Italian Studies

Karina Mascorro's dissertation at Brown, written under the direction of Lina Fruzzetti and M. Riva, examined the interplay between ethnography and fiction in the work of postcolonial Afro-Italian female writers, showing how Afro-Italian women writers’ texts serve to remember and legitimize a highly contested historical period with lasting social and cultural effects, persisting into the modern era. After completing her PHD she worked at RIC, where she developed her leadership skills as an administrator to create a center on a university campus that focused on foreign language acquisition through kinesthetic learning. These and other professional skills brought her back to her native California where she currently is Director of Alumni Engagement at the Luskin School of Public Affairs of UCLA.