Sofia CAVALCANTI

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies at the University of Bologna (Department of Interpreting and Translation, Forlì Campus). Summa cum Laude (2020).

MA in Specialized Translation at the University of Bologna (Department of Interpreting and Translation, Forlì Campus). Summa cum Laude (2014).

BA in Linguistic and Intercultural Mediation at the University of Bologna (Department of Interpreting and Translation, Forlì Campus). Summa cum Laude (2011).

ABOUT DR. CAVALCANTI

I am Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Venice (Department of Linguistics and Cultural Comparative Studies) and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Department of Romance Studies). My project, spanning across postcolonial literature, island and ocean studies, and the Blue Humanities, examines the aquatic imaginary in contemporary archipelagic women's narratives–both from the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean–through the lenses of island feminism and material ecocriticism.

Pursuing a strongly interdisciplinary approach, my research weaves together material culture studies, diaspora studies, and ecofeminism to explore how gendered constructions influence our ways of relating to the world–whether through objects, the natural environment, or the lived realities of diasporic experience. I have published articles on contemporary Indian literature, Anglophone diasporic women’s fiction, migration and refugee writing, and Blue Ecocriticism. My first monograph, Reading Things: Gender and Material Culture in Contemporary Anglophone Women’s Writings, was published by Bologna University Press in 2023.

Before obtaining my postdoctoral fellowship at Ca’ Foscari, I worked at the University of Bologna (2019–2025) as Adjunct Professor of English Literature and Culture (MA in Specialized Translation), English Literature I (BA in Linguistic and Intercultural Mediation), and Advanced English I and II (BA in Diplomatic and International Sciences). From 2022 to 2025, I also held a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Macerata, where I taught modules within English Literature and Culture (MA in Foreign Literatures) and English for Academic Purposes (Doctorate of national interest in “Teaching & Learning Sciences: Inclusion, Technologies, Educational Research and Evaluation”), as well as the course English Language Teaching. These years offered me the opportunity to collaborate with inspiring colleagues and work with motivated students who profoundly shaped my research and critical thought.

My academic background is in literary translation. I specialized in English, French, and Portuguese at the University of Bologna, where I graduated with honors in Specialized Translation. Afterwards, I gained a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies at the same university, with a dissertation on gendered representations of matter in contemporary Indian women's fiction. My training in the linguistic field has had a profund impact on the way I read and interpret literature, offering a privileged perspective that informs and enriches my critical work.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

1. Cavalcanti, Sofia, “'The marsh did not confine them but defined them'. An Ecocritical Analysis of Waterscapes in Contemporary Anglophone Environmental Narratives”, English Studies, 2025, 1-15. [article]

2. Cavalcanti, Sofia, "Scattering journeys, regenerative environments. A material ecocritical reading of the diasporic storyworld in Shaun Tan’s refugee graphic novel The Arrival", «MEDIAZIONI», 2025, 46, pp. A19-A41. [article]

3. Cavalcanti, Sofia, "Discovering a reenchanted world. An ecofeminist reading of Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices", «ILHA DO DESTERRO», 2024, 77, pp. 1-11. [article]

4. Cavalcanti, Sofia, Disease and Creativity in the Diasporic City. A Gendered View on Two Atypical Transnational Novels., «HUMANITIES», 2024, 13, pp. 1-13. [article]

5. Cavalcanti, Sofia, "Away From Innocence: Migration And Cultural Trauma in Sabina Khan's Young Adult Novel Zara Hossain Is Here", «MEDIAZIONI», 2023, 37, pp. 49-64. [article]

6. Cavalcanti, Sofia, "Broken Lives: Politics and Affect in the Semiotics of Untouchability", «GITANJALI & BEYOND», 2023, 8, pp. 8-40. [article]

7. Sofia Cavalcanti, "Luggage heavy with memories: things and gendered identity within the diasporic space", in: Mobilities and Memories / Mobilidades e Memórias Transculturais, Braga, Edições Húmus, 2023, pp. 101-122. [book chapter]

8. Cavalcanti, Sofia, Reading Things. Gender and Material Culture in Contemporary Anglophone Women’s Writings, Bologna, Bologna University Press, 2023, pp. 239. [book]

9. Cavalcanti Sofia, "The River as vital materiality in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things.”, «MEDIAZIONI», 2021, 30, pp. 49-69. [article]

10. Adriano Ferraresi; Roberta Pederzoli; Sofia Cavalcanti; Randy Scansani, "Metodi e ambiti nella ricerca sulla traduzione, l’interpretazione e l’interculturalità // Research Methods and Themes in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies", Forlì, Dipartimento di Interpretazione e Traduzione (DIT), 2020, pp. 450. [edited work]

11. Ferraresi Adriano; Pederzoli Roberta; Cavalcanti Sofia; Scansani Randy, "Metodi e ambiti nella ricerca sulla traduzione, l’interpretazione e l’interculturalità: una panoramica interdisciplinare", «MEDIAZIONI», 2020, 29, pp. 1-13. [book chapter]

12. Sofia Cavalcanti, "Girlhood and Masculinity in Rajdeep Paulus's Swimming Through Clouds: An Atypical 'Masala' Young Adult Novel", in: Literature, Gender and Education for Children and Young Adults, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2019, pp. 47-58. [book chapter]

13. Cavalcanti, Sofia, Unreal Homes: Belonging and Becoming in Indian Women Narratives, «HUMANITIES», 2018, 7, pp. 1-13. [article]

14. Sofia Cavalcanti, Beyond Individual Space: The Symbolic Place of Indian Women in the Land of Diaspora in Anita Rau Badami’s Tell It to the Trees, «MORAVIAN JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND FILM», 2017, 8, pp. 57-71. [article]

I presented my work at the following national and interational conferences:

24 June 2025, Bari (University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy) – International conference "Engaging Communities in Environmental and Climate In/Action:
Narratives, Discursive Practices, and Transdisciplinary Approaches". Title of Presentation: "Where land meets water: archipelagic narratives and the ethics of submersion".

12 April 2025, Porto (University of Porto, Portugal) – International Conference “Women, Public Space and Intercultural Dialogues”. Title of Presentation: "Home cooking or the art of transnational survival. Reimagining female identity within the diasporic foodscape”.

26 October 2024, Macerata (University of Macerata, Italy) – International Conference "Environmental Changes, Global Challenges, and Livelihoods: Discourses and Practices". Title of Presentation: "'Under this ocean / we hold hands'. An Archipelagic Ecocritical Reading of Edwidge Danticat’s Claire of the Sea Light".

8 March 2024, Boston (MA): 55th annual conference of the Northeast Modern Language Association, Tufts University. Panel: “Unveiling the Surplus. Contemporary Refugee Narratives.” Title of Presentation: “Embracing the (un)homely. Refugeedom as a regenerative experience of contamination in The Arrival”.

11 December 2023, Lisbon, Winter Doctoral Symposium (Nova Universidade de Lisboa). Title of Presentation: "'The marsh did not confine them but defined them'. An Ecocritical Analysis of Contemporary Anglophone Environmental Narratives" (with Ilenia Vittoria Casmiri, University of Ferrara).

26 May 2023, Ferrara (University of Ferrara, Italy): Conferenza internazionale dell'European Consortium for Humanities Institutes and Centers (ECHIC) su "Ecological Mindedness and Sustainable Wellbeing". Title of Presentation: "Ecological Resilience and Non-Anthropocentric Humanism. An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide".

26 March 2023, Niagara Falls, NY: 54° Annual Conference of the Northeast Modern Language Association - University at Buffalo - roundtable "Women representing women." Title of Presentation:"Dis-ease and creativity in the diasporic city. A gendered analysis of two atypical transcultural novels."

24 March 2023, Niagara Falls, NY: 54° Annual Conference of the Northeast Modern Language Association - University at Buffalo - panel "YA that doesn't need to come of age." Title of Presentation: "Away from Innocence. Migration and Cultural Trauma in Khan's YA novel Zara Hossain is Here.

16 April 2021, Braga (Universidade do Minho, Portugal) – International conference "Transcultural Mobilities and Memories”. Title of presentation: “LUGGAGE HEAVY WITH MEMORIES: THINGS AND GENDERED IDENTITY WITHIN THE DIASPORIC SPACE.”

24 March 2019, Washington, D.C.: Annual Conference of the Northeast Modern Language Association -University at Buffalo - roundtable "Water and/as Transcultural Space." Title of presentation: "LIQUID BORDERS, FLUID BODIES. THE RIVER AS 'MINDSCAPE' IN ARUNDHATI ROY'S THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS."

22 March 2019, Washington, D.C.: Annual Conference of the Northeast Modern Language Association -University at Buffalo - panel "Infrastructural Texts, Textual Infrastructures." Title of presentation: "THE SHAME OF HUMAN WASTE IN UNTOUCHABLE. A SEMIOTIC APPROACH TO INDIAN SANITARY INFRASTRUCTURE."

29 June 2018, Barcelona (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain) – 9th International Symposium for Young Researchers in Translation, Interpreting, Intercultural Studies and East Asian Studies. Title of presentation: "NARRATING HOME: MEMORY, IMAGINATION AND DESIRE IN ANITA NAIR'S LADIES' COUPÉ".

12-15 April 2018, Pittsburgh, PA: Annual Conference of the Northeast Modern Language Association -University at Buffalo - panel "Room of One's Own: Writing Interiors." Title of presentation: "DIASPORIC THINGS: THE ANALYSIS OF JHUMPA LAHIRI’S ‘MRS SEN’S’ THROUGH A CORPUS STYLISTIC APPROACH".

1 December 2017, Bologna (University of Bologna, Italy) – Workshop "UNIBO è interculturalità". Title of presentation: "A NEW WORLD, DIFFERENT DIASPORAS. AN INTERSECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE INDIAN MIGRATION".

25-27 October 2017, Bertinoro (University of Bologna, Italy) – International Conference “Literature, Translation, and Mediation by and for Children: Gender, Diversity and Stereotype”. MeTRa Center (Center of interdisciplinary studies on mediation and translation by and for children). Title of presentation: “GIRLHOOD AND MASCULINITY IN RAJDEEP PAULUS’ SWIMMING THROUGH CLOUDS: AN ATYPICAL ‘MASALA’ YOUNG ADULT NOVEL”.

30 June 2017, Barcelona (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain): 8th International Symposium for Young Researchers in Translation, Interpreting, Intercultural Studies and East Asian Studies. Title of presentation: “STUCK IN THE HOME-LAND. INDIAN WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE OF DIASPORA: THE EXAMPLE OF JHUMPA LAHIRI’S 'MRS SEN’S'”.

22-24 June 2017, Olomouc (Palacký University, Czech Republic): 21st International Colloquium of American Studies on “Place and Emplacement”. Title of presentation: “BEYOND INDIVIDUAL SPACE: THE SYMBOLIC PLACE OF INDIAN WOMEN IN THE LAND OF DIASPORA”.

FELLOWSHIPS

2024 (Spring and Fall): University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA).

2018 (Spring): University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA).

2010 (Fall): University of Hull (UK).