina Rizzi (Bibliolibro') will speak about past and future collaborations at the first event in this series of educational converences, devoted to "Educazione Civica" and sponsored (among others) by the the Italian Ministry of Education and the University of Rome - La Sapienza.
As part of a panel on "Questions of Temporality in the Transnational Study of Languages and Cultures," Dr Polezzi spoke about her contribution as author and editor of the Transnational Modern Languages series, published by Liverpool University Press (https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/modern-languages-cultures/2023-conference/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWhere%20Are%20We%20Now%3F,from%2019th%2D21st%20April%202023)
Dr Polezzi was one of the keynote speakers at the 1st Lisbon Spring School in Translation Studies, where she presented on "Affect and the Translation Effect."

The breadth of the event's guiding topic — "Translation is a many-splendored thing" — was purposely defined: on the one hand, to do justice to the nature of Translation Studies as an interdiscipline; on the other, to encourage the participation of (and learn from) young researchers and students working on TS, regardless of the object of study, school of thought, language(s) and/or country of origin.
This Forum was organized and hosted by the Linguistics and Translation Department at the College of Humanities and Sciences, Prince Sultan University (PSU). It aimed to raising awareness of the importance of language and translation in enhancing intercultural communication and promoting essential world values, including tolerance, inclusion and peace. Prominent figures in relevant fields participated in theLTIC Forum through plenary talks, panel discussions and workshops. They discussed the LTIC Forum themes in theory and practice.

Dr Polezzi was one of the invited plenary speakers, with a talk on "Intercultural Sensitization in Multilingual Environments."

2022

Video: One-hour panel discussion co-facilitated by Carol Hernandez, Jinna Kim, and Jenny Zhang (CELT) focusing on linguistic justice. In Part I of this panel, Dr. Polezzi speaks to questions such as “What does linguistic justice mean? What are some foundational theories or frameworks that this is based on? How did we get here? Why is it important? Or important now given our socio-political/global environment?”

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Over the course of five days, the European Society of Comparative Literature hosted a series of lectures and panels each hearing from researchers across the continent. On September 7, 2022, Dr. Polezzi presented “Threads, Traces and Hospitable Places: Rethinking Translation as Narrative Co-Presence,” one of the event's keynote sessions.
On June 11, Dr. Polezzi delivered a keynote speech titled “The Anxiety of Mediation.”

More information about Transatlantic Transfers can be found here. The research project works toward a holistic understanding of how Italian culture has been introduced to the United States rather than examining the Americanisation of the Italian diaspora.

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On June 6, 2022, Dr. Polezzi presented a discussion entitled "In Praise of Imperfect Translation."

The annual Ca’ Foscari Summer School on Translation Studies invites research into the evolution of translation, a field involving rapid technological developments, such as artificial intelligence, that affect human work. In this five-day event hosted by Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, the 2nd edition highlights the theme "humanised technology, automated creativity: bridging illusory divides in translation" through an international convergence of linguistic scholarship.

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In the ATISA X event, the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association’s first conference since 2018, Dr. Polezzi was a keynote speaker, presenting a paper on "Translating Mobility." She also took part in a round table on the present and future of translation. In addition to keynote addresses, the multi-day conference included "workshops on conducting empirical research in the field and scholarly translation" as well as sessions that featured "over 100 peer-reviewed papers, presentations, and panels." The association cultivates collaboration in the translation and interpreting fields by hosting a series of events and sponsoring academic journals.

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2021

Dr. Polezzi delivered a speech as part of the conference’s opening remarks entitled "Mobility, Hospitality and the Ethics of Translation" in which she re-framed the links between the notion of hospitality and the ethics of translation from the classic essay On Translation by Paul Ricoeur. In the paper, she coupled the notion of trace with the memory of migration, presenting a re-appraisal of translation which sees it as a form of copresence rather than erasure and substitution. The talk was illustrated by visual works produced by women artists from the Italian diaspora who have directly engaged with questions of memory, hospitality and translation.

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During the two-day online workshop, Dr. Polezzi led the first panel, Translating Subjectivities, as keynote speaker and initiated a discussion called "Translating intersubjectivity through female genealogy: Visual art and the memory of the Italian diaspora." This panel explored the many ways in which Italian authors and works have been appropriated, distributed, and canonised over the centuries - and by whom -, investigating the complex dynamics of translation and reception as well as their impact on the construction of literary subjectivities and cultural histories both within and beyond Italy.

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On March 8, 2021, CECC inaugurated a new conference cicle for Transdisciplinary Humanities as part of the CECC’s lecture series. Dr. Polezzi hosted the first session, titled "A History of Traces: on translation's presences and absences."

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During this Humanities Institute online seminar, Dr. Polezzi hosted a conversation, "Writing About Islam, Narrating a Diaspora," with Shirin Ramzanali, an Italian writer of Somali and Pakistani origin, discussing the author’s intertwining personal and research experience.

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2020

Dr. Polezzi presented an online keynote lecture entitled "On Learning to Love Translation" as part of the National Library of Germany’s conference during Germany’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. Her recorded discussion can be found here.

Official Page
As one of two keynote speakers, Dr. Polezzi participated in a discussion alongside Dr. Sherry Simon (Concordia University) titled "The Place of Translation in the Neighborhood" to conclude the conference’s first day of events.

Official Page

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Research

Loredana Polezzi is Alfonse M. D’Amato Chair in Italian American and Italian Studies in the Department of Languages and Cultural Studies, Stony Brook University (SUNY).

She is also a Board Member of the Center for Italian Studies and Affiliated Faculty in Departments of English and of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, as well as the Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication, Stony Brook University.

She is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and Honorary Professor of Translation Studies in the School of Modern Languages, Cardiff University UK).

Her past appointments include the role of Director of Warwick University's Venice Center (2010-15) and President of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies - IATIS (2017-21).

She served on UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund/Newton Fund Covid-19 Agile Response assessment pool (2020-2021) as well as the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Strategic ODA College member (from inception, 2018-2022) and she is in her thrid term as member of the AHRC's Peer Review College member.

She is an elected Forum Delegate of the MLA Assembly for Italian American Studies (2023-), a Peer reviewer for the European Research Council (2021-), and a member of the External Advisory Committee, Institudo de Literatura Comparada Margarida Losa, University of Porto (2022-); the Regional Advisory Committee, SOAS Glocal, University of London (2022-); and the Advisory Board for the PhD Programme in Translation Studies, Universidade Católica Portuguesa & Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2021-)

Recent Publications:

Monographs and Edited Volumes:

S. Brioni, L. Polezzi and F. Sinopoli (eds), Creatività diasporiche: Dialoghi transnazionali tra teoria e arti (Rome: Mimesis, 2023); Open Access volume available at: https://www.mimesisedizioni.it/libro/9788857591810
C. Burdett, L. Polezzi and B. Spadaro (eds), Transcultural Italies: Mobility, Memory and Translation (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020)
C. Burdett and L. Polezzi (eds), Transnational Italian Studies (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020)
L. Polezzi and E. Di Piazza (eds), special issue on "Travel Writing and the Shape of the World," Textus, XXV: 2 (May-December 2012)
L. Polezzi and S. Ouditt (eds), "Travel Writing and Italy," special issue of Studies in Travel Writing, 16:2(June 2012)
L. Polezzi and C. Ross (eds), In Corpore: Bodies in Post-Unification Italy (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson, 2007)
L. Polezzi (ed.), "Translation, Travel, Migration," special issue of The Translator, 12:2 (Autumn 2006)
J. Burns and L. Polezzi (eds), Borderlines: Migrazioni e identità nel Novecento (Isernia: Cosmo Iannone Editore, 2003)
L. Polezzi, Translating Travel: Contemporary Italian Travel Writing in English Translation, Studies in European Cultural Transition, 12 (Aldershot & Brookfield: Ashgate, 2001)
R. di Napoli, L. Polezzi, A. King (eds), Fuzzy Boundaries? Modern Languages and the Humanities (London: CILT, 2001)

Journal Articles:

L. Polezzi, "Il privilegio del ritorno," Altreitalie, special issue "Il 'turismo delle radici' nel passato e nelle nuove mobilità," ed. by M. Tirabassi, 65 (2022), 155-63
L. Polezzi, "(De)Colonial Memory and Linguistic Diversity: Reassessing What Is Italian," in Studi d’Italianistica nell'Africa Australe / Italian Studies in Southern Africa, special issue "Diversity, Decolonisation and Italian Studies," ed. by S. Brioni, M. Orton, G. Parati and G. Zhang, 35: 1 (2022), 27-35
L. Polezzi, "The Politics and Ethics of Translation: A Conversation with Mona Baker and Vicente Rafael," Wasafiri, special issue ‘Translating Lives’, 37:3 (2022), 3-7
S. Simon and L. Polezzi, "Translation and the Material Experience of Migration: A Conversation," Translation and Interpreting Studies, special issue on "Tangible translation: Migration and materiality," ed. by A. Ciribuco and A. O’Connor, 17:1 (2022), 154-67
L. Polezzi, R. Wilson and S-A Harding, "The Translator: 25^th Anniversary Editorial," The Translator, 26:3 (2020), 217-20
M. Baker, D. Delabastita, M. Inghilleri, S.-A. Harding and L. Polezzi, "25 Years of The Translator," The Translator, 26:3 (2020), 297-309
C. Burdett, N. Havely & L. Polezzi, "The Transnational/Translational in Italian Studies," Italian Studies, special issue on "Key Directions in Italian Studies," 75:2 (2020), pp. 223-36
M. Inghilleri and L. Polezzi, "A Conversation about Translation and Migration," Cultus: The Journal of International Mediation and Communication,13 (2020), special issue on "Mediating Narratives of Migration," ed. By R. Merlini and C. Schäffner, pp. 24-43

Book Chapters:

S. Brioni, L. Polezzi, F. Sinopoli, "Introduzione: Creatività diasporiche – Dialoghi transnazionali tra teoria e arti," in Creatività Diasporiche. Conversazioni transnazionali tra teoria e arti, ed. by S. Brioni, L. Polezzi and F. Sinopoli (Rome: Mimesis, 2023), pp. 9-28
L. Callipari-Marcuzzo and L. Polezzi, "Diasporic Conversations: Connecting Creative and Research Practices through Multiple Acts of Translation," in Creatività Diasporiche. Conversazioni transnazionali tra teoria e arti, ed. by S. Brioni, L. Polezzi and F. Sinopoli (Rome: Mimesis, 2023), pp. 99-116
A. Issaa, S. Brioni, L. Polezzi, "Straniero nella mia nazione: Amir Issaa in conversazione con Simone Brioni e Loredana Polezzi," in Creatività Diasporiche. Conversazioni transnazionali tra teoria e arti, ed. by S. Brioni, L. Polezzi and F. Sinopoli (Rome: Mimesis, 2023), pp. 205-12
M. Mengiste, S. Brioni, L. Polezzi, "Reclaiming Stories across Cultures: A Conversation on History and Memory with Maaza Mengiste," in Creatività Diasporiche. Conversazioni transnazionali tra teoria e arti, ed. by S. Brioni, L. Polezzi and F. Sinopoli Rome: Mimesis, 2023), pp. 29-41
L. Polezzi, "Translation," in J. Burns and D. Duncan (eds), Transnational Modern Languages: A Handbook (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2022), pp. 305-12
L. Polezzi and L. Santini, "On Translation, Hospitality and Language Indifference," in Lingue, Scritture e Potere: Parole e autorità, autorità delle parole nel contemporaneo e nella storia, ed. by R. Francavilla, L. Santini, E. Zurru, Nuovi Quaderni di Palazzo Serra, 3 (Genoa: Genova University Press, 2022, pp. 199-219
L. Polezzi, "From Substitution to Co-presence: Translation, Memory and Trace in the Visual Practices of Diasporic Italian Artists," in C. Burdett, L. Polezzi and B. Spadaro (eds), Transcultural Italies: Mobility, Memory and Translation (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press: 2020), pp. 317-40
L. Polezzi, "Domenica, 26 aprile 2020’, in M. Tirabassi and A. Del Pra," eds, Il mondo si allontana? Il COVID-19 e le nuove migrazioni italiane (Turin, Accademia University Press, 2020), pp. 115-21
L. Polezzi, "Translation and Transnational Creative Practices in Italian Culture," in C. Burdett and L. Polezzi (eds), Transnational Italian Studies (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020), pp. 25-45
C. Burdett and L. Polezzi, "Transnational Italian Studies: Introduction," in C. Burdett and L. Polezzi (eds), Transnational Italian Studies (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020), pp. 1-21
C. Burdett, L. Polezzi and B. Spadaro, "Introduction: Transcultural Italies," in C. Burdett, L. Polezzi and B. Spadaro (eds), Transcultural Italies: Mobility, Memory and Translation (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020), pp. 1-20

Projects

Principal Research Awards:

Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK): Global Challenge Research Fund, Theme Large Grant Innovation Awards, "Transnationalizing Modern Languages: Global Challenges," 2016-18, Co-Investigator (£250,000)
Arts and Humanities Research Council: ‘Transnationalizing Modern Languages: Mobility, Identity and Translation in Modern Italian Cultures’, Co-Investigator on major project funded under the AHRC "Translating Cultures" theme, 2014-17, Co-Investigator (£1,850,000)
Monash University - University of Warwick Alliance Development Scheme, "Mobility, Identity, and Translation Network" (MITN), 2014-17 (research network founder & co-ordinator, with R. Wilson)
Warwick Institute of Advanced Studies, Doctoral Summer School, "World Literature: Theories, Practice, Pedagogies," September 2014 (academic lead)
Erasmus IP Programme, "Training, Translating and Touring in Venice," July 2014 (co-organizer with Statale University, Milan, Italy; Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy; University of Szeged, Hungary)
EU Erasmus IP Programme, "Walking, Watching and A-Wakening in Venice," July 2013 (co-organizer with Statale University, Milan, Italy; Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy; University of Szeged, Hungary)
Monash University - University of Warwick Strategic Funding Initiative: "Mobility, Social Inclusion and Transnational Identities: Social Realities and Representations in Italy and Beyond," 2009-11 (with R. Wilson)

Editorships and Board Memberships:

Co-editor, The Translator, international journal, Routledge (2014-)
Co-editor, Transnational Modern Languages, book series, LUP (2016-)
Member of editorial board: Altreitalie: Rivista internazionale di studi sulle migrazioni italiane nel mondo (2021-), Italian American Review, journal (2021-), RiCognizioni, journal(2021-), Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (2019-), The Translator, journal (2012-14), Translation Studies, journal (2008-); Incontri – Rivista Europea di Studi Italiani, journal (2015-), New Readings, journal (2013- ), Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, journal (2002-10); Language Acts and Worldmaking, book series, Hodder and Stoughton / Hachette UK (2020-); Anthem Studies in Travel, book series (2014-); Italian Diaspora Studies, book series, Rubettino (2019-)

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Contacts

Email address: Loredana.Polezzi@Stonybrook,edu

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