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Serena Ferrando

Serena Ferrando was born in Genova, Italy. When she was seven, her family relocated to a small village (population: 150) in the Apennine Mountains where she was taught to recognize plants, flowers, and trees and to love animals (spiders included). She mostly reads nonfiction, Peanuts comics, Interior Design magazines, and La settimana enigmistica. Her true calling is the hermit life, but academia is an excellent alternative. She firmly believes that if more people read poetry, the world would be a better place.
Serena is currently Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities and Italian at Arizona State University.
See also: ASLE Scholar of the Month

Bio

Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities, University of Victoria, BC, Canada, 2017.

Ph.D., Italian Studies, Stanford University, 2013.

M.A., Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin, 2005.

M.A., American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 2001.

LAUREA (B.A.), Summa Cum Laude, Modern Foreign Languages, Università degli Studi di Genova (University of Genoa), Italy, 1998.

ACTFL Trained in the Modified Oral Proficiency Interview; the Proficiency Guidelines – Writing; and in Applied Linguistics, “The Learning and Teaching of Second Languages,” and “The Learning and Teaching of Second-Language Literatures,” Stanford, Language Center, 2008-2012.

COURSES

Italian Ecocinema.

City of Water. Uncovering Milan's Aquatic Geographies.

Noisemakers! Tracing the Origins of Modern Music in Italy.

Poets, Lovers, and Revolutionaries. A Survey of Italian Literature.

Making Noise/Making Sound?

(A Humanities Lab)

COURSES UNDER DEVELOPMENT

Trees, Forests, and Gardens.

How to Survive in the 21st Century.

The Secret Lives of Animals.

Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Modern Italian Literature.

RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS

Book (forthcoming on May 19, 2026): Channeling Nature: Plants, Animals, and Water in Italian Poetry (University of Toronto Press).

“We are poets, we can make the words,” writes Muriel Rukeyser apropos the power of poetry to speak across bio-cultural barriers and produce change. At the core of my book project, titled Channeling Nature: Plants, Animals, and Water in Italian Poetry is the potential of poetry to shape an ecological imaginary and make room in the current discursive space for alternative modes of human/nonhuman interactions. The book participates in the ecological shift in critical theory described by Hubert Zapf, whereby poetry emerges as a vibrant world-making force of “imaginative participation” that provides opportunities for the enrichment of human/environmental relations.

“Poetry as Island and Archipelagic Thinking.” (Forthcoming in May 2026 in the Poesiæuropa 2025 Conference Proceedings, Morlacchi Editore, Perugia, Italy) .

"Poesia come strumento ecologico." Rivista di studi italiani. 41 (2), 2023: 20-42.

“Gardening the Symbiocene: Andrea Zanzotto’s and Daria Menicanti’s Poetic Hospitability.” Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment 14 (1), 2023: 119-135.

“Cravasco: An Example of Slow Violence.” Italy and the Ecological Imagination. Ecocritical Theories and Practices. Damiano Benvegnù and Matteo Gilebbi eds. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, Series on Climate Change and Society, 2022, Chapter 6, pp. 91-108.

“The Navigli Project. A Digital Uncovering of Milan’s Aquatic Geographies.” Italian Culture. 37 (2), 2019: 150-158.

with Mark Wardecker, “Noisemakers! Putting the Analog in the Digital Humanities.” Humanist Studies & the Digital Age (HS&DA). 6 (1), 2019: 59-68.

“Terra in Dino Buzzati’s Fantastic Landscapes.” Landscapes, Natures, Ecologies. Italy and the Environmental Humanities. Serenella Iovino, Enrico Cesaretti, and Elena Past eds. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2018, pp. 88-97.

“‘Un’oscura sete.’ Natura nella Milano di Milo De Angelis” (“’An Obscure Thirst.’ Nature in Milo De Angelis’ Milan”). Italica. 94 (2), Summer 2017: 217-233.

with Giorgio Sancristoforo, “Audioscan Milano. Exploring Avant-Garde Sound Practices via Digital Humanities.” HS&DA. 5 (1), 2017: 108-115.

“Water in Milan. A Cultural History of the Navigli.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE), 21, 2014: 374-393.

“Mi ricordo Alda Merini” (“Remembering Alda Merini”). Testimonianze (Testimonies). Grittini, Giuliano, ed. Milano: Incisioni Arte, 2010.

“Alda Merini and Marilyn Monroe. Icone dell’amore perduto” (“Alda Merini and Marilyn Monroe. Icons of Lost Love”). Catalogo Mostra “Marilyn Monroe e l’arte della bellezza” (Catalogue of the “Marilyn Monroe and the Art of Beauty” Exhibit). Arona, June 2010.

“Alda Merini and Marilyn Monroe. Icons of Lost Love.” Mantis. 8, 2009: 44-67.

The Other Truth. Diary of An Other. (A translation of Alda Merini’s L’altra verita`. Diario di una diversa) Milano: L’Incisione, 2007.

PUBLIC HUMANITIES & COMMUNITY BUILDING

Navigli Project.+Review of Navigli Project.

Biblioteca italiana Pier Raimondo Baldini.

The Library was established in 2022 with book donations from Emeritus Professor Pier Raimondo Baldini and other generous friends of the Italian Program at Arizona State University.

Lanterna Prize (est. 2022)

The "Lanterna” is the lighthouse symbol of Genova, Italy. Established in the 1100s, it is the tallest lighthouse in the Mediterranean at 250 feet (77 meters). As a lighthouse points the way forward and helps seafarers navigate, this award celebrates a sudent's bright future and creative contribution to the fields of Italian and Environmental Humanities.

Trees.

COOL PROJECTS

Noise music and instruments.

During the course "Noisemakers!" the students and I (but it was mostly the students) used the MakerSpace tools and built a number of digital, analog, and hybrid noise artifacts.

Remixes.

The two sound engineering classes that I took as a graduate student at CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics) led me to a love of mixing, recording studios, and anaechoic chambers. My DAW of choice is Ableton.

Mountain biking.

I competed during my high school and college years and never broke any bones even during downhill races. Today I bike to campus and still love the feeling of zipping around on my two leg-powered wheels.

contact: serena.ferrando@gmail.com

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