Dr Francesca Calamita’s interdisciplinary research, transnational and anchored in feminist theory, bridges Italian women’s writing, cultural studies and gender studies. More specifically, she investigates how women’s relationship with food and body is portrayed in fiction, pop culture, advertisements, video performances and films. Her research interests also include medical humanities and migrant literature.

She is the author of the monograph Linguaggi dell’esperienza femminile: disturbi alimentari, donne e scrittura dall’Unità al Miracolo Economico (2015), featured in the prestigious literary journal Nuovi Argomenti, a number of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Francesca has also organized symposia over the course of her teaching fellowship at Victoria University of Wellington (2013) and Visiting Fellowship (2013-2014) at the University of London’s Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing where she continues to serve as an associate member.  She is co-editor of a volume on anorexia and bulimia in French, German and Italian literature, funded by a Buckner W. Clay Dean of Arts and Sciences grant and she is working on a new edited collection on gender, women and food. Dr Calamita is a member of the interdisciplinary research network “Hungry for Words”, based at the University of Nottingham and funded by AHRC, where in July 2016 and January 2018 she was an invited speaker at the inaugural and final workshops of the collective. Dr Calamita is also interested in second language acquisition and in the intersections between Italian language and gender and serves as the Institute of World Language Reading & Research Group's team leader.

Her teaching interests complement her research in gender systems, global modes of exchange, and foodways. At Victoria University of Wellington Dr Calamita taught and coordinated a number of courses in Italian and European Studies. At UVa, she is also the project leader for Dolcissimo: Speak the Sweet Life, a second language acquisition and food studies project funded by the Institute of World Languages, and for A Gendered Wor(l)d: Grammar, Sexism and Cultural Changes in Italian Language and Society, a multimodal learning experience which allows students to engage critically with Italian media and to become sensitive to the gendered politics of language.