Diana Garvin

Diana Garvin is an Assistant Professor of Italian with a specialty in Mediterranean Studies in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon's School of Global Studies and Languages. Currently on maternity leave for Fall 2026, she conducts research at the intersection of food studies, colonial history, and fascist studies, with particular focus on Italian East Africa and transnational connections to Brazil.

Her educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Romance Studies from Cornell University (2017)
• A.B. in Romance Studies from Harvard University (2006)

Garvin's research examines the history of everyday life under Fascist Italy, using food as a lens to analyze power negotiations between women and the state. Her work spans transnational Italian studies, focusing on East Africa and Brazil, while exploring intersections of fascism, neo-fascism, food politics, environmental humanities, and medical humanities. She investigates how seemingly mundane objects and practices—such as cookbooks, toys, menus, and agricultural labor—became sites of political contestation and resistance.

Her recent publications reveal consistent themes across Italian colonial history, examining how food, toys, and domestic practices served as vehicles for imperial ideology while simultaneously providing spaces for resistance. These works demonstrate how fascist policies permeated everyday life through consumer culture, urban planning, and reproductive health, with particular attention to gendered experiences and colonial encounters in East Africa.

Garvin has received numerous prestigious awards for her scholarship:

• Rome Prize in Modern Italian Studies, American Academy of Rome (2017-2018)
• Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize for Best Book in Italian History (2023)
• Fulbright Global Scholar Award (2021-2022)
• NEH Fellowship (2024-2025)
• Getty Research Library Grant (2020)
• Julia Child Foundation Scholarship (2014)

Her research has been supported by fellowships from Fulbright, Getty Library, Oxford University, Cornell University, University of Oregon, Wolfsonian-FIU, Julia Child Foundation, CLIR Mellon, FLAS, AAUW, NWSA, and AFS, enabling research at over thirty international archives, libraries, and museums. Garvin teaches courses including Modern Italian History through Food, Eco-Italy, Global Histories of Italian Food, and Fascism and Neo-Fascism, bringing her research expertise into undergraduate and graduate classrooms.

As a scholar working at the intersection of multiple disciplines, Garvin contributes to ongoing conversations about the legacies of colonialism, the politics of food, and the gendered dimensions of fascist ideology, with particular attention to how these historical phenomena continue to shape contemporary political movements.