Roberta Cauchi-Santoro

I am an Assistant Professor at St. Jerome's University, federated with the University of Waterloo.  From September 2013 until December 2018, I taught European Studies and Italian Studies at the School of Languages and Literatures at the University of Guelph. I started teaching Italian Studies at St. Jerome’s University in January 2015 and I am now an Assistant Professor at the university. My first book titled Beyond the Suffering of Being: Desire in Giacomo Leopardi and Samuel Beckett (Firenze University Press, 2016) has been positively reviewed. 

My current research, which will culminate in a forthcoming edited book, focuses on contemporary Italian writer Elena Ferrante and the influence on her work of various facets of psychoanalytic feminist criticism of the 1970s.  I have a particular interest in Italian (and specifically Mediterranean) women writers, but I have published on and taught about a variety of aspects of Italian and Anglo-Italian literary relations.

The content that follows may only represent a portion of the faculty member's work.

Books

Roberta Cauchi-Santoro & Costanza Barchiesi, Ferrante Unframed: Authorship, Reception and Feminist Praxis in the Works of Elena Ferrante. Florence: Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2021.

Beyond the Suffering of Being: Desire in Giacomo Leopardi and Samuel Beckett. Florence (Italy): Firenze University Press, 2016. Series: Studi di italianistica moderna e contemporanea nel mondo anglofono/Studies in Italianistica in the Anglophone World.

Chapters

“A Porous Mediterranean Écriture Féminine: Elena Ferrante’s L’amore molesto.” Unframing and Reframing Mediterranean Identities. Eds. Giovanna Summerfield and Rosario Pollicino. Netherlands: Brill, 2023, pp.88-102.

"Elena Ferrante's Women Intellectuals: Writing and the paradoxical Relationship to the Mother." Female Cultural Production in Modern Italy: Literature, Art, and Intellectual History. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. 53-66.

“Writing from the Womb: A Cixousian Reading of Elena Ferrante’s La figlia oscura.” Femminismo e femminismi nella scrittura italiana dall'Ottocento al XXI secolo. Eds. Michela Prevedello and Sandra Parmegiani. Florence: Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2019. 141-156.

“The Dianoetic Laughter of Desire: Humour in Giacomo Leopardi.” Humor, educatión y arte [Humour, Education & Art]. Ed. Camilo Cuéllar. Bogotá, Colombia: Ediciones Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, 2018. 17- 34.

“Una morte seducente: eros-thanatos, il desiderio e la “jouissance” lacaniana nelle poesie del ciclo di Aspasia di Giacomo Leopardi.”Il pensiero della poesia. Eds. Enrico Minardi and Cristina Caracchini. Florence (Italy): Firenze University Press. 105-118.

Articles

“Nostos and 19th-century Italian-Canadian Immigration: Mapping the earliest Latin Quarters.” Patterns of Nostos in Italian-Canadian Narratives. Ed. Gabriel Niccoli. Special Issue of Italian Canadiana. Vol. XXXV, (2021) Thematic Issue on “Nostos.” 71-77.

“Ridendo dei nostri mali trovo qualche conforto”: Giacomo Leopardi’s Humour. International Studies in Humour. Ed. Ephraim Nissan. (2018). 5.1: 2-19.

“Mapping Intangible Cultural Heritage: Safeguarding the Memories of a City’s Historic Core.” Cultural Mapping: Making the Intangible Visible. City, Culture and Society. Vol. XXX. Eds. Nancy Duxbury and Alys Longley.  (2015).

“Compassion in Giacomo Leopardi: A Levinasian Reading of ‘La Ginestra o il fiore del deserto’” Italica.92.3 (Fall 2015). 796-812.

“‘Non che la speme, il desiderio è spento’: Giacomo Leopardi, Samuel Beckett and the Quietist Tradition.” Italian Culture. XXXIII.I (2015): 39-54.

Book Reviews

Frontiers of Feminism: Movements and Influences in  Quebec and Italy, 1968-89 by Jacinthe Michaud, Vancouver/Toronto: UBC Press, 2021.pp. 209. In Italian Canadiana. Vol. XXXVII.1. Spring 2023. 283-86.

ITAL101: Introduction to Italian Language 1

ITAL102: Introduction to Italian Language 2

ITAL 155: Intensive Introductory Italian Language

ITAL 201: Intermediate Italian 1

ITALST 111/SMF 111: Marriage and Family Traditions in Italy

ITALST 112/SMF 112: Sexual Identities and Relationships in Italy

ITALST 291: Italian Culture and Civilization 1

ITALST 292: Italian Culture and Civilization II

ITALST 296: Special Topics in Contemporary Italian Society [Topic: Mediterranean Black Italy]

ITALST 391: Italian Novel and Cinema

Grants

2024 SJU Faculty Research Grant

2023 SSHRC-UW Exchange Grant "Waterloo Italian Heritage Project"

2023 SJU Faculty Research Grant

2023 Istituto Italiano di Cultura Funds for Cattedre d’italiano (with K.Lappin-Fortin and B.Tremblay)

2020 SSHRC-UW Explore Grant “From Leopardi to Joyce, Beckett and Levinas: Aesthetic Melancholy in the European Quietist Tradition”

OGS, Ontario Graduate Scholarship (September 1st 2010- August 31st 2011)

Fellowships

Mitacs Postdoctoral Fellowship (May 1st 2013- April 30th 2015)

Awards

CEL shortlisted nominations for Award in Best Online Course Design. Course shortlisted: ITAL 101 Introduction to Italian Language I. (2024)

Sessional Faculty Teaching Performance Review, Tenure and Promotion of the School of

Languages and Literatures, University of Guelph (2016-2017) Rating: Outstanding

Sessional Faculty Teaching Performance Review, Tenure and Promotion of the School of

Languages and Literatures, University of Guelph (2015-2016) Rating: Outstanding

Wait-listed for SSHRC [Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada] postdoctoral fellowship, 2014-15. Overall Score 3.95/6. Committee 1: Rank 45/192. Waiting list starts at rank 40.

Anthony Camisso Research Award, Awarding Body: Canadian Society for Italian Studies (June 2013)

USC Teaching Honour Roll UWO Award of Excellence (2009-2010)

USC Teaching Honour Roll UWO Award of Excellence (2008-2009)

USC Teaching Honour Roll UWO Award of Excellence (2007-2008)

Best Graduate Essay Award: Canadian Society for Italian Studies (CSIS) (2010)

The content that follows may only represent a portion of the Faculty member’s work.

Administrative

St Jerome’s University

Acting Chair, Department of Italian and French Studies  (2024-to present)