Email: a.risi@exeter.ac.uk

Office: Queen's 140

I graduated from La Sapienza – University of Rome (Laurea in Lettere/Sociologia della letteratura) and I completed a PhD in Italian at University College Cork (Ireland). Before coming to Exeter, I worked at University College Cork and Dublin Institute of Technology.

I specialize in contemporary Italian literature (19th-20st century), with a particular focus on Italian women's writing and crime fiction, which I approach primarily from narratological, socio-historical, feminist and gender-based perspectives. Over the years, my teaching and research interests have extended into media and comparative studies. I thus focus on changes in representational and storytelling modes between different media, with a strong emphasis on feminist and gender politics.

I have published articles on Italian crime and noir fiction, women’s writing, reader response, and experimental narratives. My recent article “Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels: Retelling History Through Gendered Fiction” (Journal of Romance Studies, 2018) explored Ferrante’s use of genre and gender elements in re-addressing and re-telling contemporary Italian historical turning points, from an embodied female-gendered viewpoint. I am currently developing this work with a new article on the on-screen representation of female friendship in the RAI/HBO adaptation of My Brilliant Friend (2018-).

At Exeter I teach Italian and Film.

I am Language Portfolio Representative for The Society for Italian Studies.