Dr Simona Storchi

My research interests include Italian and European Modernism and Avant-Garde early 20th century art and literary magazines inter-war literature visual arts architecture and design the relationship between classicism and modernity. I have a particular interest in Italian culture under Fascism and in the material and cultural legacy of Fascism in contemporary Italy. I have also published on contemporary Italian fiction women writers and intellectuals and the cultural construction of space. I have been the Deputy Head of the School of Arts and the School of Arts’ Equalities Champion (2016-19). I was Academic Director for the School of Modern Languages between 2013 and 2016 the School of Modern Languages’ Year Abroad Coordinator in 2013 and Admissions Coordinator in 2011. I was Director of Studies in Italian between 2009 and 2012 and between 2014 and January 2016 and I am currently Italian Section Coordinator. 

I have published widely on early 20th century Italian culture particularly on the intersection between literature and art architecture and design. I have an ongoing interest in Italian culture under Fascism and on the heritage and legacy of the Fascist regime. I am currently completing two book projects on the Return to Order in art and literature in post World War 1 Italy and on and Italian interwar culture. I am the Italian Editor of the open access journal Modern Languages Open (Liverpool University Press): www.modernlanguagesopen.org.

Books 

Massimo Bontempelli e la cultura italiana tra le due guerre. L'intellettuale, il fascismo, la modernita' (Milan: Mimesis, 2024)
Women and the Public Sphere in Modern and Contemporary Italy. Essays for Sharon Wood, ed. with Marina Spunta and Maria Morelli (Leicester: Troubador, 2017).

Visualizzare la Guerra. L'iconografia del conflitto e l'Italia, ed. with Giuliana Pieri and Maria Giuseppina Di Monte (Milan: Mimesis, 2016).

The Great War and the Modernist Imagination in Italy, ed. with Luca Somigli, Annali d'Italianistica, 33 (2015).

Ed., Beyond the Piazza. Public and Private Spaces in Modern Italian Culture (Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2013).

Back to the Futurists: The avant-garde and its legacy, ed. with Elza Adamowicz (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013). 

Valori Plastici 1918-1922. Le inquietudini del nuovo classico (monographic supplement to The Italianist), 2006.

Selected articles and book chapters 

'Artists at War: Artistic Identities and the Politics of Culture in Post-World War I Italy', in Mobilizing Cultural Identities in the First World War. History, Representations and Memory, ed. by Federica Pedriali and Cristina Savettieri (New York: Palgrave, 2020), pp. 57-79.

'The Artist-Officer. War, Beauty and the Nation in Ardengo Soffici's Diaries', in Italy and the Military. Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Mattia Roveri (New York: Palgrave, 2020), pp. 267-88.

'The ex Casa del Fascio in Predappio and the question of the "difficult heritage" of Fascism in contemporary Italy', Modern Italy, 24.2 (2019), 139-57.

'Ardengo Soffici's Rete mediterranea: The Aesthetics and Politics of Post-War Modernism', Annali d'Italianistica 33 (2015), 321-40.

Early 20th century Italian Literature and Culture 20th century Italian Art Architecture and Design Modernism and the Avant-Garde Italian Fascism and its legacies

I teach the following modules: IT1028 Introduction to Italian Studies IT1029 Italy after 1945 IT2012 History of Italian Cinema IT2016 Italian Society and Culture under Fascism IT3144 Visions of Modernity ML3176 Extended Essay TS3006 Extended Translation TS7036 Translation Strategies (MA Translation Studies) I have taught Italian language at all levels

Contemporary Italian culture art and politics

Dott. Ling. Stran. Mod. (Bologna University) PhD (University College London) Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy