I am a scholar of Italian studies specializing in comics studies and language pedagogy. I hold a master’s degree in Specialized Translation in English and Spanish (IULM University, Milan) and in 2020 I graduated from Indiana University-Bloomington with a dissertation on Italian comics magazines of the 1960s-1980s. My research interests include comics studies, translation studies, and foreign language pedagogy. My most recent article, “Teaching Italian (with) comics,” appeared in the edited book Italian as a foreign language: Teaching and acquisition in higher education (ed. Regagliolo, Vernon Press). Other recent projects dealt with comics, their positioning in the publishing industry, and their impact on Italian society, and on the the auteur comics culture in Italy (1960s-1980s), and specifically the phenomenon of auteur comics magazines.
Currently, I am an Assistant Instructional Professor in Italian at the University of Chicago. I teach all levels of Italian, coordinate the first-year sequence, manage the social media accounts of the Italian Program, organize the Program’s cultural activities, administer language assessments in Italian, and mentor graduate student instructors.
“Luigi Bernardi e l’immaginario Pop”
January 17th I will participate in the roundtable “Luigi Bernardi e l’immaginario pop” and I will talk about Luigi Bernardi and his experience as editor of comics (L’Isola Trovata and Orient Express). Here is the link to the website of the event.
Keep readingAlcuni dati sull’andamento dell’editoria fumettistica in Italia tra graphic novel e fumetto seriale
It’s finally online on Simultanea my contribution on the comics publishing industry in Italy. The article is in Italian and you can read it and download it here. Here’s the abstract: In this article I examine the Italian publishing industry of comics, casting light on its complexity and hybridity. First, I show the current lack…
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Ed Talk – Comics literacy in Italian language courses: combining textual and visual elements to enhance students’ analytical skills (Notre Dame, 03/19)
In this talk, Sara will show how she integrated comics and cartoons into intermediate and lower advanced Italian language classes. She will also discuss how comics’ hybridity of text and image encourages students to look at works from different perspectives, therefore adopting a more holistic approach in their analysis. Moreover, through the review of her course on…
Keep readingTransition 9. New Directions in Comics Studies Conference – virtual (8-10 April)
I talked about “Comics Magazines: Not only Comics but also Criticism”. In Italy, magazines have been instrumental in the development and dissemination of comics, from the pioneering Il Corriere dei Piccoli (1908) to the longest-running auteur comics magazine Linus (1965-). In particular, auteur comics magazines became the venue in which to publish comics productions imbued…
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Sara Dallavalle, PhD 