I consider myself a generalist, in the broad sense of the term. I graduated from the University of Messina, Italy, pursued graduate studies at the University of Salamanca, Spain, and earned my doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD), where I completed my dissertation, “Tradotti pur hora:” Mambrino Roseo da Fabriano e la diffusione del romanzo cavalleresco spagnolo nell’italia della Controriforma, under the direction of the late Pier Massimo Forni (Harry Sieber being second reader). For nearly 15 years, I taught Italian and Spanish at Southeastern Louisiana University (Hammond, LA), where I also got some of my students involved in world language broadcasting via the shows which I created for Southeastern’s radio station (KSLU), Caffè Italia (syndicated to Wesleyan University’s WESU, Middletown Ct) and El rincón hispano (in cooperation with Radio Universidad, Salamanca, Spain).

Besides sharing my enthusiasm for radio broadcasting with my students, I conducted research on the history of Italian radio and television, the linguistic, literary, and cultural relationship between Spain and Italy, and the Italian experience in the United States, plus British painting and Pre-Raphaelitism, a passion that I developed at the University of Messina thanks to the teaching of my very first mentor, Teresa Pugliatti.

My essays and reviews have been published in miscellaneous books, conference proceedings, and peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, MLN, Romanistische Jahrbuch, Southeast Louisiana Review, Florida English,and Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies (for which I was also a member of the Editorial board from 2014 to 2021). My most recent publication is the workbook Clic! L’italiano col telecomando,. Kendall-Hunt, 2024. Ebook (co-authored with Sarah Annunziato).