Academic Activities
Alongside my research
I present my work at conferences and seminars, teach, and collaborate with scholars and research groups in the environmental humanities, ecocriticism and narrative studies. This section brings these activities together.
Conferences and Seminars
May 2026 – EACLALS 19th Triennial Conference “Multiple Crises: Conflicts, Crossings, Migrations in Postcolonial/Decolonial Studies,” University of Turin, Turin, Italy. Paper title: “Queer Ecologies and Decolonial Potential in Times of Global Crisis”
April 2026 – 11th Biennial EASLCE Conference “’Join the Orca Uprising!’ Nonhuman Resistance and Multispecies (In)Justice,” Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands. Paper title: “From Comparison to Coalition Intersectional Forms of Multispecies Resistance”
2026 – Organization of a Panel in the 2026 11th Biennial EASLCE (European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture, and Environment) Conference on “Imagining Narratives of Struggle Against Extractivism in Human-Nonhuman Relationships,” Dr. Gabriele D’Amato, Dr. Shannon Lambert, and Dr. Jordi Serrano-Muñoz (Ghent University)
2026 – Organization of a Panel in the 2026 Narrative Conference on “Form, Narrative, Nature: Refiguring Queer Ecologies,” with Prof. Erin James (University of Idaho, USA), and Dr. Gabriele D’Amato (Ghent University and University of L’Aquila)
June 2026 – 41st Narrative Conference of the International Society for the Study of Narrative, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. Paper title: “Transecological Temporalities in Postapocalyptic Caribbean Fiction”
April 2025 – 40th Annual International Conference on Narrative, Florida International University, Miami, USA. Paper title: “Postcolonial Inconstant We Narratives”
May 2025 – Conference “The Social Impact of Climate Fiction. A Cross-Disciplinary Conference,” University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. Paper title: “Young Adult Climate Fiction as a Pedagogical Tool”
2025 – Organization of a Panel in the 20th Triennial Conference of the ACLALS (Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies) on “Literature as Transcultural Ecology,” with Prof. Annalisa Oboe and Francesca Furlan (University of Padova)
2025 – Organization of a Panel in the International Conference Getting Ready for the Present: Engaging with the World and the Planet in Contemporary Dystopian and Speculative Narratives on “Reproductive Politics and Utopian/Dystopian Imaginaries,” with Prof. Raffaella Baccolini and Arianna Preite (University of Bologna)
October–November 2025 – 50th Anniversary Conference of the Society for Utopian Studies “Blue Utopias: Utopian Dreams on Sea and Shore,” Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, USA. Paper title: “Aquatic Ecotransfeminist and Decolonial Metamorphoses: Rivers Solomon’s The Deep and Ada M. Patterson’s Broken from the Colony”
July 2025 – 20th Triennial Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS), University of Nairobi, Kenya. Panel organiser: “Literature as Transcultural Ecology”. Paper title: “Transcultural Ecology and Collective Narration”
October 2024 – 2024 Society for Utopian Studies Conference “Elsewhere and Elsewhen,” Tulum, Mexico. Paper title: “Eco-trauma and Social Dreaming: The Entanglement of Positive and Negative Emotions in Young Adult Anglophone Dystopian Fiction”
October–December 2024 – Seminar series “WombWor(l)ds: Transcultural Echoes on Reproductive Justice,” School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK. Paper title: “Apocalyptic Pregnancy: Reproductive Justice and Climate Change in Contemporary Anglophone Dystopian Fiction” (invited)
August 2024 – International Conference “Communicating Climate Hope. Countering eco-anxiety and climate doomism in research and practice,” Tilburg University and The University of British Columbia. Paper title: “Countering eco-anxiety through young adult climate fiction: Lauren James’s Green Rising”
April 2024 – EGU (European Geosciences Union) General Assembly, Austria Center Vienna, Austria. Great Debate: “Elevating EDI practices in the geosciences considering intersectionality” (invited)
November–December 2023 – International Conference “Precarious Planet: Disability, Rights, & Justice,” SPACLALS (South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies) and Challenging Precarity: A Global Network, University of Wollongong, Sydney Campus, Australia. Paper title: “Environmental justice and planetary decolonization in Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were”
October 2023 – Study day “Speculative Imaginaries for Future Worlds: Climate-Fiction in the Arts and Literature,” Università Ca’ Foscari Venice and THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities NICHE, Italy (invited)
April 2023 – National Conference “Oltre l’apocalisse. Immaginari comparati alla fine dell’umano,” University of Padua, Italy. Paper title: “Narrating Climate Catastrophe through Feminist Ecologies: A Posthuman and Relational (Counter-)Apocalypse” (invited)
June 2022 – 11th European Feminist Research Conference “Social Change in a Feminist Perspective: Situating Gender Research in Times of Political Contention,” University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. Paper title: “A Feminist Africanfuturist Gaze on Climate Fiction”
July 2022 – 22nd Utopian Studies Society Conference “Opening Utopia: New Directions in Utopian Studies,” University of Brighton, UK. Paper title: “The Radical Imagination of Feminist Environmental Humanities: Interweaving Theory and Speculative Fiction”
2021 – Member of the organizing committee of the PhD Student Conference “Forward Looking, forward thinking: Future research perspectives at a time of uncertainty,” University of Bologna
October 2021 – National Conference “Inventare nuovi mondi. Critiche e visioni femministe tra marginalità e possibilità,” Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, Italy. Paper title: “Future Ecologies and Science Fiction: Feminist and Postcolonial Counter-Narratives” (invited)
February 2021 – The Anthropocene and Race Conference, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. Paper title: “A material feminist reading of N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy”
November 2020 – Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BiGeA). Paper title: “Gender and Climate Change: The New Wave of Climate Fiction” (invited)
January 2020 – Climate Fictions / Indigenous Studies Conference, University of Cambridge, UK. Paper title: “Intersectional climate justice in Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves”
September 2019 – ASLE-UKI Biennial Conference 2019: “Co-emergence, Co-creation, Co-existence,” University of Plymouth, UK. Paper title: “Human and nonhuman agency in Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book”
July 2019 – 20th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, Europe – “Utopia, Dystopia and Climate Change,” Monash University Prato Center, Italy. Paper title: “Climate change and the crisis of imagination: Keri Hulme’s Stonefish and Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book”
Teaching
2025: Visiting Lecturer for ENGL 5700: Climate fiction (Fall semester 2025), University of Idaho
2025: Invited Lecturer for the International Summer School ENTANGLEMENTS: Postcolonial Futures and New Futurisms, University of Padova. Lectures and seminars delivered: “On Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism: discussing perspectives and reading African and African Diasporic futures,” “Collective readings of works by Octavia Butler, Nnedi Okorafor and Rivers Solomon,” and “Afrofuturist Black Panthers? Comparing Ryan Coogler’s 2018 film and Nnedi Okorafor’s graphic novel Black Panther: Long Live the King”
2025: Teaching activity within the Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) Culture and Education for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future, University of Bologna. Lecture delivered: “Ecocriticism for Children and Young People” (cluster: Culture, Ecology and Gender Equality)
2025: Guest Lecturer for the course Intercultural and Gender Studies, University of Bologna. Seminars delivered: “New technologies of re/production and a world beyond the family”
2023-2024-2025-2026: Lecturer for the PhD Programme in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies, University of Bologna. Seminars delivered: “Environmental Humanities and Gender Studies”
2023-2024: Teaching Assistantship (30 hours x 4 different courses). English Literature 1, 2 (first language), Course English Literature 1, 2 (second language), University of Bologna
2022-2023: Adjunct Professor. Interfaculty and interdisciplinary course Diversity Management, University of Bologna
2021-2022-2023-2024: Teaching Assistantship and Lecturer (for four years) for the interfaculty and interdisciplinary course Gender, Knowledges, and Social Justice, University of Padua
2021-2022: Teaching Assistantship (18 hours). English Literature 2, University of Padua
2021-2022-2023: Guest Lecturer for the course Sustainable Development and One Health, University of Bologna. Lecture delivered: “Climate change: impact on migrations, wars and life” (for three years)
2021-2022: Teaching Assistantship (20 hours x 2 different courses). English Literature I, University of Bologna
2021: Invited Lecturer for the International Summer School Shaping Fair Cities, University of Bologna. Lectures delivered: “Setting the scene: SDG 5 and the 2030 Agenda,” and “Understanding the linkages between gender and climate change”
2018-2019-2019: Lecturer for the training course Gender and language (for three years) University of Padua
2018: Lecturer for the seminars on Gender Equality in Academia for PhD students of the University of Padua. Seminar delivered: “Enhancing Gender Awareness in Scientific Research and Teaching”
Collaborations
2026 – present: Horizon Europe project CLIMEQUITY (Climate Justice and Equity in Scenario Assessment and Policy Action). Member of the international research team
2025 – present: Environmental Justice Is Social Justice: Literary and Cultural Representations of the Climate Crisis in Third-Millennium Europe through a Gender-Based Analysis, Sapienza University of Rome (PI: Caterina Stefania Romeo). Invited member of the national and international research network.
2025 (Jan–Jun): Post-MESH Lab, Ghent University. Research collaboration at the intersection of posthuman theory, narratology, and empirical literary studies; presentation of MSCA project SHIFT-GEN and participation in ecocriticism working groups
2025: Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) “Culture and Education for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future,” University of Bologna. Teaching contribution on ecocriticism and young adult literature; interdisciplinary collaboration on sustainability, culture, and gender equality
2024 – present: Confluence Lab, University of Idaho. Interdisciplinary research group integrating humanities, arts, and environmental sciences; presentation of MSCA project and participation in research meetings and graduate teaching activities
2024 – present: Dis-4Change: Studies on Climate Change and Environmental Discourse (Interuniversity Research Network), University of Bologna Research Unit. Research collaboration on environmental discourse and climate narratives; participation in summer school activities and organisation of research events
2024 – 2026: CERV Project “EUrban DECO: Exploring EU Urban Landscapes for a Deconstruction of Colonial Narrative.” Member of the international research team and scientific committee; research on colonial and decolonial feminism and development of gender equality guidelines
2023 – present: MeTRa Centre (Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Mediation and Translation for Children and Young People), University of Bologna. Research on gender and youth literature; workshops on eco-anxiety and environmental citizenship for secondary school students; participation in the Creative Europe project G-BOOK 2
2022 – 2025: COST Action CA20137 – VOICES: Making Young Researchers’ Voices Heard for Gender Equality. Member of Working Group on Intersectionality; participation in international training and research activities on gender equality
2022 – 2023: Erasmus+ Project “E-QUALITY: New e-Tools to Develop Skills and Strengthen Gender Equality within Municipal Administrations.” Member of the international research team; research on women’s representation in decision-making and delivery of training activities
2018 – 2024: Elena Cornaro Centre for Gender Knowledge, Culture and Politics, University of Padua. Research, teaching, and public engagement activities; co-founder of NextGenerationCEC research group and contributor to gender and social justice initiatives
2016 – 2017: Positive Action Plan Project – Gender Equality and Inclusive Language, University of Padua. Development of institutional guidelines for non-discriminatory language and delivery of training courses for university staff
