DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN

Daniele Biffanti is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Italian. He earned his B.A. in Modern Literature and M.A. in Modern Philology from the Università degli Studi di Padova, and his Ph.D. in Italian from Stanford University.

His methodology in both lower- and upper-level language courses is based on a communicative and proficiency-oriented approach. Striving to weave genuine cultural materials into language classes, he seeks to provide students with a nuanced and current understanding of Italian culture, beyond its traditional and stereotypical elements. He holds an ACTFL Full Certification as OPI Tester in Italian.

His research focuses on post-WWII literature, cinema, and political history. He is currently working on a book manuscript that considers how the founding myth of the Italian post-Fascist republic — the resistance against Nazi-Fascism and subsequent liberation — has generated different narrative legacies in literature and cinema, and how the development of these legacies in the 20th and 21st century can be traced and interpreted as a form of narrative mythologization. His work has been published in several journals, including Forum Italicum, Annali d'Italianistica, Allegoria, and Ticontre.