Mariagrazia is currently writing her dissertation on translingualism across Italian contexts. Inspired by the Somali writer Ali Mumin Ahad’s definition of “italiano di ritorno” —the “indigenized” language of postcolonial Italian writers— Mariagrazia reflects on how languages move across and beyond borders, while at the same time prompting us to reconsider and redefine the very notion of “border” and national identity.
Related to her dissertation topic, Mariagrazia recently contributed a chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translingualism (2021), edited by Professors Steven G. Kellman and Natasha Lvovich, titled “Literary Translingualism in the Italian Context: Toward a New Debate on the Italian Language.” Her broad interest in translingualism dates back to 2016 when Mariagrazia graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in English and a thesis titled, ”’Why Italian? Why not Italian?’ Jhumpa Lahiri, Amara Lakhous, Ali Mumin Ahad, Maristella Lorch and their unique journeys through Italian language” (advisors Professors Harold A. Veeser and Robert Higney).
Mariagrazia’s journey and interest in Italian postcolonial literature and questions of translingualism started in Rome more than a decade ago, when she took classes with Professor Armando Gnisci and graduated with a thesis titled, “Somali writers de-colonize Italy: The Memories of the River and other stories of the Benadir.” She also took part in a project with Gnisci’s students, the Breviario per conoscere la letteratura italiana della migrazione (2010), edited by A. Gnisci and N. Moll.
Mariagrazia’s transhistorical methods in her research have brought her to unite the study of Italian Somali writers and canonical Italian figures. Mariagrazia’s love for Dante sparked an interest in how classic texts and iconic figures have been translated and indigenized across cultures. Her essay on the reception of Dante among Somali writers, “From Forced Readers to Freedom Writers: Responding to Dante in Postcolonial Somalia” has recently been published in the 183/2020 issue of Dante Studies and won in 2019 the Charles Hall Grandgent Award from the Dante Society of America.
Her passion for language and multilingualism manifests further in the classroom and in her teaching of Italian. As a recipient of the Berkeley Language Center Fellowship in 2021, Mariagrazia was able to begin a project named “Teaching Italy as a Multicultural Space through Language,” which aims to present Italy and italianità as a multicultural and multilingual space by creating pedagogical materials that question Italy as a monocultural space.
Mariagrazia is also co-founder of the IMWSG Italian Migration Working Study Group at UC Berkeley. Since 2020, IMWSG organized events, talks, seminars and graduated students across disciplines to explore language, culture, and identity in Italian transnational and migratory contexts.
As a side passion, Mariagrazia also loves creative writing and journalism. She co-wrote a play about immigration in the US selected by Dream Up Festival New York and performed at The Theater of The New City in 2019. She also earned a certificate from the Lelio Basso School of Journalism on “Social Rights and Rights of Peoples” in June 2011.
