Serenella Baggio

Serenella Baggio is a Full Professor of Italian Language History at the Department of Literature and Philosophy of the University of Trento. She has been at the University of Trento since 2002, initially as Associate Professor and since 2021 as Full Professor. She coordinates the Italian Writing courses and has been a member of the doctoral school 'Le forme del testo' since 2002, while also supervising numerous master's and doctoral theses through double-degree programs with institutions like Technische Universität Dresden and University of Augsburg.

Baggio earned her Bachelor's Degree from the University of Padua with a thesis on 'Color and Word between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance' (1978). She obtained her Postgraduate Diploma in Modern Philology (1987) and Doctorate in Romance and Italian Philology (1987), both from the University of Padua. Her academic journey included teaching Italian at the University of Würzburg (1979-1983) and in Italian high schools (1984-2001) before joining the University of Trento.

Professor Baggio's research focuses on the language of non-literary texts and the comparison between literary and non-literary language from the origins to the 20th century. Her work spans multiple areas including: color terminology (cromonimia), artistic lexicon between Middle Ages and Renaissance, popular literature, popular writings (letters, diaries, memories from migration and WWI), medical vernacularizations, medieval lapidaries, Boccaccio's Decameron, medieval syntax, regional languages, linguistic atlases, language contact, and Trentino dialects. She has made significant contributions to the study of popular writing through archives like the Cinquetti Archive and psychiatric hospital archives in Trentino. Her research bridges historical linguistics with sociolinguistic perspectives, often focusing on marginalized voices and non-standard language varieties.

Her recent publications (2019-2021) demonstrate continued engagement with historical linguistics, particularly focusing on WWI language documentation, Trentino's linguistic heritage, and the analysis of spoken language in historical texts. She has worked extensively with sound archives like the Phonogrammarchiv in Vienna, examining historical recordings of Italian dialects. Her publications show a consistent pattern of interdisciplinary work connecting linguistic analysis with historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives.

Baggio has coordinated significant research projects including an Erasmus program with UBO-Brest, France, and a DFG project with TU Dresden on Italian manuscript collections. Her work with IPRASE on monitoring linguistic competencies and with the Trentino Popular Writing Archive demonstrates her commitment to applied linguistics and community engagement. She has been actively involved in creating linguistic laboratories across Trentino through the 'Formare formatori' project and has contributed to the establishment of the Trentino Giscel group.

Her collaboration with museums and cultural institutions, particularly on popular writings and historical archives, shows her dedication to making linguistic research accessible beyond academia. She has organized numerous conferences including 'Lingue naturali, lingue inventate' (2019) and 'Lingua franca, lingue franche' (2021), and has participated in academic radio programs like 'La lingua batte' (Radio3, 2017) and 'Zazà' (Radio3, 2020), demonstrating her commitment to public scholarship.