Alessandra Serra, PhD

Senior Researcher   

Università della Tuscia

Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures, History, Philosophy and Law Studies (DISTU)

Via San Carlo 32, 01100 Viterbo - Italy

Email alessandra.serra@unitus.it

Born in 1967 and currently living in Rome, Alessandra is a Tenure Lecturer and Researcher in English and Translation Studies at the University Tuscia–Italy. Since 2021, she is a member of the Academic Senate of Università della Tuscia and member of the Departmental Committee for Internationalization.

Her research focuses on Victorian Fiction, 18-19th Century Culture, Data Analysis in Digital Media and Political language with a special interest in Women’s Studies.

She has published a volume on the influence of English on Italian Language, a volume on Adaptation Studies and several articles on transcodification and adaptation processes, on pragmatic aspects of social networks, on women’s political communication and multicultural discourse (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez), and on Victorian authors and Neo-Victorian fiction (Literature, Cinema and TV series). She has presented internationally on these topics.

She is a member of Englishers’ LLL International Research & Training Group (IKSAD Research Institute Ankara-Turkey), editorial board member of the journal of Translation Studies Traduttologia, of the book series of English Literature and Culture Riverrun – Aracne Edizioni and of several international associations of English Studies such as MLA – Modern Language Association; ESSE European Society for the Study of English; AIA - Italian Association of Anglistics; IGA - International Gothic Association; VFPA - Victorian Popular Fiction Association.

Her current research focuses on Data Analysis in social network language and political discourse, in the field of intersemiotic and transmedia adaptations, on (Neo) Gothic and Victorian Studies. Her translation of The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins (the first in Italian) is currently in print.

Education (main qualifications)

2002

PhD: Anglistics

University of Chieti 'G. D’Annunzio' - Chieti, Italy

Honours: First-class - Magna cum laude

1997

Master of Arts: Epistemology: Theory, History and e Praxis of Science

Tor Vergata University - Rome, Italy

Honours: First-class - Magna cum laude 

1994

Master of Arts (single-cycle): Foreign Languages and Literature (University of Sassari - Sassari, Italy

Honours: First-class - Magna cum laude

Academic positions

2012 – Ongoing

Tenure Lecturer/Senior Researcher  

DISTU University of Tuscia – Viterbo, Italy

·    In charge of the module of English Language and Translation (3rd year BA Programme in Modern Languages and Cultures) @ the Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures, History, Philosophy and Law Studies.

·    In charge of the module of English Language and Translation (1st+2nd year MA Programme in Languages and Cultures for International Communication) @ the Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures, History, Philosophy and Law Studies.

·    Conducting own research in fields of (Neo) Gothic and Victorian Studies, Data Analysis in social network language and political discourse, in the field of intersemiotic and transmedia adaptations.

2022 – Ongoing

Professor  

Research Center and Academic Studies “Armando Curcio”, Rome

·  In charge of the module of English Language and Translation (1st year BA Programme in Linguistic Mediation for Publishing Industry and Marketing)

 2004 – 2012

 Tenure Lecturer/Senior Researcher 

University of Basilicata, Potenza

·       In charge of the module of English Language and Translation (1st+2nd + 3rd year (BA Programme in Modern Languages and Cultures @ Faculty of Humanities).

·       In charge of the module of English Language and Translation (1st+2nd year MA Programme in Linguistics, Philology and Literature @ Faculty of Humanities).

·       In charge of the module of English Language and Language Teaching (S.S.I.S. - Postgraduate School for Secondary School Teaching).

·       Carried out research in the domains of: Influence of English on Italian Language and articles on Victorian authors and Neo-Victorian fiction (Literature, Cinema and TV series, on pragmatic aspects of Twitter, on transcodification and adaptation processes, on the language and discourse of women’s political communication.

Other Academic Positions

2021- Ongoing - Member of the Academic Senate of Università della Tuscia.

2021- Ongoing - Member of the Departmental Committee for Internationalization.

Non-Academic Positions

2010-2013 Member of the Forum Centro Studi of the Italian Democratic Party and parliamentary assistant.

2013. Consultant @ Camera dei Deputati of Italian Parliament the Chamber of Deputies for the elaboration of an analytical study of contemporary Italian political language and semiotics.

2017-2018. Senior advisor to Minister of Sport @ Italian Government. In charge of: Digital Communication and Data analysis.

 Affiliations

Member of:

·    MLA – Modern Language Association

·    ESSE - European Society for the Study of English

·    AIA Italian Association for English Studies

·    IGA - International Gothic Association

·    VFPA - Victorian Popular Fiction Association

Editorial activity

·    Editorial board member: Traduttologia. Rivista di Interpretazione e Traduzione [Journal of Translation and Interpretation].

·    Editorial board member: Riverrun – Aracne Edizioni [Book Series of English Literature and Culture]

Selected Publications

· 2006. L’uso dell’inglese nella pubblicità italiana, Roma, Aracne (Monograph).

· 2014.  "Women's rights are human rights": il discorso di Hillary Clinton a Pechino come infrazione paradigmatica del mainstream politico" in: Casadei, Serra, Sommariva. Studi di linguistica, letteratura e filologia. Viterbo, Sette Citta', 70-83. ISBN: 9788878535718

· 2014. "A Multicultural Presidential Speech: strategie di efficacia discorsiva nel linguaggio di Barack Obama" in: Casadei, Serra, Sommariva. Studi di linguistica, letteratura e filologia.  Viterbo:Sette Citta', 55-69. ISBN: 9788878535718

· 2014. "Edward Lear's Journals of a Landscape Painter in Calabria and the Kingdom of Naples. Una nota linguistica e traduttologica". in Casadei, Serra, Sommariva. Studi di linguistica, letteratura e filologia. Viterbo: Sette Citta', 43-54. ISBN: 978887853571

· 2016. “Alla periferia del canone. Il provincialismo di Mary Lavin e della short story femminile irlandese come esempio di sovversione linguistico-discorsiva” in Ornella Discacciati, Marta Valeri (eds.), Laggiù in provincia - luoghi e testi. Viterbo:Sette Città, 97-112. ISBN: 978887853738

· 2017. " ‘The Girls’: L’infrazione paradigmatica gentile delle donne del Women’s Labour League" in Benedetta Bini (ed.), Figure di passaggio. Temi, generi e linguaggi della fin de siècle inglese. Viterbo:Sette Città, 49-64 ISBN: 9788878537606

· 2017. “ ‘Do they have mouths...?’ Tradurre dal linguaggio extraterrestre a quello umano: l’adattamento cinematografico di Story of Your Life di Ted Chiang”. Traduttologia, VII/1-VII/2, 35-56 ISSN: 2037-4291

· 2018. “L’Epic Fail in Twitter. Un problema di pragmatica” in Sonia Di Vito (ed.), Lingue nella contemporaneità. Analisi linguistica, didattica e traduzione tra nuovi media e nuove sfide del multilinguismo. Roma:Aracne Editrice, 47-62.

ISBN: 9788825521979, doi: 10.4399/97888255219794

· 2019. "Drama Queen: processi di transcodificazione e (ri)modellizzazione identitario-discorsiva nel linguaggio della serie televisiva Victoria". RSV. Rivista Di Studi Vittoriani, 59-85, ISSN: 1128-2290  

· 2020. "Still Alex from the block?". Analisi linguistico-semiotica della comunicazione multimediale di Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Mario Piotti, Massimo Prada (eds.), A Carte Per Aria. Problemi e metodi dell’analisi linguistica dei media. Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore, 131-142. ISBN: 978-88-7667-860-8

· 2020. “L’infrazione del paradigma vittoriano in Mr Wray’s Cash-Box di Wilkie Collins: La prima traduzione italiana del romanzo”, RSV: Rivista di Studi Vittoriani, XXV, 49 (gennaio 2020), pp. 118-124, [ISSN 1128-2290] [ISBN 978-88-3305-228-1]  

· 2021. SERRA, Alessandra et al.  “Entropy and Complexity Unveil the Landscape of Memes Evolution”, Nature-Scientific Reports, 11, 20022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99468-6

· 2022. “Neo-Victorian Contaminations: The Hybrid and Virulent Nature of Female Gothic in Penny Dreadful Women Characters”, Testo e Senso, Speciale: Contact, Contamination, Contagion in English Linguistic, Literary and Cultural Communication, 25, 149-158. ISSN 2036-2293.  

· 2023. “Infective Monsters. Frankenstein’s Creatures in TV Series and Neo-Victorian ‘Contagious’ Re-Writing of the Canon”, Neo-Victorian Studies, Special Issue on Neo-Victorian Contagion: Re-Imagining Past Epidemics, Infection Control and Public Health Crises, 16,1, 2021-2022 (in print).

· 2023. RE MEDIA: Adattamento e transcodificazione dell'epoca vittoriana nella testualità contemporanea, Chieti, Solfanelli (Monograph).

· 2024. The Bear: New (stereotypical) representations of Italian Americans in contemporary television series, Forum Italicum, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00145858231223974 (online issue – printed issue in print)

· 2024. Wilkie Collins, The Frozen Deep (1st Italian translation). - Alessandra Serra ed. and trans., Edizioni Croce, Roma. (in print)

· Forthcoming. “Sùrbiles (2017): Women Vampires in Sardinia” in Gothic in Times of Trouble: Unstable Genre in Contentious Times, John Whatley (ed.), Manchester University Press. Contributors:

·       Karen Budra, English Instructor & Educational Technology Advisor at Langara College, British Columbia, Canada

·       Mariaconcetta Costantini, Professor of English Literature at G. d'Annunzio, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

·       Mark Deggan, Lecturer, Department of World Languages and Literature, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

·       Tony Alcala Gonzalez, Chair of the Humanities School at Tecnologico de Monterrey of Santa Fe, Mexico City, Mexico

·       Jerrold E Hogle, Emeritus Professor pf English and University Distinguished Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

·       Marie Lienard-Yeterian, Professor of American Literature and Cinema, Universite Cote D'Azur, France

·       Hsu, Li-hsin Professor, Department of English, National Chengchi University, Taipei City, Taiwan

·       Anastasia Lipinska, Associate Professor, Department of English Philology and Translation, Saint Petersburg State University of Economics, Russia.

·       Gilles Menegaldo, Professor, Department of English, Poitiers University, France

·       Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet, Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

·       David Punter, Emeritus Professor of Poetry, Faculty of Arts, Bristol University, Bristol UK

·       Faye Ringel, Professor Emeritus of Humanities at the United States Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT, USA

·   Alessandra Serra, Senior Researcher, Tuscia University, Viterbo, Italy

·       Cynthia Sugars, Professor of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa, Ottawa Canada

·       John Whatley, Lecturer in English (ret.), Associate Member, School of Criminology, and Managing Editor of University Publications, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

·       Gina Wisker, Assistant Professor/Senior Lecturer in the International Centre for Higher Education Management, University of Bath, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Brighton, UK

·       Sue Zlosnik, Emeritus Professor and Chair of the English Department at Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester UK

Conference participation (selection - last 5 years)

·     2018. Speaker at the international conference "A carte per aria. Problems and methodology of media linguistic analysis" with the paper " 'I'm still Alex from the Block'. Multimedia communication between web and social network in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez political discourse. A linguistic-semiotic analysis". Università degli Studi di Milano Statale. (Milan 22 and 23 November 2018)

· 2019. Speaker at the international SISP CONFERENCE (Italian Society of Political Science) - Section 5 - Political Communication - Panel 5 - Network Media Logic and Electoral Campaigns with the paper: “Still Alex from the Block?” Linguistic-semiotic analysis of multimedia communication of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Lecce, University of Salento, 12-14 September 2019)

·     2021. Speaker at the IGA (International Gothic Association) International Conference: Gothic in a Time of Contagion, Populism and Racial Injustice - Panel "The Gothic of Feminine Subversion: Contagious Ghosts, Viragos, and Rougarous" with the paper: " 'She is Pestiferous'. Feminine Subversion and Contagion in the Penny Dreadful Gothic Landscape". (Online - Hosted by Simon Fraser University, Vancouver; Canada March 10-13 2021).

·    2021.  Speaker at the International Conference - CONTAct, CONTAmination, CONTAgion in English Linguistic, Literary and Cultural communication 27th April 2021 - 14.30-17.00 Session 2: “Audiovisual and Translation" with the paper:  "Neo-Victorian contaminations: the hybrid and virulent nature of female gothic in Penny Dreadful women characters” Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata” (Rome, 27th-28th April 2021).

·    2021. Speaker at the 13th Annual VPFA International Conference (Victorian Popular Fiction Association): "Victorian Inclusion and Exclusion" - 15th July Panel Twenty-One 'Madness and/as Exclusion', with the paper " 'We are dangerous': Excluding the Deviant Feminine Code in Neo-Victorian On-Screen Narratives". Hosted by the University of Greenwich, London (14-16th July 2021).

·    Speaker at the International Conference University of South Wales -IVAF ‘Vampires through the Ages’ at “The International Vampire Film & Arts Festival" - Panel 'Tracing the Veins: Vampires Tradition and Folklore' with the paper: "Sùrbiles. Women Vampire in Sardinia, from Legend to Screen". University of South Wales Insole Court, Cardiff, United Kingdom” (16-17 June 2022).

·    2023. Keynote Speaker at the International conference “ICELL 2023: First International Conference on English Linguistics and Literature: Exploring Multidisciplinary Avenues in the Fields of Linguistics and Literature " with the paper: "Political Memes on Social Media: A New Metalanguage?" Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi khan, Pakistan (16-17 February 2023).

·    2023. Panel Moderator at the “1st International Multidisciplinary Conference on Language, Culture and Educational Revival” - 23-25 November, 2023 - The Shaikh Ayaz University, Shikarpur. Day -2, November 24, 2023 (Friday).

·       Discussant: Seminar: CENTER FOR DATA SCIENCE AND COMPLEXITY FOR SOCIETY - DIPARTIMENTO DI INFORMATICA DELLA SAPIENZA - Università degli Studi Sapienz- Roma 20 settembre 2023. Panel: DATA SCIENCE E SOCIETÀ. Discussant: Anna Ascani – Vice Presidente della Camera dei Deputati; Alessandra Serra - Docente Università della Tuscia.

·       2024. Speaker: Conference: "Intelligenza Artificiale, Informazione e Campagne Elettorali. Tra pericoli e opportunità, che fare?" - 9 febbraio 2024. Università Sapienza di Roma. Dipartimento di Informatica.

Research Groups

·       Senior Expert: Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Integration of Migrants in Europe (IntoME) Erasmus+ Programme (ERASMUS Jean Monnet). The Centre was established in September 2020 within the Tuscia University (DISTU Department) and is an international study and research platform for the analysis of migration processes, with a special focus on integration matters across the EU. Extract From the RG research staff description: “Alessandra Serra is Tenure Researcher in English and Translation at Tuscia University, where she is also a member of the Departmental Committee for the Internationalization strategies. Her current research focuses on Data Analysis in social network language, political discourse and multi/trans culturalism, inter-semiotic and transmedia adaptations. In the framework of the CoE. Alessandra Serra is involved in Task 4.3 (“Integration-enhancing tool for international students”). In particular, she will supervise the use of English for the mobile-phone app aimed at promoting the integration of international students (D4.3)” (https://www.unitus.it/dipartimenti/distu/ricerca/gruppi-e-centri-di-ricerca-distu/) (From 2024 – ongoing)

·       Research Fellow for the Research Group "Englishers’ LLL Int'l Research & Training Directorate" - part of the IKSAD Institute - Global Scientific Diplomacy, Ankara, TR (https://www.iksadinstitute.org/; https://www.iksadinstitute.org/englisher-lll) 

      (From 2024 – ongoing) 

Last updated, April 2024.