Maria Serena Felici

Maria Serena Felici serves as Associate Professor in Portuguese and Brazilian Language, Translation and Linguistics at Sapienza University of Rome's Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies. She teaches multiple courses including Portuguese Language and Brazilian Language II and III, and Portuguese and Brazilian Translation across various degree programs including Linguistic, Literary and Translation Sciences (SLLT), Languages, Cultures, Literature Translation (LCLT), and Linguistic and Intercultural Mediation (MLI).

Her research focuses on:

• Portuguese and Brazilian text linguistics across diverse textual types and genres
• Phraseology and stylistic analysis in Portuguese language
• Translation studies with emphasis on Portuguese-Italian literary translation
• Linguistic analysis of metaphors in Lusophone literature
• Food culture as identity marker in Brazilian context

Professor Felici's publication record from 2022-2025 reveals a consistent scholarly trajectory centered on Brazilian and Portuguese literary analysis, particularly examining canonical authors like Eça de Queirós and Machado de Assis. Her work demonstrates interdisciplinary approach combining linguistic analysis with cultural studies, exploring how language constructs national identity through historical cookbooks, newspaper discourse, literary metaphors, and phraseological patterns. She frequently investigates the relationship between language evolution and cultural identity formation in Lusophone contexts.

She has served as Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) in Brazil and maintains active membership in ABRALIN (Brazilian Linguistics Association). Professor Felici coordinated the research project "Scrivendo l'identità. Uno studio sulla lingua letteraria portoghese in epoca moderna e contemporanea" (Writing Identity: A Study on Portuguese Literary Language in Modern and Contemporary Era).

Her translation work includes significant contributions to Italian reception of Brazilian literature, notably Machado de Assis's "Esaù e Giacobbe" (Esau and Jacob) for which she provided both translation and scholarly commentary. She regularly participates in academic events promoting Portuguese language studies, including the annual World Portuguese Language Day celebration at Sapienza.