CosettaSeno

  • Associate Professor
  • ITALIAN
Address

HUMN 325

Office Hours

Fall 2026
Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Biography

Cosetta Seno received her Laurea in Italy before obtaining her M.A. from the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. in Italian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to Colorado she taught at Georgetown University and at the Catholic University of America.

She is Associate Professor of Italian and she specializes in 19th and 20th Century Literature and Culture. She is the former elected president of the AAIS (American Association of Italian Studies) Women’s Studies Caucus and she continues to work in the field of Women’s Studies through her research on women writers and gender theories. In Spring 2019 she received the Departmental Teaching Award.

She is the author of two books. The first one, co-written with Professor Paolo Cherchi, is titled Gli italiani e l'italiano nel nord America (2010). Her second book, titled Anna Maria Ortese Un avventuroso realismo. (2013), investigates Ortese’s revision and re-interpretation of recent Italian history through the tool of fantasy.

She is currently working on her new book length project, tentatively titledMediterranean Spaces and Places within Narrative Reportage, in which she wants to analyze the evolution of the narrative genre of reportage with particular reference to the representation of the city of Naples. She is currently working also as guest-editor for a special issue of Italian literary journal Il lettore di provincia devoted to the education of young women in post-unification Italy.

Publications

Books

  • Gli italiani e l’italiano nell’america del nord, co-author with Prof. Paolo Cherchi. Ravenna: Longo, 2010.
  • Anna Maria Ortese. Un avventuroso realismo. Ravenna: Longo, 2013

Articles

  • “Anna Maria Ortese e il femminismo.” Proceeding from the international conference on Anna Maria Ortese, held in Rome in 2018. (Forthcoming, April 2020)
  • Introduction to Special Issue of Il lettore di provincia devoted to the education of young women in post-unification Italy (Forthcoming, December 2019).
  • “Un viaggio straordinario. Capuana e la narrativa giovanile post-unitaria.” (Forthcoming in Italian Studies in Southern Africa (ISSA), November 2019).
  • Interview with Paolo Cherchi on his recent book Maestri. Racconti e memorie di un apprendistato. (On-Line Publication, Griselda On Line, June 2019)
  • “Femminismi a confronto grazie agli Women’s Studies,” Leggendaria April 2019, N. 133, pp. 38-39.
  • Alonso e i visionari, by Anna Maria Ortese for The Literary Encyclopedia (On-line publication, December 2018).
  • ’iܲԲ by Anna Maria Ortese for The Literary Encyclopedia (On-Line publication, December 2018).
  • “Anna Maria Ortese and the Theory of Sexual Difference” (Altre Lettere, On-line publication, December 2017).
  • "Rio Bo di Aldo Palazzeschi eI cipressi di Vincent Van Gogh,"Studi Italiani, XXVI.1 (2014): 87-105.
  • "Who Did It? The Mysterious Murder of the History of Italian Literature",Italica, 91.2 (2014): 255-276.
  • "Il dibattito sul femminismo nell'Italia post-risorgimentale. Neera e la voce 'emancipazione'Dizionario di igieneper famigliea cura di Neere e Paolo Mantegazza (1881)",Il lettore diprovincia137 (2012): 25-32.
  • “Anna Maria Ortesee il fantastico. Una prospettiva femminile”Rassegna europea della letteratura italiana(36, 2, 2010, pp.129-140)
  • Saggio e conversazione con Paolo Alvino” (Winner of the Literary Prize “Fili di parole” 2009),Il lettore di provincia134 (2010): 99-111.
  • “Alba De Céspedes. Il diario come spazio utopico”Esperienze Letterarie2, (2010): 57-68.
  • “Anna Maria Ortese’sAlonso and the Visionaries: A Reflection on Bourgeois Culture and ‘gli anni di piombo’ (the Years of Terrorism) in Italy” inItaly and the Bourgeoisie: The Re-Thinking of a Class, Stefania Lucamante (Ed.), Madison, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press (2009): 124-141.
  • Lettura deIl bovedi Carducci,Italica, 85, 1 (2008): 76-87.
  • “Partire da sé per non farsi trovare.Il porto di Toledo:Storia di un’autobiografia fantastica.” MLN, 122, 1 (2007): 148-166.
  • “Metastasio: giuramenti senza vendetta,”Esperienze Letterarie1 (2007): 69-84.

Interests

  • 20th & 21st Century Italian Literatre and Culture
  • 19th Century Italian Literature and Culture
  • Italian History of the Resurgence
  • Italian Criminal History