Serenella Iovino

Serenella Iovino is the James Gordon Hanes Distinguished Professor in Humanities and Professor of Italian Studies & Environmental Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a joint appointment in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. She directs graduate studies in Italian and advises multiple PhD students. Her interdisciplinary research bridges environmental humanities, ecocriticism, and Italian studies, exploring the intersections of literature, philosophy, and environmental ethics. Iovino's internationally recognized work examines cultural landscapes, posthumanism, biosemiotics, and Mediterranean environmental issues.

Her award-winning publications include "Ecocriticism and Italy: Ecology, Resistance, and Liberation" (recipient of the MLA Scaglione Prize and AAIS Book Prize) and "Italo Calvino's Animals: Anthropocene Stories." As a public intellectual, Iovino contributes columns to la Repubblica and Maremosso, addressing ecological crises, animal ethics, and environmental justice. Her current projects investigate the narrative dimensions of environmental resistance and the ecological significance of Italian cultural landscapes within the UNESCO World Heritage framework.