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Education and Qualifications
Ph.D. 2003
University of Texas at Austin, USA
Department of English, Division of Rhetoric and Composition, Concentration in Cultural Studies and Computers in the Humanities.
Dissertation title: "Turning It into a Proper Business": The Fate of Complexity in Distance Learning Corporate Discourse. A case study on the transposition of academic discourses to the corporate workplace.
Laurea in Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne 1991
Magna cum laude
Università di Genova, Italy
Thesis title: The Old Irish Epic of the Tain and Its Transformations: Thomas Kinsella's Translation. A discourse analysis of cross-cultural literary translation/adaptation.
Honors and Awards
IBM Teaching Excellence awards 2001, 2004, 2005
Fulbright fellowship 1992-93
Employment
Senior Lecturer, Coventry University 2009 – present
Main research areas: socio-political, economic and legal aspects of digital media and technologies; audience-driven transformative works and cultures, participatory media narratives; identity creation, negotiation and performance in online cultures; gender and queer studies.
Other research areas: rhetoric and composition, discourse analysis; technology-enhanced and non-traditional learning; corporate communications and discourse; cultural translation, sociolinguistics and discourse transposition.
Module development and teaching: "Media Audiences"; "Living in the Digital World"; "Understanding Media and Communication"; "Communication Practice". Year 2 course tutor and dissertation advisor.
Professeur Associé, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI) 2006 – 2009
Research on corporate discourse and new digital media, and on the discourse and practice of non-traditional learning: communities of practice; interactive and immersive environments; game-based learning
Research on transformative works: economic and legal aspects of digital transformative text; identity creation, negotiation and performance in online communities; post-colonial mimicry in contemporary participatory media narratives
Curriculum and course design in non-traditional learning for various departments and organizations: specialization courses for doctors working abroad; divulgative electronics and semi-conductor physics
Course development and teaching: "Professionnalisation, valorisation de l’expérience et ressources numériques".
Learning Consultant, IBM Europe 1998 – 2009
Research in an international R&D team on new methodologies for digital communication, and on interactive pedagogies for distance and non-traditional learning
Course development and teaching: “effective written communication”; “project planning and management for curriculum and syllabus developers”
Supervision, coaching and mentoring: interns pursuing doctoral work; new hires.
Professor at the private University Istituto Europeo Design in Rome, Italy 1997
Developed and taught courses: "Semiotics of Multimediality"; "the Discourse of Computer-Mediated Communication".
Vice-director of ARPA research project "CheshireMOOn" 1996
Led a research project on distance learning in immersive multi-user virtual environments (MOOs), sponsored by US Federal Agency ARPA. The project researched issues of communication, identity and representation in a virtual ecology, and their pedagogical implications.
Assistant Instructor, Dept. of Rhetoric and Composition, UT Austin 1993-96
Developed and taught courses: "Writing in an Online Environment"; "The Discourse of Gender and Technology"; "Writing about Cyberpunk".
Founded and ran the Computer and Writing Research Lab peer-reviewed journal CWRL (now Currents in Electronic Literacy, ISSN 1524-6493).
Assistant Instructor, Italian Ministry of Education 1989-90
Taught Italian as a foreign language in various higher education institutions in Belfast (UK).
Other Skills and Achievements
Review editor for the international peer-reviewed journal Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), ISSN 1941-2258, http://journal.transformativeworks.org.
Masters' class "Translation Theory/Practice". Università "La Sapienza", Roma, Italy.
1991-92
Research grant on Anglo-Welsh language and culture. University of Aberystwyth, UK.
1990-91
BA classes in Irish language and literature. Queen's University of Belfast, UK.
1989-90
Native to near-native knowledge of Italian, English and French. Working knowledge of Spanish.