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Paola Morgavi

Professor of Instruction in Italian

Laurea, University of Genoa; MA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Paola Morgavi is a Professor of Instruction holding a Laurea in Lettere from the University of Genoa, Italy, and an MA in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

She is a certified OPI tester in Italian with extensive expertise in world language education, curriculum development, and teacher training. 

From 2012 to 2024 Morgavi served as the Director of Italian Language Program at Northwestern. In 2012 she co-authored with Elvira G. Di Fabio (Harvard University) a course called “Advanced Training for Teaching Italian as a Foreign Language.” The following year, she designed the workshop “Supporting Language Learners to Reach Higher Levels of Performance” for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). She also served as the higher education co-chair of the AP Italian Language and Culture Development Committee from 2012 to 2016 and as the Chief Reader of the AP Italian Language and Culture Exam from 2016 to 2020.  

Morgavi is actively involved in professional communities, including the Osservatorio della Lingua Italiana at the Consulate General of Italy in Chicago. 

She is deeply interested in the impact of technology on teaching and learning and has conducted research on integrating media and technology into the language curriculum. In 2023 she was awarded an Educational Technology Fellowship by Northwestern IT to develop an application helping students to learn and retain vocabulary. 

She serves on the Language Proficiency Committee (LPC), the Language Faculty Development Committee (LFDC), and the Council on Language Instruction (CLI).  Additionally, she collaborates with the Office of Fellowships as a Fulbright Faculty Advisor (FFA). 

Morgavi has been recognized for her excellence in teaching, having been named to the ASG Honor Roll for multiple years (2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2014-2015). In 2022, she was nominated for the Arts and Sciences Alumni Teaching Award. In 2014, she received the Premio Dante from the American Association of Teacher of Italian (AATI)- Midwest Chapter, in recognition of her contribution to the Italian language teaching community at both local and national levels.