Education

2023- | Doctoral Candidate, Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

2022-23 | Master of Arts, International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Malmö University, Sweden. Master thesis on experimental digital ethnography and Indigenous activism.

2022 | Research fellowship – University of Toronto, Canada

2019-22 | Master of Arts, Modern, Postcolonial, Comparative Literatures, “Alma Mater Studiorum” – University of Bologna, Italy. Master’s thesis on Indigenous literature approaching Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S).

2020 | Erasmus scholarship – University of Kent, UK

2019 | Bachelor of Arts, Foreign Languages and Literatures (English and German), “Alma Mater Studiorum” – University of Bologna, Italy

Professional Experience

2025 | Co-organizer, 36th EAAS Biennial Conference 1776-2026: Visions of Freedom, University of Bologna, Italy.

2025 | Co-organizer, workshop “Conducting Indigenous Studies in Europe”, John F. Kennedy Institute, Germany.

2025 | Co-organizer, event with roundtable and theater play “Oltre I Classici: Miti e Cosmogonie nelle Culture dei Nativi Americani” [“Beyond the Classic: Myths and Cosmogonies in Native American Cultures”]. University of Bologna, Italy. In collaboration with Cantieri Meticci: The Refugee Theatre Company.

2025 | Guest editor for ECHO – Interdisciplinary Journal of the University of Bari, Italy.

Rethinking World Literature: Ethical Engagements with Anishinaabe Resurgent storytelling in European Contexts
(dissertation project)

Dissertation in Literature

Mentoring team:
First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ulla Haselstein
Second supervisor: Prof. Elena Lamberti
Third supervisor: N.N.

Rethinking World Literature investigates the decolonial potential of a concept, an idea, that remains elusive in literary studies. At the center of a longstanding multidisciplinary debate, World Literature has often been accused of replicating the very asymmetries it claims to condemn. And yet, the absence of a comprehensive, ultimate definition of World Literature holds significant potential for further theorization. Rethinking builds on this absence to propose a theory of World Literature that prioritizes ethical relationality and consent when reading Indigenous Resurgent Literature.

By Resurgent Literature, I refer to a set of texts produced by Native American/Indigenous writers on Turtle Island (US and Canada) in the aftermath of Idle No More, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and broader discussions on Reconciliation with Canada. As a sociopolitical and cultural movement seeking to revitalize specific cultures while fighting for political sovereignty, Resurgence naturally places (oral and written) storytelling at its core. Serving as carriers of ancestral teachings across generations of Indigenous peoples, traditional stories constitute “the ontological and epistemological” framework of Resurgence (Simpson, 2011), guiding grassroot advocacy and sustaining longstanding Indigenous methods of resistance. In turn, everyday events of personal and collective Resurgence continue to inspire new stories, fueling the production of texts. Resurgent Literature, therefore, can be understood as a distinct moment or tradition in the broader history of Indigenous literature: politically engaged, simultaneously “tribal” and new, and at once local and global – national and transnational.

In recognition of the diversity and specificity of Indigenous philosophies, Rethinking focuses on Anishinaabe Resurgent Literature, particularly the post-2015 works of two prolific and renowned authors: US-based Chippewa writer Louise Erdrich and Canada-based Michi Saagiig writer, academic, and performer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Different in generation, geopolitical context, and relationship to mainstream culture, Erdrich and Simpson illuminate the contemporary role of Indigenous literatures in the world, as their works are also widely circulated in European academic contexts. As the longstanding interest in Native literatures grows across the continent – reopening the problematic question of conducting Indigenous studies from a non-Indigenous perspective – Rethinking intervenes by offering an alternative. Rather than a prescriptive model, World Literature here becomes a mode of reading in conversation: rejecting extractivism and commodification, valuing diversity and consent, and fostering ethical exchanges among different worldviews.

Academic Publications

(Forthcoming) 2025 | “The Grammar of Re-surgence: Mapping Indigenous Concepts in Motion”. ECHO, Vol. 7.

2025 | “Resurgent Water in Anishinaabe Storytelling: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s ‘She Sang Them Home’ and ‘Big Water’. JamIt!, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 75-92.

Conference Papers

“Resurgent Water in Nishnaabeg Storytelling: A Case Study”. 47th American Indian Workshop (AIW), University of Madrid, Spain. March 2025.

“Resurgent Water in Anishinaabe Storytelling: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s “Big Water”’. Relaunch of the Indigenous Studies Research Network. University of London, UK. September 2024.

“Decolonizing World Literature through Anishinaabe Resurgent Storytelling”. 25th Anniversary of The Futures of American Studies Institute.Dartmouth College, USA. June 2024.

“Back to the Future with Amik: Indigenous Storytelling and Blockades as Civil Disobedience”. Graduate Conference, University of Bologna, Italy. June 2024.

“‘I’ll Be There for You’: Hierarchies, Border Identities, and the American Dream in Dina Nayeri’s The Ungrateful Refugee (2019)”. 35th EAAS Biennial Conference, Munich, Germany. April 2024.