Dr. Cristina Lombardi-Diop

About

Assistant Professor of Italian
Modern Languages & Literatures
Women's Studies & Gender Studies

CRISTINA LOMBARDI-DIOP is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies and the Director of the Italian Program at Loyola University, Chicago, where she holds an appointment in the Modern Languages and Literatures Department. At the intersection of different academic and professional world, her career as educator and scholar has spanned over two continents. She was born and raised in Rome, where she completed her undergraduate education with an Italian laurea (Magna cum Laude) in Modern Languages and Literatures; she then arrived to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar to complete a terminal Master Degree in African Studies at Yale University, before continuing for a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at New York University.

Cristina is fluent in four languages and truly devoted to international education, having spent five years as a faculty and administrator at The American University of Rome – an independent, international Liberal Arts college in the heart of the eternal city. Her range of expertise spans from modern and contemporary Italian literature, Italian film, colonial and postcolonial studies, migration studies, critical race theory, queer and postmodern theory. For Loyola she teaches courses for three different units, including Modern Languages and Literatures, Women’s Studies and Gender Studies, and the Honors Program. Course subjects include feminist theory, queer theory, women and migration, Italian film genre, and African literature.

Degrees

• Ph.D., Comparative Literature, 1999,New York University, New York,  NY,  With Honors. Dissertation: Writing the Female Frontier: Italian Women in Colonial Africa, 1890-1940
• M.A., African and African American Studies, 1992, Yale University, New Haven, CT. MA Thesis: Against the American Dream: African-American Culture in Italy, 1940-1990
• Laurea, Foreign Languages and Literatures, 1989, University of Rome, Italy, Summa Cum Laude (110 e lode/110). Thesis: The Genesis of Richard Wright’s Native Son
• U.N.E.D. Certificate, Lengua y Literatura Española, 1985-1989,  Instituto De Cultura Española, Rome, Italy
• Certification, Oral Proficiency Tester, 2005, American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)

Professional & Community Affiliations

• The European Association for Commonwealth Literatures and Language Studies (EACLALS), 2005 –  Present
• Modern Language Association (MLA), 1998 - Present
• American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS), 1998 – Present
• American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), 2009 - present

Courses Taught

• LITR 200 – Masterpieces of European Literature
• LITR 202- Modern European Novel
• LITR 264 – Italian Film Genre
• WSGS 101 – Introduction to Women’s Studies and Gender Studies
• WSGS 201 – Contemporary Issues in Women’s Studies and Gender Studies – Gender and Migration in Contemporary Europe
• WSGS 201 – Contemporary Issues in Women’s Studies and Gender Studies – Women and Totalitarianism
• WSGS 380/497 – Queer Theory 

Awards

Cristina is the recipient of two scholarly prizes (Yale University and Northwestern University) and two book prizes (Nonino Prize and the Prize of the American Association for Italian Studies). In 2014, she was nominated as finalist for the prestigious Premio di Divulgazione Scientifica awarded by the Italian Book Association.

Selected Publications

Books 

• Bianco e nero: Storia dell’identita’ razziale degli italiani. Co-authored with Gaia Giuliani. Florence: Le Monnier, forthcoming 2013.
• Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity. Lombardi-Diop, Cristina and Caterina Romeo, eds. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. 

Articles 

• “Residence Roma: The Making and Unmaking of a Migrant Vertical Village in Rome.” Global Rome. Edited by Isabella Clough Marinaro and Bjorn Thomassen. Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University Press, forthcoming 2013.
• “‘Staying Long in Water Does Not Turn a Stick into a Crocodile:’ The Transformative Powers of Senegalese Culture in Italy.” The Cultures of Migration: Diverse Trajectories and Discrete Perspectives.  Eds. Graziella Parati and Anthony Tamburri. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011.
• “Spotless Italy: The Ubiquity of Whiteness in Fascist and Post-War Consumer Culture.” California Italian Studies. Vol. 2, 2011. Eds. Albert R. Ascoli and Robert Stam. <http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8vt6r0vf>.
• “Igiene, pulizia, bellezza e razza. La ‘bianchezza’ nella cultura italiana dal Fascismo al dopoguerra.” Parlare di razza: La lingua del colore tra Italia e Stati Uniti. Eds. Tatiana Petrovich Njegosh e Anna Scacchi. Verona: Ombre corte, 2012
• “Ghosts of Memories, Spirits of Ancestors: Slavery, the Mediterranean , and the Atlantic.” Recharting the Black Atlantic: Modern Cultures, Local Communities, Global Connections. Eds. Annalisa Oboe and Anna Scacchi. London: Routledge,  2008. 162-180.
• “Selling and Storytelling: African Autobiographies in Italy.” Italian Colonialism: Legacy and Memory. Eds. Jacqueline Andall and Derek Duncan. Oxford, Bern: Peter Lang, 2005. 217- 238.
• “Pioneering Female Modernity: Fascist Women in Colonial Africa.” Italian Colonialism. Eds. Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller. New York: NY, Palgrave MacMillan, 2005. 145 – 154.