About
I graduated in Modern Languages (English, Russian, Italian) from Rome La Sapienza University and continued my studies in the UK, obtaining an MA from Salford University and a PhD in Linguistics from Manchester University. I was appointed at Liverpool in 2006.
My main research interests lie within Sociolinguistics. My research is situated at the intersection of language and spatial constructions of identity from multiple perspectives, such as minority and regional languages (including migrant languages), language policy, language and memorialisation, transnational spaces and borderscapes. An Italianist by training, my research projects extend outside Italian-speaking areas and issues of Italian interest - I have worked on the reorganisation of domestic space and time in the time of Covid (investing language and wider semiotics) based on the experience of UK households, and been Co-I for the AHRC international networking project Multilingual Heritage: Challenging monolingual memorialisation (AH/T008474/1), collaborating with colleagues in Cape Verde, Ghana and Algeria. I have recently been awarded an AHRC Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship to work on '‘Borderscapes - The linguistic de/construction of borders as an everyday practice' (AH/Y003977/1), focusing on the construction of the border as generated by language practices and other semiotic processes.
I have supervised PhD projects relating to the above areas, and not limited to Italophone contexts. I am interested to talk to potential postgraduate applicants who wish to develop projects related to my research specialism.