Gigliola Sulis

Gigliola Sulis is an Associate Professor of Italian at the University of Leeds, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (LCS). She earned her PhD in Italian Studies from the University of Reading and joined Leeds in 2006. Her academic roles include Director of Italian, Grant Advisor, LCS Residence Abroad Coordinator, and elected member of the Academic Senate. She is the founder and director of LivItaly: Bringing Italian Culture to Yorkshire, a knowledge-transfer initiative since 2008, and serves as Senior Co-Editor of the journal The Italianist.

• PhD in Italian Studies, University of Reading (2005)
• Laurea in Lettere, University of Cagliari (1998)
• Abilitazione all’Insegnamento di Lettere, Italy (2000)
• Qualification aux fonctions de Maître de Conférences, France (2012)

Her research focuses on modern and contemporary Italian literature with emphasis on multilingualism, regional and dialect literatures (especially Sardinian and Sicilian), postcolonial Italy, gender, and women’s writing. She integrates stylistics and narratology to explore identity in multicultural contexts. Her work also touches on Italian crime fiction, the Resistance, and 1970s social unrest.

Her recent publications (2022–2025) reflect a strong trend in feminist and postcolonial literary analysis, particularly on Sardinian women writers, linguistic inclusivity, and multilingual narratives. Articles on Goliarda Sapienza, Luigi Meneghello, and Laura Pariani demonstrate her expertise in textual analysis and socio-political contexts of Italian literature.

• The debate on language and gender in Italy (2022)
• Women's writing in Sardinia beyond exceptionalism (2023)
• Goliarda Sapienza’s multilingual prison narrative (2025)

Gigliola Sulis actively supervises postgraduate students at Leeds and other European universities, including projects on multilingualism, exophonic poetry, and female Italian writers. She has previously supervised numerous PhD and MAR theses on topics such as Pasolini, Dante and Gadda, resistance literature, and Italian comics.

She is a member of the Society for Italian Studies (SIS), where she served as Honorary Secretary for six years, and represents Italian Studies in the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML). She also contributes regularly to the Times Literary Supplement.

Her research projects include editorial work on multilingual literature, postcolonial Italy, and crime fiction in the global era. She has co-edited volumes on Sergio Atzeni, the Italian Gothic, and transnational crime fiction, reflecting her collaborative and interdisciplinary approach.