The Scholar 

Ph.D.   University of Virginia, Latin American Studies (Spanish), 2020

M.A.   University of Virginia, Spanish, 2016

M.A.   University of Turin (Italy), Comparative Literature, 2013 

B.A.    University of Turin (Italy), Comparative Literature, 2011 

Certificate in World Art History, the Smithsonian Associate Program, Smithsonian Institute (expected in 2025)

Certificate Harvard University, Afro-Latin American Studies, 2023

CV available at https://virginia.academia.edu/NicoleBonino 

Research Interests 

• Contemporary Latin American and Italian Studies

• Activist ART (ARTivism)

• Global Mobility

• Educational Technology

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

Academic and Research Appointments 

University of Virginia (USA)  

August 2020 – present 

Assistant Professor of Spanish and Italian

Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese  

Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana “Dr. Emilio Ravignani” (Argentina)

November 2024

Visiting Research Scholar 

Grupo de Estudios Afrolatinoamericanos (GEALA)

In collaboration with Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)

Columbia University (USA)

Spring 2022 

Research Fellow

Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS)

University of Manchester (UK)  

September 2020 – May 2021

Research Fellow  

Global Development Institute and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies 

Publications 

“The Visual Revolution of Afro-Argentinian Artivism”

(Under advanced contract with Vanderbilt University Press)

Bonino, Nicole. “Artistic Resilience: Climate Crisis and the Response of Latin American Eco-Artivism” (Forthcoming in LACIS Review, Spring 2025)

Bonino, Nicole. “The Socio-environmental Implications of Argentina’s Informal Economy in Antonio Berni’s Xilo-collage Inundación en el barrio de Juanito (1961).” Bulletin of Contemporary Hispanic Studies, 6.2 (2024): 149-165

Bonino, Nicole. “Trazando caminos: Retratística afroargentina como archivo de memoria e instrumento de visibilización.” Perspectivas Afro. Revista de investigaciones en estudios afrolatinoamericanos y afrocaribeños, 3.1 (2023): 135-152

Bonino, Nicole, and Hiromi Kaneda. “Reclaiming Identity: The Cinematic Activist Journey of Afro-Argentinian Director Wisny Dorce and His Film Production Company ‘Black Existencia Films:’ Interview with Wisny Dorce.” Framework. The Journal of Cinema and Media, 64.1 (2023): 180-191

Bonino, Nicole. “Más allá del conflicto: matices ecocríticos en 

‘A la deriva’ por Horacio Quiroga.” Chasqui. Revista de 

literatura latinoamericana, 51.1 (2022): 135-152

Bonino, Nicole. “Hibridismo literario y naturalismo criollo: el caso de Antonio Argerich.” El Cid, 31 (2021): 7-13  

Bonino, Nicole. “Villa Miseria también es América: Resistance and Resilience in Argentinian Slums During the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Spanish and Portuguese Review, 6 (2020): 9-21

Bonino, Nicole. “Génova-Buenos Aires: paisaje oceánico y migración en Sull’Oceano (1889) de Edmondo De Amicis.” Exégesis, 3 (2020): 93-107  

Bonino, Nicole. “Colombia no tiene quien la cure: el discurso médico en El coronel no tiene quien le escriba  

(1958-61) de Gabriel García Márquez.” Hispanófila. Ensayos de literatura, 184 (2018): 69-83 

Bonino, Nicole. “Migración y ecocrítica: paisajes urbanos en la literatura ítalo-argentina.” In La cosa nostra:  estudios lingüístico-literarios sobre la inmigración italiana en Argentina, edited by Augusto Lorenzino. Buenos Aires: Editorial Dunken (2019): 11-29

Bonino, Nicole, and Stella Mattioli. “Keeping up with Social Changes in Second Language Acquisition.” Drive-Thru Pedagogy, Studio for Teaching and Learning Innovation, March 2022

Bonino, Nicole. “Covid-19 and the City: Visual Art, Social Media, and Performance in a Locked-down Buenos Aires.” Global COVIDiaries, May 2020

Bonino, Nicole. “Coastal Futures Conservatory Open Lab: Bridging Science, Art, and Community.” Environmental Humanities at UVA, September 2019

Grants, Fellowships, Awards 

2024, Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation (CGII), Faculty Research Grant “Voices in Movement: ARTivism in the Aftermath of Enforced Mobility” (to complete fieldwork in Buenos Aires for the completion of a book project exploring the artistic production of victims of slave trade and land dispossession in contemporary Argentina)

2024, National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS), Special Research Support Grant, “Voices in Movement” (to complete fieldwork in Buenos Aires for the completion of a book project exploring the artistic production of victims of slave trade and land dispossession in contemporary Argentina)

2024, Language Commons Activity Awards for Language Instructors, “Language Labs”, (Conversational Laboratories for Italian Beginners led by Federica Priola)

2024, DEI Faculty Learning Community Action Grant, “Advancing Global Literacy in L2 Pedagogy” (co-PI with Jennifer Hogg and Nieves García Prados)

2023, Language Commons Activity Award, “Comics in Migration: A Talk on Art and Diaspora”

2022, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Emerging Voices Recognition Grant, “AAA, Afro-Argentine Artivism”

2022, National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS), Special Research Support Grant, Professional Certificate at the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University

2022, National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS), Research Support Grants, “Invisible? Exploring Afro Argentine Urban Art”

2020-2021, Mellon Global South Lab at the Institute of the Humanities & Global Cultures (IHGC). Curriculum Development Award for the project “Immigrants, Asylum Seekers, and Refugees in the Global South”  

2021, Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation (GCII) Faculty Grant “Creative Urban Arenas: A Digital Repository”   

2021, National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS), Special Research Support Grant 

2019-2020, National Graduate Research Grant, Hispanic Honor Society, Sigma Delta Pi, “Making Art in Migration: From the Italian Colonization of Latin America to the Argentine Tango (1880-1930)”     

2019-2020, Centro de las Américas Grant / Center for the Americas “Making Art in Migration: A Transcultural  Study on the Cultural Exchange Between Italy and Argentina at the Turn of the 20th Century”  

2019, Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation (CGII) Grant “Making Art in Migration: From the Italian Colonization to the Argentine Tango (1880-1930)”  

 2019, University of Virginia, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, Del Greco Essay Prize for “La transculturación literaria del naturalismo en ¿Inocentes o culpables? (1884) de Antonio Argerich” 

2018, Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation Grant, “The Presence of Italian Culture in Buenos Aires: Global  Migration and Linguistic Insecurity”  

2018-2019, Buckner W. Clay Endowment for the Humanities Grant, Institute of the Humanities and Global  

Cultures (IHGC), “Making Art in Migration: From the Italian Colonization to the Argentine Tango (1880-1930)”  

2018, Charles Gordon Reid Summer Research Fellowship, Center for Latin American Migration Studies CEMLA  

2017, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Summer Research Grant  

2017, Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation Grant, “Research Institute on Immigration, Roma (CSER)”  

2016, Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation Grant, “Making Art in Migration: Global Countercultural Movements between Italy, Spain and Argentina”  

2014, University of Turin Assistantship Grant for Tutoring Students with Disabilities   

Presentations

2024, Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana “Dr. Emilio Ravignani”, Grupo de Estudios Afrolatinoamericanos (GEALA) in collaboration with Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET): “Revoluciones visuales: el caso del ARTivismo Afroargentino;” Buenos Aires, November 22

2025, Modern Language Association (MLA): “Indigenous ARTivism in Contemporary Latin America;” New Orleans, January 9-12 (Chair, panel submitted for consideration)

2025, Modern Language Association (MLA): “From Artificial Practice to Natural Fluency: Exploring How Generative AI Systems Transform Second Language Speaking Skills;” New Orleans, January 9-12 (One of seven speakers selected to participate in the MLA Convention Seminar “World Languages and AI”)

2024, Modern Language Association (MLA): “Contemporary Representations of Afro-Latin American Women;” Philadelphia, January 4-7 (Co-Chair with Dr. Rosita Scerbo)

2023, Modern Language Association (MLA): “Racial Discrimination, Social Mobility, Migration, and Identity in Afro Latin American Literature;” San Francisco, January 5-8 (Chair and Moderator)

2023, Representations of Afrolatinidad Conference; University of Pittsburgh, April 13-15 (Participant)

2023, “Black Italy: A Talk with Filmmaker and Activist Fred Kudjo Kuwornu on the Role of Afro-Descendants in Italian Cinema;” Guest speaker: filmmaker Fred Kudjo Kuwornu. Event co-organized with Stella Mattioli, sponsored by the Division for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of the University of Virginia (co-organized)

2022, Continental Conference on Afro-Latin American Studies (ALARI): Representaciones Racializadas Contemporáneas, “Re-Affirming Black Identities in Afro-Argentine Visual Arts;” Harvard University, December 7-9 (Moderator, Chair, and Presenter)  

2022, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA): Race, Place, and Migration in Afro-Latinx and Afro-Latin American Literature and Visual Art, “Invisible? Exploring Afro-Argentine Urban Art;” Maryland, Baltimore, March 10-13 (Chair and Presenter)

2022, Seminar on Archives, Documents, and Evidence in Contemporary Latin American Art and Culture Archivos: “Ciudades latinoamericanas como archivos de prácticas culturales;” Columbia University, New York City, April 7 (Presenter)

2021, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA): Metropolitan Processes of Hybridization: Urban   

Immigration in Literature and Visual Arts, “Eco-ego: Migration, Identity, and Eco-hybridity in Latin American Metropolises;” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 11-14 (Chair and Presenter)

2021, “Strips and Films: Urban Migration, Race, and Identity in Contemporary Visual Art;” Guest speakers: film director Wisny Dorce and cartoonist Daniel Cuello. Event sponsored by the Mellon Gobal Lab of the University of Virginia, November 5, 19 (Organizer)  

2021, “Migration in Hispanic Literature and Visual Art;” Guest speakers: sociologist Lorena Izaguirre, sociologist and professor Tanja Bastia, sociologist and professor Erika Busse-Cardenas. Event sponsored by the Mellon Gobal Lab of the University of Virginia University of Virginia, March 20 (Organizer)  

2021, Latin American Studies Association (LASA): “Covid-19 and Art: Latin American Artistic Production in Response to a Global Crisis;” Vancouver, Canada, May 26-29 (Presenter)     

2021, Carolina Conference for Romance Studies (CCRS): “Individuals and Urban Arenas: Narratives of Immigrants and Ecology in Latin American Metropolises;” The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, March 26-27, 2021 (Presenter)  

2021, Research Seminar Series, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS): “Cities on the Edge: Cultural Hybridity, Migration, and Urban Ecocriticism in Latin American Metropolises;” University of Manchester, England, February 10 (Chair and Presenter)

2021, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL): “Let’s Talk about Diversity: Keeping up with Social Changes in SLA;” San Diego, California, November 19-21 (Co-Chair and Presenter)  

2020, Alternative Methods for Researching Migration during COVID-19 (Center for Migration, Asylum and  

Refugees at the University of Manchester): “Alternative Pathways: The Role of Art and Literature as Active Archives at the time of a Global Pandemic;” University of Manchester, England, November 11 (Presenter) 

2020, Sigma Delta Pi’s 3rd Annual Graduate Research Grant Symposium: “Making Art in Migration: From the Italian Colonization of Latin America to the Argentine Tango;” University of Kentucky, United States, April 30 (Presenter)

2020, Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI): “Fiction or Reality? Understanding Urban Modernity through Environmental Literature;” Flash Talks on Environmental Method; Charlottesville, Virginia, February 28 (Presenter)     

2020, Modern Language Association (MLA): “Journeys Across the Heart of the Ocean: Edmondo De Amicis and the Landscapes of Transatlantic Italian Migrants;” Seattle, Washington, January 9-12 (Presenter)

2019, Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association (RMMLA): “Global Diasporas and Literature: The Case of the Italian Migration to Argentina through ¿Inocentes o culpables? by Antonio Argerich;” El Paso, Texas, October 10-12 (Presenter)

2018, Modern Language Association (MLA): “Language Change: The Creation of the Jargon Lunfardo as a Linguistic Reaction to the 20th Century Global Migration;” New York, January 4-7 (Presenter)

2017, Graduate Student Lecture Series (GSLS): “Familias burguesas, mujeres y dinero en El porvenir de las  familias de Juan de Alba;” Charlottesville, Virginia, October 27 (Presenter)

2016, Kentucky Foreign Languages Conference (KFLC): “Cruzando fronteras: el viaje renacentista de Antonio Pigafetta entre curiosidad y atrevimiento;” Lexington, Kentucky, April 19-21 (Presenter)

2020, National Conference on Race & Ethnicity (NCORE): “How to Create and Inclusive City: A Pedagogical   Paradigm to Promote Diversity and Inclusion into the Classroom;” June 23-26 (Presenter) 

2015, American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL): “Guided Inductive Approaches on the Learning of a Second Language Grammar;” San Diego, California, November 20-22 (Presenter)

Teaching

University of Virginia (USA)     

Fall 2014 – Fall 2024

Spanish Courses

SPAN 3300 (“Hispanic Migration in Literature and Visual Arts”—winner of the Mellon Global South Lab Curriculum Development Award, Spring 2021)

SPAN 3300 (“Texts and Interpretation” Spring 2018, Fall 2020, Spring 2025) 

SPAN 3010 (“Finding your Voice in Spanish” Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2025) 

SPAN 2020 (“Advanced Intermediate Spanish” Fall 2023)  

SPAN 2010 (“Intermediate Spanish” Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, J-Term 2019)

Italian Courses

ITTR 4559 (“Italians in Brazil: Art, Migration, and Identity”—independent study, Fall 2024)

ITAL 3559 (“Italy in Migration: Media, Literature, and Visual Arts” Spring 2023)

ITAL 2020 (“Intermediate Italian II” Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2024)      

ITAL 2010 (“Intermediate Italian I” Fall 2022)

ITAL 1020 (“Elementary Italian II” Spring 2023—focus on diversity, Spring 2024)

ITAL 1010 (Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024)  

College Courses

COLA 1500 (“Global ARTivism”—college advising seminar)

University of Virginia in Valencia, Study Abroad Program (Spain)

SPAN 3030 (“Hispanic Culture in Cinema and Visual Arts” Summer 2018)

SPAN 2020 (“Advanced Intermediate Spanish” Summer 2017, Summer 2018)   

SPAN 2010 (“Intermediate Spanish” Summer 2017)