Susan Amatangelo

Biography

Why is everyone yelling at each other? As a child, I longed to be able to understand the lively conversation around my grandparents’ dinner table every Sunday. They had immigrated to the United States (Boston, MA) with their children in the 1950s, when my father was 14 years old. While I did not speak much Italian growing up, I heard the language (as well as my family’s abruzzese dialect) regularly and began to study Italian in middle school. When the time came to select a college, one of my main criteria was the opportunity to study abroad in Italy, where I could immerse myself in the Italian language and culture. Smith College’s JYA program in Italy helped me to realize my dream, enabling me to live and study in Florence for ten months. My Italian experience in Firenze differed dramatically from the language and culture of my own family, offering me another perspective and “home” within Italy.

At Smith, I first declared English literature as my major, to which I later added Italian. My interest in literature began in high school, fostered by my mother’s family: my grandmother had grown up in Ireland memorizing Irish and English poetry and even worked as a teacher before emigrating. In my last year of college, I knew that graduate school was my next step but was unsure whether to apply to programs in English literature or Italian literature. Ultimately, I decided that deepening my engagement with Italian language, literature, and culture was a priority in my life. At Harvard University, where I pursued my M.A. and PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures, I discovered that my true literary interests were not Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca, and Ariosto, as much as I revered those authors; instead, I gravitated toward modern and contemporary prose, Sicilian literature, women writers, and literary analysis through the lens of gender.

Teaching at Holy Cross has given me the opportunity to share my passion for Italian language, literature, and culture with a wide variety of students. Though I attended a prestigious college, I was a first-generation college student and the child and grandchild of immigrants, an experience that has helped me to make connections with Holy Cross students of different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. Living in Worcester has also expanded my familiarity with different cultures and lived realities while giving me a strong sense of community.

What I appreciate most about being a professor at Holy Cross is having engaged students and being able to explore my areas of scholarly interest through my teaching. In class, our discussions have focused on a wide range of  the literary and cultural topics, such as Garibaldi’s memoir and legacy, Mafia figures in Verga’s novellas, Viganò’s portrayal of women partisans during World War II, Ferrante’s flawed maternal figures, and Lahiri’s reflections on learning Italian. In several cases, critical dialogue with students has inspired me to dig deeper on a topic and even write an article. My new research area, the Italian American (or immigrant) experience, brings me back to my origins (and to the beginning of this bio). I look forward to sharing my discoveries with Holy Cross students and to learning from their observations and experiences.

Selected Grants, Awards, Honors

Honored as a Career Champion, Center for Career Development, for members of the Class of 2024 and 2025

Marshall Memorial Fund, Donelan Office of Community-Based Learning (Fall 2024)

Faculty Marshal for Holy Cross Commencement (1999, 2005, 2019)

Research and Publication Grant for indexing of Italian Women at War (Fall 2016)

Batchelor (Ford) Summer Fellowship for Italian Women at War book project (Spring 2013)

Hewlett-Mellon Presidential Discretionary Fund Fellowship for Italian faculty workshop on program curriculum (2010-2011)

Recipient of the Arthur J. O'Leary Faculty Recognition Award (2006-2008)

Books

(Edited volume)

Italian Women at War: Sisters in Arms from the Unification to the Twentieth Century. Madison and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016. [Authored introduction and chapter three (see below)]

(Monograph)

Figuring Women: A Thematic Study of Giovanni Verga’s Female Characters. Madison and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2004.

Selected articles, book chapters, short pieces

“Teaching Giovanni Verga in North America.” Italica, 102.1 (2025): pp. 2-17. 

“Viewing the South: The Role of Verismo and the Illustrative Arts in Shaping Post-Unification Italian Culture.” Italy in the Second Half of the 19th Century: Bridging New Cultures. Eds. Francesca Cadel and Paola Nastri. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2024. 199-217.

“Rewriting History: Dacia Maraini’s Women Warriors, Real and Imagined.” A Life Devoted to Writing: Festschrift in Honor of Dacia Maraini. Ed. Michelangelo La Luna. Rossano, Italy: ConSenso Publishing, 2021. 131-153.

“Verga’s ‘L’amante di Gramigna’: Outlaws and Disorder in Militarized Post-Unification Italy.” Italy and the Military: Cultural Perspectives from Unification to Contemporary Italy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 117-132.

“Giovanni Verga: Vita dei campi [Life in the Fields].” The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 September 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11301].

“La bambina e il sognatore e il mito dell’infanzia.” Curiosa di mestiere. Saggi su Dacia Maraini. Eds. Manuela Bertone and Barbara Meazzi. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2017. 215-230.

“Introduction: Italy’s Sisters in Arms.” Italian Women at War: Sisters in Arms from the Unification to the Twentieth Century. Ed. Susan Amatangelo. Madison and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016. 1-10.

“‘Sono briganta, io, non donna di brigante’: The Female Brigand’s Search for Identity.” Italian Women at War: Sisters in Arms from the Unification to the Twentieth Century. Ed. Susan Amatangelo. Madison and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016. 49-69.

“Tra illusione e verità nel Gattopardo: la storia di Concetta, l’ultima salina.” Le siciliane: Così sono se vi pare. Ed. Giovanna Summerfield. Novi ligure: Puntocapa Editrice, 2011. 44-63.

“Cavalleria rusticana: El contexto.” Temporada d’Òpera 2010-2011. Amics del Liceu, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona. 109-112.

“‘Chi cerca trova, e chi séguita vince’: Seeking Revenge in Verga’s Cavalleria rusticana and Pirandello’s Liolà.” Vendetta: Essays on Honor and Revenge. Ed. Giovanna Summerfield. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010. 137-155.

“I ricordi sono per sempre.” Non soltanto un baule: Storie di emigranti italiani. Ed. Concetta Cirigliano Perna. Edizioni Farinelli, 2005. 64-9.

“Coming to Her Senses: The Journey of the Mother in La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa.” Italica 79.2 (2002): 240-56.

Service to the College

I have served as Speaker of the Faculty, Department Chair (World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures), Program Director (Italian Studies; Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies) and chaired the Committee on Faculty Scholarship, the Committee of Faculty Affairs, and the Committee on Academic Programs. I have also served on the Academic Governance Committee, the Committee on the Curriculum, and other college committees, ad hoc committees, and subcommittees, either as an elected or appointed member.