Kathleen LaPenta

Kathleen LaPenta is a Senior Lecturer of Italian and Director of the Bronx Italian American History Initiative at Fordham University's Languages and Cultures Department. Her work focuses on Italian culture post-unification, including literature, film, and oral history. She holds a Ph.D. in Italian Studies from Rutgers University and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

Her research explores global Italian identities and transnational narratives. Notable publications include analyses of Italian Australian/Canadian literature and studies on oral history methodologies. She has been awarded the University Bevier Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship.

LaPenta teaches courses such as Italy and the Arts and Remembering the Long Century. Her current book project examines global Italian identities across the 19th and 20th centuries. She co-directs an oral history initiative documenting Bronx Italian American communities.