
Dr Gabriele Lazzari
Academic and research departments
School of Literature and Languages, Mobilities in Literature and Culture Research Centre.About
Biography
I am a Lecturer in Contemporary Literature at the University of Surrey, with a PhD in Comparative Literature from Rutgers University.
Working at the intersection of comparative literature and novel theory, my research focuses on how contemporary literature engages with transnational migrations and the legacies of colonial and racial modernity.
My book, New Global Realism: Thinking Totality in the Contemporary Novel (forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic) explores the current resurgence of literary realism through a comparative study of contemporary novels written in English, Italian, Kannada, and Spanish. The book employs a formalist and comparative approach to expand the focus of literary studies beyond Anglophone writing. It contends that contemporary realism, as a truth-driven mode of aesthetic apprehension, offers a self-conscious and serious representation of social, economic and racial inequalities while actively envisioning new social and political configurations.
My work traverses and draws together my scholarly research, my engagement in the public humanities, and my commitment to social justice and educational equity within and beyond academia.
On peripheral realism and the bildungsroman in the context of postcoloniality, I have published an article in Research in African Literatures. Another article on the semi-peripheral novel has appeared in The Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry.
My other interests include mobility, migration, and colonial histories in the Italian context, particularly how Blackness and Afro-Italianness can help us rethink dynamics of cultural and linguistic belonging. On these topics, I have written two public-facing pieces for Public Books (1 and 2), as well as an article for Comparative Literature and an open access chapter on methodologies of Blackness in Italy.
At Surrey, I supervise undergraduate dissertations and PhD projects in my areas of expertise. I am part of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee, and co-convenor of the Mobilities Research Centre.
During my graduate studies, I worked as a digital coordinator for my program, I was a Public Fellow at the Newark Public Library, and I attended the Humanities Without Walls Workshop in Chicago.
My research and public humanities work have been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Rutgers Bevier Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Areas of specialism
My qualifications
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
I am interested in PhD projects in the following areas:
- contemporary literature
- comparative literature
- world literature
- theory of the novel
- postcolonial and decolonial studies
- mobility and migration
- literary theory
Phd students, co-supervisor:
Rosie Ngure - "A Dazzling Stone Many Miles Away: A Creative and Critical Exploration of the Woman’s Voice in the New African Novel"
Melanie Han - "Modern Sojourners and Multicultural Poets: A Critical and Creative Exploration of Postcolonial Transnationalism, Trauma, and Identity"
Teaching
ELI1029 Global Literatures
ELI2022 Contemporary Literature: Postcolonial Fictions
ELI1011 Theories of Reading II
ELI2021 Contemporary Literature: Gender and Sexuality
At Rutgers, English Writing Program
Expository Writing
At Rutgers, Comparative Literature Program
Introduction to World Literature – Global Literary Geographies
Short Fiction – Elements of Literary Analysis
Introduction to Myth – Modern Mythologies and the Novel
At Rutgers, Italian Department
A Cultural Tour of Italy
Italian Icons
Italian for Travel
Publications
Highlights
Open access:
Gabriele Lazzari, "Methodologies of Blackness in Italy: Past, Present, and Futures." Postcolonial Publics: Art and Citizen Media in Europe, edited by B.B. Blaagard, S. Marchetti, S. Ponzanesi, S. Bassi, University of Ca' Foscari Press, 2023, pp. 57-73