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JULIA SIMON

Professor of French and Department Chair
512B Sproul Hall, (530) 752-8573
jsimon@ucdavis.edu

(Ph.D., UC San Diego) She specializes in 18th-century French literature and culture, particularly the work of the philosophes, with special emphasis on the relevance of Enlightenment social, political, moral, and aesthetic theory today. She is the author of Beyond Contractual Morality: Ethics, Law, and Literature in Eighteenth-Century France and Mass Enlightenment: Critical Studies in Rousseau and Diderot and is currently working on a project concerning eighteenth-century music theory. Dr. Simon's personal website

ANTONELLA BASSI

Lecturer in Italian

507 Sproul Hall, aabassi@ucdavis.edu

(M.A., CSU Sacramento) She received her Laurea in Lettere Moderne (1978) from the Universita degli Studi di Milano, where she focused on Human Geography. (Her dissertation analyzes the changing boundaries and identity of her hometown, Milano, 1873-1923). Her ongoing interest in pedagogical issues, particularly Foreign Language instruction, led her to a M.A. in Education (Curriculum and Instruction) (CSUS, 1988), and her current position at UCD, where she has been teaching Italian language and culture since 1988.

JOANN CANNON

Professor Emeritus of Italian

502 Sproul Hall, jccannon@ucdavis.edu

(Ph.D., Cornell)Prof. JoAnn Cannon specializes in modern Italian literature and literary theory.

GUSTAVO FOSCARINI

Senior Lecturer in Italian

511 Sproul Hall, gafoscarini@ucdavis.edu

(M.A., UC Davis) Biography forthcoming

JAY GROSSI

Lecturer in Italian

513 Sproul Hall
jgrossi@ucdavis.edu

(M.A., UC Berkeley) Prof. Jay Grossi is teaching another abroad program in Rome, Italy for the Summer 2012. He returns to lead this program for the sixth time after having a successful ran in Summer 2011. For more information, please click HERE.

MARGHERITA HEYER-CAPUT

Professor of Italian and Undergraduate Faculty Advisor

510 Sproul Hall
mheyercaput@ucdavis.edu

(Ph.D., Harvard) Margherita Heyer-Caput completed her education in Italy (Laurea in Filosofia, 1980, University of Turin) and the United States (Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures, 1993, Harvard), and taught for several years at the University of Berne, Switzerland, and various universities of the East Coast. Her research and teaching areas cover the Italian literature of the twentieth and nineteenth centuries, with particular attention to philosophical approaches to literature, Italian women writers, Italian and Italian American cinema. Professor Heyer-Caput's latest book, Grazia Deledda's Dance of Modernity (University of Toronto Press, 2008), was awarded the prestigious 2009 Ennio Flaiano International Prize for Italian Studies for its new interpretation of the 1926 Literature Nobel Prize laureate Grazia Deledda in the context of philosophical modernity. Dr. Heyer-Caput's previous volumes are: Esistenza e ragione nell'opera di Franz Kafka (1982. Existence and Reason in Franz Kafka's Work) and Per una letteratura della riflessione: elementi filosofico-scientifici nell'opera di Luigi Malerba (1995. For a Literature of Reflection: Philosophical and Scientific Aspects of Luigi Malerba' s Work). She is the recipient of the 2005 Premio Letterario Nazionale Grazia Deledda. Dr. Heyer-Caput's personal website

JULIANA SCHIESARI

Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature

506 Sproul Hall, (530) 752-4627
jkschiesari@ucdavis.edu

(Ph.D., UC Berkeley) Juliana Schiesari is the author of The Gendering of Melancholia: Feminism, Psychoanalysis and the Symbolics of Loss in Renaissance Literature, and co-editor of Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance. Her areas of research include: feminist theory, psychoanalysis, Renaissance and early modern literature, women's literature and cultural studies. She is currently writing a book on the politics of domestication of women and animals.