Professor of German Studies at the University of Valencia
Brigitte Jirku, full professor of German Studies at the University of Valencia (Spain), received her PhD. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in 18th Century Literature and Gender Studies. Her current research centers on different aspects of Contemporary German Drama, especially post-drama and performativity, and on topics such as the representation of violence in literary texts, gender, and identity (construction) in the present.
At present, she collaborates regularly with the Elfriede Jelinek Forschungsplattform (Universität Wien) and the European Network of violence (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz).
Senior Lecturer of German Studies at the University of Valencia
Ana R. Calero Valera, Senior Lecturer of German Studies at the University of Valencia (Spain), received her PhD. from the same university with a dissertation about Heiner Müller’s rewriting of Shakespeare’s plays. Her current research centers on German Documentary Theatre and Freies Theater, and on topics such as migration, globalization, and the representation of perpetrators in literary texts.
At present, she is Vice-Dean of Internationalization and Participation of the Faculty of Philology, Translation and Communication of the University of Valencia (Spain), and coordinator of the project “INNOVA-TEA” on innovation in educational methodologies through drama techniques (Lecture-Performance and Radio-Podcast).
Teaches german literature at the University of Valencia
Ana Giménez Calpe graduated in Germanic Studies and in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Valencia (Spain). She received her Ph.D from the same university in February 2014 with a dissertation about Gender (de)construction in a selection of Elfriede Jelinek’s plays. Between 2005 and 2009 she worked in the field of the mass media. She joined the German Department at the University of Valencia in 2016, after having taught at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin (Texas, United States) and at the University of Granada. Her teaching and research interests include German literature of the 20th century, drama, memory studies and feminist theory.
Professor of English at the University of Valencia
Carme Manuel is Professor of English at the Department of English and German Philology of the University of Valencia. After graduating, she became Professor of English in Secondary Education and taught English language for ten years. She completed her doctoral studies in 1992 and started lecturing on American literature at the University of Valencia. Carme Manuel has taught courses on a wide variety of topics of nineteenth- and twentieth- century American drama and poetry, and has published and lectured on nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and African American women writing. Her interests include African American studies and Gender Studies.
Professor of English at the University of Valencia
María José Coperías-Aguilar is an associate professor at the University of Valencia, where she teaches in the Department of English and German Philology. She has a PhD in English Literature. Her main teaching areas are literature, cultural studies and English for specific purposes, especially for the media. She has participated in many international conferences and published widely on several fields of English studies both in books and journals. Her main areas of research are cultural studies, intercultural communicative competence, the media, and literature by women. She is a member, and the current Secretary, of the International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication – IALIC.
Adjunct Lecturer of English at the University of Valencia
Vicent Cucarella-Ramon (BA in English, MA, PhD in English) is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of English and German Studies of the University of Valencia. His research interest focuses on US and Canadian literatures with a special emphasis on African American and African Canadian literatures. His recent publications include articles on Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Hannah Crafts, Bernice L. McFadden, Djanet Sears or Esi Edugyan in journals such as International Journal of English Studies or Canada and Beyond.
Research Professor of North American Literature at the University of Bologna
Elena Lamberti teaches North American Literature and Media Studies at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Bologna. Her areas of research include: Anglo-American Modernism, Literature and Technology, Cultural Memory, War Literature.
She has published books and essays on English and Anglo-American Modernism, as well as Anglo-American culture of the late 20th Century. Her volume Marshall McLuhan’s Mosaic. Probing the Literary Origins of Media Studies was a finalist for the 2013 Canada Prizes and received the 2016 Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology.
She coordinated the EU/Canada Cultural Project: “PERFORMIGRATIONS: People Are the Territory” (www.performigrations.eu) investigating shifting ideas on/of ‘mobility’ (both cultural and technological).
Research Professor in Romance Philology at the University of Bologna.
Francesco Benozzo teaches Romance Philology at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Bologna. Along with his academic career he is also poet, a musician, and the author of more than 700 publications. His areas of interests include among many the origins of human language, oral poetry, shamanism, anarchism, ethnophilology, critical editions of medieval texts, and the problem of landscape in literature. As a songwriter and harpist, he released 11 CDs, produced in Italy, Denmark and the UK. For his poetry in defense of natural places and for his use of techniques belonging to the ancient tradition of oral poetry, since 2015 he has been nominated for the Literary Nobel Prize.
Associate Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Bologna
Luigi Contadini teaches Spanish Literature at the University of Bologna. His areas of research include the phenomenological aspect of literary representations of contemporary writers, the literature of trauma and memory concerning the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist repression and various themes of the Eighteenth Century Spanish (memorial, epic, celebratory poetry, travel literature). He is promoter and organizer of the series of congress on Plural Spain (meetings and conflicts of languages and cultures) organized by the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of Bologna
Francesco Vitucci is Junior Assistant Professor of Japanese Philology and Japanese Language and Linguistics at the School of Languages and Literature, Translation and Interpretaton of Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna University. He has also taught Japanese at the Department of Asian and African Studies of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of Catania University. His research is based on multimedia teaching (audiovisual media and Internet in the Japanese class), audiovisual translation and language policies in contemporary Japan.
Accredited Psychosynthetic Counsellor and a member of the ICT staff at the University of Bologna
Monica Notari is an accredited Psychosynthetic Counsellor and a member of the ICT staff at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Bologna. She has collaborated with a variety of public bodies, developing integrated platforms for e-learning, data-processing and inter-art projects. She has served on the board of the European/Canadian Project “PERFORMIGRATIONS; People Are the Territory”, focusing on change, diversity and mobility; as well as on the team of “ACUME – Approaching Cultural Memory, a European Thematic Network” addressing European shared and divided memories.
Her areas of interests include psychosynthesis counselling, cultural memory, media ecology, mobile technologies.
Post-Doc Researcher and Translator
Valeria Reggi is a certified English-Italian translator. She holds a PhD from the Centre for Translation (CenTraS) of University College London, a specialization in literary translation from the University of Venice and a degree with honours in Modern Languages from the University of Bologna, where she has been appointed Independent Subject Expert in English Literature. Valeria Reggi began her career in languages as a research student at the University of Bologna, delivering lectures and publishing articles and translations. She has also gained experience in Marketing Communications for the private sector. Her current research interests focus on multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis applied to political discourse and disinformation
Professor Emeritus of Professional Education at the University of Tampere
Professor Emeritus of Professional Education, with an emphasis on global learning environments, University of Tampere, Finland, and the UNESCO Chair in Global E-Learning. Docent in Communication in the Universities of Helsinki and Tampere. Principal Research Associate at UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Has been member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education , the European Commission Media Literacy Expert Group and the Center for Media and Peace Initiatives in New York. Has held various posts throughout his career, including Rector of the University for Peace (created by the UN) in Costa Rica; Chair of Media Education in the University of Tampere, Finland; and Director of Tampere Peace Research Institute. Has been visiting professor in many parts of the world, including Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, the United States, Spain, and Austria, Jordasn, and China. Has authored approximately 300 scientific articles on topics such as “Global Peace through the Global University System.” Holds Masters and Doctor of Social Science from the University of Tampere, Finland. Recent work is co-authored with J-M Perez Tornero on “Media Literacy and New Humanism”: http://iite.unesco.org/news/639368/
