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What do you teach at Ca’ Foscari? What are your main research interests?
I am from Naples, but I have been away from the South for a long time. At Ca' Foscari I teach Literary Criticism and Comparative Literature. My main research interests are European modernism, right-wing culture and Marxism. I have focused mainly on the period from late 19th to early 20th century, with an interest in Italian authors such as Palazzeschi, Michelstaedter, Pirandello, Soffici, Boine, and European authors, including Barrès, Maurras, Hofmannsthal, Jünger.

What led you to pursue a research career?
It was a twisty but interesting road. I graduated in Bologna and then did a first PhD in Italian Studies at the University of Florence. Immediately afterwards, I went to the United States for a second PhD in Romance Studies at Duke University. After my PhD, I accepted an offer as Assistant Professor (we would say researcher) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and then went to Jerusalem where I stayed for 3 years. I left Israel to reunite with my wife who had stayed in the US. We ended up at Harvard for a postdoc and then, as lecturers, at Colgate University. In the end we both incredibly won a public competition in Italy. It couldn't have turned out better.

Can you offer any advice to researchers in the early stages of their career?
Go your own way, don't let fashion or the market dictate your research topics and methods.