Paola Sica

Biography

Paola Sica teaches a variety of courses, especially those on modern and contemporary Italian verbal and visual cultures, including Modernisms and Modernity, Italian Film and Literature: from Neorealism to the Present, Cultural Identity in Italy and Adjacent Geographical Areas and Topics in Italian Culture: Research Seminar. Paola Sica received a Laurea degree from the Università di Siena in Italy and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University, complementing her studies on fellowships with a term at Sussex University in the United Kingdom and a year at Georgetown University. She briefly taught in Italy and for one year at Princeton University as a lecturer before coming to Connecticut College. Her credentials include completion of the Corso di Perfezionamento (advanced course), Literary Translation, at Università di Siena, Italy; Research Fellow (post-laurea), literature, at Georgetown University; Visiting Research Student (pre-laurea), literature and linguistics, at Sussex University, UK.; and language schools in Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; and Bedford, UK. She chaired the department for the three-year term from 2006–2009, and has been reconfirmed as chair for 2013-2016. She has also served on several committees at the College, including the Academic and Administrative Procedures Committee, the Study Away Committee and the Educational Planning Committee. She has invited national and international guest speakers in Italian Film Studies and Comparative Cultures to the College, and has organized and chaired panels at national and international conferences. Her research and writing have been supported by numerous grants and awards and have resulted in various publications. Her first book, Modernist Forms of Rejuvenation: Eugenio Montale and T.S. Eliot, was published with the Italian academic press Olschki. Her various translations and articles on twentieth-century Italian literature and culture — mostly on modernism and the avant garde — appeared in such journals as Italica, Annali d’Italianistica, Italian Quarterly, Quaderni del ‘900, Modern Language Notes and Yale Italian Poetry. Her second authored book, Futurist Women: Florence, Feminism and the New Sciences, was published in 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan. This is an interdisciplinary study that initially focuses on the local: the making of cultural identity in the women writers and artists of "L’Italia futurista." It then broadens its scope to the global in order to examine related cultural strands in scientific and feminist thought that developed in various locations, especially Europe and North America. She has presented her work in numerous academic and cultural settings, nationally and internationally, including the MLA and AISS conventions and Columbia University in the United States; the ISSEI conference in Finland; Queen Mary University, Royal Holloway University, Swansea University and The Estorick Collection of Modern Art in the United Kingdom; Istituto di Cultura in Canada, and Istituto Dante Alighieri in Italy.

Research Interest

ITALIAN CULTURE IN COMPARATIVE CONTEXT (ESPECIALLY LITERARY AND VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS FROM LATE 19TH CENTURY THROUGH THE CONTEMPORARY ERA, WITH EMPHASIS ON MODERNISM AND AVANT GARDE) GENDER STUDIES CRITICAL THEORY TRANSLATION AND TRANSCULTURATION LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY