Welcome! My name is Viola Ardeni and I am a feminist scholar and educator of the humanities with a Ph.D. in Italian from the University of California, Los Angeles. I currently work as an Assistant Professor of Italian and the Italian Language Area Head at the California State University, Sacramento.

My areas of teaching and research expertise are fairy tales, children’s entertainment, and girlhood in Italian cultures; inclusive language pedagogy; and environmental humanities. I also enjoy going to the movie theater, riding my bike, and reading female-centered historical novels.

My most recent scholarship endeavor is a book chapter on Italian children’s book rewritings of the Bluebeard fairy tale and how they intervene in the debate on murders of women in Italy, or femminicidi. Find the chapter here.

I also just published an article on my experience teaching how read and write fairy tales at the college level (and what we may mean by “transnational Italian fairy tales”) in the 2024 issue of Favola & Fiaba. Read it here.

You may browse through all my pages for details on the rest of my scholarship, pedagogical activities as well as service in publishing and feel free to get in touch. Grazie!