Alexandra Coller

Alexandra Coller is a Professor of Italian Literature and Culture at Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY). She holds a B.A. from Hunter College (CUNY), and M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. She has held visiting posts at SUNY-Stony Brook, Dickinson College, and Fairfield University before joining Lehman College in 2010 as an Assistant Professor. She currently serves as the Head of the Italian Program and faculty advisor for the Italian Club, and organizes the Italian Film Series to integrate the program into campus life. She is also a member of the College’s Arts and Humanities Curriculum Committee and Arts Committee. As Lehman’s cultural liaison, she collaborates with institutes like the Calandra Institute, NYU’s Casa Italiana, and the Italian Cultural Institute.

Her research focuses on women, gender, drama, and Renaissance Italian literature, with particular attention to early opera, conduct manuals, and pastoral plays. She has published widely in journals like Italian Studies and Italica, and authored Women, Rhetoric, and Drama in Early Modern Italy (2017). She has edited and translated Italian women’s pastoral dramas, including Valeria Miani’s Amorous Hope (2020) and Isabetta Coreglia’s La Dori (2021). Her current project examines dialogues and treatises by women and letterati in late Renaissance Italy.

Prof. Coller’s work bridges literary analysis with cultural history, emphasizing gender dynamics and textual interpretation. She co-organizes interdisciplinary conferences, such as the 2021 “Open Borders: Translation and its Perils” at CUNY’s Graduate Center. Her teaching spans Italian language, literature, and comparative studies, contributing to Lehman’s core curriculum and fostering student engagement through cultural initiatives.