Visiting Fellowship
The Charles and Joan Alberto Italian Studies Institute visiting fellowship was established to promote scholarly exchanges and further develop the scope of academic activities offered in Italian Studies at Seton Hall University.
This fellowship aims at providing young scholars in Italian Studies with the opportunity to live and do research for a period up to one month in the New York/New Jersey area and to be part of the Italian Studies community at Seton Hall University.
During their visit, the selected candidate will be asked to give a public lecture at the Alberto Institute, two lectures to undergraduate students, and participate to the life of our Italian Studies Program.
Spring 2025 Visiting Fellow
Antonella Valoroso is the Visiting Fellow for the Spring 2025 presenting a research
project titled: “Italian American Cultural Diplomacy in New York: The Verrazzano Bridge
and the Garibaldi- Meucci Museum,” which explores trends in transatlantic diplomacy,
identity formation and heritage preservation during the construction of the Verrazzano
Bridge and the refurbishment of the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum during the 1950s and 1960s.
She is a Senior Researcher at the Sorbello Foundation and the author of Adelaide Ristori e lo specchio della scrittura. Messinscena delle memorie di una diva dell’Ottocento, a book on which she will deliver a lecture at the Alberto Institute.
Fall 2025 Visiting Fellow
Federico Sessolo will be our Visiting Fellow during the Fall semester of 2025. Federico
completed his Ph.D. in Italian Studies at Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in 2024.
His doctoral dissertation focused on the cultural, political and personal relationship
between Giuseppe Antonio Borgese and the Mann family during their exile in America
(1938-1952). Thanks to the discovery of the trilingual correspondence of Borgese and
his father-in-law, Thomas Mann, Federico received the “Polizzi Generosa” International
Prize in 2024. As an early career researcher, Federico focuses primarily on 20th-century
Italian literature, often adopting a transnational and comparative perspective. He
has published or presented papers on authors such as Dante, Leo Ferrero, Marcel Proust,
Robert Musil, Klaus Mann, Italo Svevo and Mario Rapisardi. A published writer in Italian,
Federico has been nominated for the “Giulio Angioni” Literary Prize in 2022. His most
recent work is the nonfiction travel diary A Cielo Chiuso. Un breve viaggio in America,
in which he explores the cultural connections between the United States and Italy.
At Seton Hall, Federico will conduct archival research in the New Jersey-New York
area for his forthcoming publication: the edited correspondence of Thomas Mann and
Giuseppe Antonio Borgese (1938-1952). He will also deliver a talk on the activities
of antifascist Italians in America.