About

Before joining the University of Warwick, I taught Italian language and culture to undergraduates and postgraduates at the University of Strathclyde (2019-2022), where I was awarded a PhD in Italian Studies in 2023. I had previously completed an MA in Modern Philology at the University of Catania, following a period of study abroad at the Université de Lorraine. As an undergraduate, I studied Modern Literatures at the University of Catania.

Research interests

My research investigates the intersections between images and words, with a particular focus on the ontological meaning of ekphrasis, on the role it has in producing a viewing subject and on the different ekphrastic strategies and functions that authors have adopted throughout the ages. I am especially interested in the role that Italian literature played in the European ekphrastic tradition of the 20^th century and in the diverse interdisciplinary practices of writers and artists.

My research interests include:

• Visual Culture Studies
• 19^th and 20^th century Italian literature
• Sicilian literature
• Ekphrasis and the novel

My doctoral research project explored the relation between images and words in the works of the Italian author Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989). More specifically, my study took a philological and multidisciplinary approach to show how Sciascia’s familiarity with the visual arts informed his narrative choices and influenced the interartistic experimentation attained in his mature novels. The final thesis supported and highlighted this hidden aspect of the author’s poetics with previously unexamined evidence, which I was able to access through developing a working relationship with the Sciascia estate. I presented my findings at several international conferences and I am currently preparing my first monograph, which aims to shed new light on the pioneering role that Sciascia played in the rise of a fiction based on the visual dimension and on his activity as a non professional art critic.

Recently, I have been collaborating with the Italian department of the University of Toronto in the creation of the podcast L’alfabeto di Sciascia, writing and recording the fifth episode of the series. In 2018 I was involved in the second season of the podcast ‘Coffee break Italian’, which promotes the study of the Italian language and culture. Since 2018 I have also been an editor of Kepos, a peer reviewed Academic Journal of Italian Literature.

Publications

[Book chapter] Parisi, Sara, 'Hidden Ekphrasis for a Socio-political Discourse in the Works of Vincenzo Consolo', in Ekphrasis in Italian Culture from Antiquity to the Digital Age, ed. by Ambra Moroncini and Michelangelo Zaccarello (Florence: Cesati Editore) (forthcoming, 2025)

[Book review] Sarti, Lisa, Michael Subialka and Carlo Di Lieto, Scrittura d’immagini. Pirandello e la visualità tra arte, filosofia e psicoanalisi (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore, 2021); 220 pp.; ISBN 978-88-498-6606-3, in Pirandello Studies, Vol. 44 (2024).

[Exhibition catalogue] Izzo, Francesco and Sara Parisi, Leonardo Sciascia amateur d’estampes, 2024-2025 (Valverde: Il Girasole Edizioni, 2024), ISBN 978-88-97466-24-6.

[Article] Parisi, Sara, ‘Unravelling the Truth Through Art: Ekphrastic Strategies in Leonardo Sciascia and Vincenzo Consolo’, Letteratura & Arte, ed. by Marcello Ciccuto, Eloisa Morra and Chiara Portesine, 19 (2021), 145-159, DOI: 10.19272/202106001008.

Administrative Roles

• SSLC Academic Convenor (Italian)
• Exam secretary (Italian)
• Widening Participation Officer for Italian Studies

Events Organised

‘Sciascia Today' (with D. Messina, J. Farrell and L. Wren-Owens), 15-16 May 2025 (funded by SIS, ASMI, Italian Cultural Institute, Edinburgh and Associazione Amici di Leonardo Sciascia)

'Beyond Borders: Understanding and Narrating Migration’ (with E. Romeo), Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) summer school 2021, 23 June 2021, (funded by SGSAH).

‘Unveiling Art Through Words: Interartistic Encounters in Italian Literature’, CAIS Conference, 4 June 2021.

Projects

LaleoLab: Tackling Gender Stereotypes in Science and Education with a Board Game

Prizes

BIS-SIS Postgraduate Prize (2023)

Qualifications

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• PhD in Italian Studies – University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
• Postgraduate Certificate in Researcher Professional Development – University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
• CEDILS Certificate – University Ca’ Foscari of Venice
• MA in Modern Philology – University of Catania
• BA in Modern Literatures – University of Catania