Emanuela Patti is currently the recipient of a RSE Personal Research Fellowship for the project 'David Rizzio: History and Myth Across Arts and Media' (2024-2025).

Academic and Research Background

Patti holds an MA in Comparative Literature from University College London (UCL) and a Ph.D. in Italian Studies from the University of Birmingham. Following her doctoral studies, she served as Senior Research Fellow on the collaborative, AHRC-funded project Interdisciplinary Italy 1900–2020: Interart/Intermedia.

Before joining the University of Edinburgh in 2021, Patti held teaching appointments in Italian language and culture at several institutions, including the University of Exeter, University of Wales (Bangor), University of Cagliari, Institute of Modern Languages Research (School of Advanced Study, University of London), University of Birmingham, and Royal Holloway. She also held visiting and honorary positions at institutions such as the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) at the Open University in Barcelona. Additionally, she was Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Bournemouth University from 2014 to 2015.

Research and Scholarly Contributions

A scholar of Italian literature and culture, Patti's research spans literary, media, and cultural studies. Her work focuses on the circulation and transformation of themes, stories, and characters across various arts and media from the Middle Ages to the present. She has a particular interest in the processes of reception, appropriation, representation, and fictionalization across different times and cultures. Her methodology is grounded in theories of intermediality and transmediality, areas in which she has made significant contributions.

Patti's research has been supported by prestigious grants from the AHRC and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She has delivered over 50 invited talks at academic events worldwide, including at Oxford University, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò (NYU), UCL, Brown University, the University of Bergen, John Cabot University, and more.

Publications and Notable Projects

Patti has extensively published on Pier Paolo Pasolini, with a particular focus on his reception of Dante and medieval culture. Her works include the monograph Pasolini after Dante: The Divine Mimesis and the Politics of Representation (Legenda, 2016) and the edited volume La nuova gioventù? Saggi sull'eredità intellettuale di Pier Paolo Pasolini (Joker, 2009). In 2022, she curated and edited the distinguished video lecture series Pasolini and the Classics in celebration of Pasolini's centenary, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh and Filmhouse, Edinburgh.

Patti has also explored the intersection of literary forms and digital media, publishing the monograph Opera Aperta: Italian Electronic Literature from the 1960s to the Present (Peter Lang, 2022), which was the runner-up for the N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism in Electronic Literature in 2023. She has also edited two special issues—Experimental Narratives: From the Novel to Digital Storytelling (Comparative Critical Studies, 2016) and Reading Practices in Experimental Narratives: A Comparative Perspective Across Cultures (Romance Studies, 2016)—as well as the co-edited volume Transmedia: Storia, memoria e narrazioni attraverso i media (Mimesis, 2014, with Clodagh Brook).

A pioneer of the digital turn in Italian Studies, Patti has co-authored and published numerous articles on the subject, including Italian Studies and the Digital (with Guyda Armstrong, Italian Studies, Vol. 75, 2020) and Digital Literacy and Modern Languages: How to Make a Digital Video (Modern Languages Open, 2020). She is also co-editing The Digital Turn in Italian Studies (with Massimo Riva, forthcoming with Peter Lang, 2026).

Editorial and Peer-Review Roles

Patti has held several editorial leadership roles, including serving as co-director of The International Journal of McLuhan Studies, senior editor of Romance Studies, and senior editor for the Peter Lang book series Cultural Memories. She has also served on the editorial boards of five academic journals and acted as a peer reviewer for numerous publications, including Modern Italy, Modernism/Modernity, Between, PMLA, The Italianist, and Umanistica Digitale.

Additionally, Patti has contributed her expertise as an advisor for national research councils, including Poland’s OPUS Funding Scheme (National Science Center) and Italy’s Valutazione della Qualità della Ricerca (VQR).

Qualifications

MA Comparative Literature (UCL) 

PhD Italian Studies (University of Birmingham)

Responsibilities & affiliations

Administrative and leadership roles at LLC

• Director of EDI, 2023-2024
• Year Abroad Coordinator (Italian), 2023-2024
• UG Cohort Lead, Y3, Y4

External leadership roles 

• Society for Italian Studies, Executive Committee Member (Digital Strategy Portfolio Holder: 2019-2024; Research portfolio holder: 2025-2028)
• UNA EUROPA, Chair in Humanities, 2021-2022
• LAPH, Chair in Italian, 2013

Awards, Honours, and Nominations

• CAHSS Challenge Investment Fund, 2024-2025
• RSE Personal Research Fellowship, 2024-2025
• CAHSS Awards Nomination for ‘Inspiring colleague’, 2024
• Outstanding Course, Visualizing Boccaccio's Decameron Across Arts and Media (nomination), Edinburgh University Students' Association Teaching Awards, 2024
• Outstanding Course, Decentering Medieval and Renaissance Italy (nomination), Edinburgh University Students' Association Teaching Awards, 2023
• N.Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism in Electronic Literature 2023, runner-up
• RSE Workshops Grant, 2023
• Honorary Research Associate, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2019-2022
• AHRC Senior Research Fellowship, 2015-2018
• Honorary Research Fellowship, Italian Studies, University of Birmingham, 2014-2015
• Institute Fellowship, IMLR, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2014-15
• Visiting Professorship and Fellowship, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, UOC, 2010-11
• AHRC Doctoral Award, 2005
• PhD School of Humanities scholarship, University of Birmingham, 3 years tuition, 2003-2005
• ISEP Fellowship, University of Exeter, UK/University of Urbino, Italy, accommodation and stipend, 1999-2000

External Examiner

• Cardiff University, 2022-2026, UG&PG Programmes
• Universidad de Chile, 2021, Viva, PhD programme

Invited teaching in summer and winter schools:

• Università Roma Tre, Winter School "Tran(s)missions: how multimediality shapes interdisciplinary research" (2023)
• Centro Studi Pier Paolo Pasolini, Summer School "Pasolini e la cultura medievale" (2021)
• Università Roma Tre, Summer School "Tran(s)missions: how multimediality shapes interdisciplinary research" (2021)
• Trinity College Dublin, Summer School "Interdisciplinary Italy" (2018)

Undergraduate teaching

• The "other" in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, Y1 module (Cultural Studies)
• Italian Literature: Texts in Context, Y2 (Course coordinator)
• Leopardi, Y2 module, sem 2,  (Italian Literature: Texts in Context)
• Italian Language Paper 1, Y4 (Course coordinator)
• Decentering Medieval and Renaissance Italy, Italian 4 Honours, Full Semester Option
• Visualising Boccaccio’s Decameron Across Arts and Media, Italian 4 Honours, Full Semester Option

Postgraduate teaching

• Digital Literature (Theories of Intermediality, MSc Intermediality)

• Modern and Contemporary Italian Culture
• Identity and Otherness in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
• Reception of Dante in Modern Italy
• Intermediality/Transmediality
• Experimental Literature (including Electronic/Digital Literature)
• Digital Humanities and Digital Culture

• Pasolini After Dante
• Opera aperta. Italian electronic literature from the 1960s to the present
• Beyond the books. An interview with Emanuela Patti
• Catharsis in the Age of the Metaverse. Love Machine Series, Edinburgh Futures Institute