Serenella Iovino is an Italian cultural and

literary theorist Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mora ...

, and a Distinguished Professor at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. She is considered one of the main

environmental philosophers A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

of Italy.

Career

From 2001 to 2018, Iovino was a professor of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and of Modern Cultures at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...

, Italy. From 2008 to 2010, she also served as President of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment (EASLCE). In 2014, Iovino was a J. K. Binder Lecturer at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

. In 2019 Iovino became Professor of Italian Studies and Environmental Humanities at the University of North Carolina, the first ever to obtain this double appointment. In 2024 she was named James Gordon Hanes Distinguished Professor in Humanities. Iovino has published extensively on

ecocriticism Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. It wa ...

, literature, and

environmental ethics In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resourc ...

. Iovino is the main proponent for material ecocriticism, a current of ecocritical thought. Her book ''Ecocriticism and Italy: Ecology, Resistance, and Liberation'' was awarded the 2016 Book Prize of the American Association for Italian Studies and the MLA's 2016 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies.

Publications

* ''Gli animali di Calvino. Storie dall'Antropocene''. Roma: Treccani Libri, 2023.
''Paesaggio civile. Storie di ambiente, cultura e resistenza''
Milano: Il Saggiatore, 2022. * * ''Italy and the Environmental Humanities: Landscapes, Natures, Ecologies.'' Edited by Serenella Iovino, Enrico Cesaretti, and Elena Past. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018. * Behold. In ''Veer Ecology: A Companion for Environmental Thinking.'' Jeffrey J. Cohen and Lowell Duckert, Eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017. Pages 312-326. * ''Environmental Humanities: Voices from the Anthropocene.'' Edited by Serpil Oppermann and Serenella Iovino. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016. * ''Ecocriticism and Italy: Ecology, Resistance and Liberation.'' London: Bloomsbury Academics, 2016. * ''Material Ecocriticism.'' Edited by Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014. * ''Ecologia letteraria: Una strategia di sopravvivenza.'' Milan. Edizioni Ambiente, 2006 (2nd ed. 2015). * ''Filosofie dell’ambiente. Natura, Etica, Società.'' Rome: Carocci, 2004. (Repr. 2006, 2007, 2008). * ''Il ‘Woldemar’ di F.H. Jacobi, introduzione, traduzione e commento storico-critico.'' Padua: CEDAM, 2000. * ''Radice della Virtù. Saggio sul ‘Woldemar’ di F.H. Jacobi''. Naples: Città del Sole, 1999.

Awards

* 2023: XI Premio Nazionale di Divulgazione Scientifica "Giancarlo Dosi" (area: Humanities), for ''Gli animali di Calvino. Storie dall'Antropocene'' (Treccani Libri, 2023). * 2016: Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies Winners for ''Ecocriticism and Italy: Ecology, Resistance, and Liberation'' (Bloomsbury, 2016). * 2016: American Association for Italian Studies Book Prize for ''Ecocriticism and Italy: Ecology, Resistance, and Liberation''. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iovino, Serenella University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Academic staff of the University of Turin 21st-century Italian non-fiction writers 21st-century Italian women writers Environmental philosophers 21st-century Italian philosophers