Maria Truglio

Maria Truglio is a Professor of Italian and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University, affiliated with the College of the Liberal Arts and the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University (1992), and MA (1996) and PhD (2001) from Yale University. Her research focuses on 19th- and 20th-century Italian literature, children’s literature, and critical methodologies like psychoanalysis and post-structuralism. She co-founded the Spanish and Italian Modernist Studies Forum at Penn State and co-edited Modernism and the Avant-garde Body in Spain and Italy (2016). Her monograph Italian Children’s Literature and National Identity (2017) explores how children’s literature shaped Italian national identity through melancholy and modernity. She has also published widely on Giovanni Pascoli, Primo Levi, and migration narratives in children’s books. Dr. Truglio’s work has been supported by grants from the Children’s Literature Association, Penn State’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities, and the Centre for Global Studies. She teaches courses on Italian Romanticism, women writers, and Italian-American culture, receiving teaching awards in 2010 and 2014. Her current projects examine contemporary Italian children’s books on migration and oral histories of Brazilian, Hispanic, and Italian women.

Education:

• B.A., Wesleyan University, 1992
• M.A., Yale University, 1996
• Ph.D., Yale University, 2001

Research Interests: Her scholarship bridges Children’s Literature and Italian Studies, analyzing how literature constructs national identity through themes like melancholy, modernity, and migration. She employs psychoanalytic and post-structuralist frameworks to explore texts ranging from Giovanni Pascoli’s poetry to contemporary works on migration.

Grants & Awards:

• Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Liberal Arts, 2010
• Malvin E. and Lea P. Bank Outstanding Teaching Award, 2014
• Funding from Children’s Literature Association, Penn State’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities, and Centre for Global Studies

Labs & Collaborations: Co-founded the Spanish and Italian Modernist Studies Forum. Collaborates with the Children’s Literature Association International Committee on projects linking children’s literature to national identities. Participates in oral history projects like Centre County’s History Otherwise (led by Dr. Judith Sierra-Rivera).