
Visiting Assistant Professor
French, Italian, and Classical Studies
Matthew Zundel
Education
2022 Ph.D. in Italian Studies, Awarded with Distinction, New York University
Dissertation: Perverse Dispositions: Sexual Dissidence in 1970s Italy; Advisor: David Forgacs; Committee: Ara Merjian, Emily Apter, Lorenzo Bernini, Jonathan Flatley
Completed required coursework towards Advanced Certificate in Poetics & Theory, Department of Comparative Literature, New York University
2015 M.A. in Gender Politics, Draper Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Thought, New York University
2012 B.A. in Italian, magna cum laude, Loyola University Chicago
2012 B.S. in Psychology, magna cum laude, Loyola University Chicago
Research and Teaching Areas
- 20th and 21st Century Italian Culture, Literature, and Film
- Intellectual History
- Fascism and Culture,
- Counterculture
- Critical Theory
- Gender and Sexuality Studies/Queer Studies
- Performance Studies
- Affect Theory
- Ecocriticism
- Theory and Practice of Translation
Grants, Fellowships, and Awards
- 2023 NeMLA Summer Research Fellowship, Northeastern Modern Language Association.
- 2022 Graduate Research Initiative Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University.
- 2021-2022 Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University.
- 2021-2022 Honorary Fellowship, New York University Center for the Humanities, New York University.
- 2021-2022 Fulbright Fellowship, Fulbright Student Program, IIE. (Declined)
- 2015-2021 Henry M. MacCracken Graduate Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University.
- 2019 Penfield Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University. Sponsored Participant at Cornell School of Criticism and Theory, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University.
- 2018 Research Fellowship from Friends of FAI, Italian Studies Department, New York University.
- 2017 D’Agostino Travel Grant, Italian Studies Department, New York University.
- 2015 Draper Travel Grant, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University.
- 2015 Rose and Herbert H. Hirschhorn Thesis Award, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University.
- 2012 Dante Key in Italian, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Loyola University Chicago.
- 2011 Presidential Silver Medal for academic excellence in students who attended Loyola University Chicago’s John Felice Rome Center, Premio America, Fondazione Italia- USA.
Selected Publications
REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES
- 2022 “‘Qualcosa di scritto:’ Sex and Affect in Petrolio.” Annali d’italianistica, Special Issue: “1922-2022, Pasolini and Freedom of Expression. Language, Style, Power,” 40 (October): 207-230.
- 2019 “Mario Mieli, ovvero il maestro masochista: Performative Elements of a Perverse Militancy.” gender/sexuality/italy, “Queer Italian Cultures Themed Section,” 6 (August): 28-50.
NON-REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES
- 2020 “Mario Mieli: Queer Dynamite.” AG: About Gender – International Journal of Gender Studies, 9 no. 17: 285-307.
PREFACES, NOTES, FOREWORDS, AFTERWORDS
- In Press “Translator’s Preface.” In Bernini, Lorenzo, The Sexual/Political: Freud with Marx, Fanon, Foucault, Routledge.
TRANSLATIONS
- In Press. Bernini, Lorenzo. The Sexual/Political: Freud with Marx, Fanon, Foucault. Routledge. 140,000-word monograph.
- In Press. Galluzzi, Francesco. “Pasolini’s Picasso between Passion and Ideology.” In Heretical Aesthetics: Pier Paolo Pasolini on Painting. Edited by Alessandro Giammei and Ara Merjian, with a foreword by TJ Clark, Verso.
- 2021 Righi, Andrea. “The Critique of the Law of the Father in Contemporary Italy.” Soft Power: Euro-American Journal of Historical and Theoretical Studies of Politics, vol. 8.2 (July- December): 27-43.
- 2020 Parinetto, Luciano. “Nazi-Fascism and Anal Repression.” Barricade: Journal of Antifascism and Translation, Special Issue: Gender, Sexuality, Politics, 3 (Spring): 65-90.
BOOK REVIEWS
- In Press. Mieli, Mario. La gaia critica. Politica e liberazione sessuale negli anni settanta. Scritti (1972-1983). A cura di Paola Mieli e Massimo Prearo. Venezia: Marsilio Editori, 2019. In Passato e Presente. Rivista di storia contemporanea.
- 2021 Mieli, Mario. Foreword by Tim Dean; introduction by Massimo Prearo; Towards a gay Communism: Elements of Homosexual Critique. Translated by David Fernbach and Evan Calder Williams (London: Pluto Press, 2018). In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 27 (February 2021): 208-209.
- 2016 *Champagne, John. Italian Masculinity as Queer Melodrama: Caravaggio, Puccini, Contemporary Cinema. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. In gender/sexuality/italy, 3 (December 2016): 153-155.
Invited Talks
- 2022 “Il movimento di liberazione gay di una volta.” Invited guest lector for the Race and Sexuality in Modern Italy, taught by Giovanni Miglianti, Department of Italian Studies, Yale University, March.
Conference Participation
PANELS CHAIRED
- 2021 “Before and after 1968: same-sex sexualities in 1950s and 1970s Italian Press.” Presenters: Alessio Ponzio (Panel Organizer), Luca Locati Luciani, Dario Pasquini. American Association of Italian Studies Annual Conference, held on Zoom, May-June.
PAPERS PRESENTED
- 2021 “‘Una bella carica dirompente’: Perversion, Revolution, and Utopia in the Theoretical Imagination of Luciano Parinetto and Mario Mieli.” Annual Conference for the Society of Italian Philosophy, University of Turin, November.
- 2021 “We are All Perverts: Expanding the Space of Consciousness-Raising in 1970s Italian Queer Militancy.” Poetics and Theory Conference: Communities—Imagined, Speculative, Real, Comparative Literature Department, New York University, April.
- 2017 “Mieli, il nostro maestro masochista: Elements of a Pedagogical Text.” QUIR (Queer Italia Rete) Workshop, Il PoliTeSse, University of Verona, April.
- 2015 “‘Sono tutti checche latenti:’ Searching for the Feminine in Mario Mieli’s criptochecche.” American Association of Italian Studies Annual Conference, University of Colorado, Boulder, April.
Departmental Lectures
- 2022 “Mario Mieli and the Italian Gay Liberation Movement.” Invited guest instructor for the Political and Social Movements in Italy, 1960-1980, taught by David Forgacs, Department of Italian Studies, New York University, March.
- 2021 “La traviata norma: Political Theatre from Italy’s Gay Liberation Movement.” Lecture for Eccoci qua Series: In-House Lectures at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, October.
- 2020 “Gender and Genre in Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier.” Lecture for Texts and Ideas: Visible and Invisible Cities, taught by Virginia Cox, College Core Curriculum, New York University, March.
- 2018 “Fascinating Fascism: Fascism, Perversion, and the Rhetoric of Demonization.” Lecture for Expressive Cultures: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Art and Architecture, taught by Ara Merjian, College Core Curriculum, New York University, October.
- 2017 “Italian Futurism: Europe and the Attack on Heritage.” Lecture for Cultures and Contexts: Global Italy, David Forgacs, College Core Curriculum, New York University, October.
Memberships in Professional Organizations
- Modern Language Association
- Northeastern Modern Languages Association
- American Association for Italian Studies
- Queer Studies Caucus (AAIS)
- Modernist Studies Association
- Gamma Kappa Alpha (Italian Honors Society)
Languages
- Italian: Near-Native Fluency
- French: Basic Reading