Role
Dr. Valentina de Riso is a Research Assistant carrying out research on North American Literature and cultural history and activism (1960s-present).
Career overview
Valentina holds a degree in Anglophone and Francophone studies from the University of Cagliari (Italy), and an MSc in Comparative Literature from the University of Edinburgh. She completed her PhD in English at Nottingham Trent University in 2023. She is a member of the Postcolonial and Global Studies Centre and a regular book reviewer for the British Journal of Canadian Studies.
Research areas
Valentina’s PhD thesis, Contesting Reconciliation, Foregrounding Relationality, focused on contemporary writings by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women in Canada, the work of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Valentina’s current research focuses on epistemic injustice, healing and testimony, with attention paid to motifs of mutual understanding, empathy, as well as forgiveness and its refusal. Her research interests include Canadian and US literature and culture, contemporary literatures, Indigenous literature, African American writing in the US South, and the US protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Her methodologies include postcolonial and decolonial studies, feminist studies, affect studies, memory studies, and oral histories and testimony.
Publications
De Riso, Valentina. ‘Spin the Tale Inside: Opacity and Respectful Distance in Lee Maracle’s Celia’s Song’, Studies in Canadian Literature, 46.2 (2021), 88-107.
Book reviews:
De Riso, Valentina. ‘Knowing the Past, Facing the Future: Indigenous Education in Canada Ed. by Sheila Carr-Stewart’, British Journal of Canadian Studies, 33.2 (2021), 275-76.
De Riso, Valentina. ‘Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings Ed. by Michael Asch, John Borrows, and James Tully’, British Journal of Canadian Studies, 33.2 (2021), 276-77.
De Riso, Valentina. ‘In Good Relation: History, Gender, and Kinship in Indigenous Feminisms Ed. by Sarah Nickel and Amanda Fehr’, British Journal of Canadian Studies, 33.2 (2021), 277-78.
De Riso, Valentina. ‘The Theatre of Regret: Literature, Art, and the Politics of Reconciliation in Canada by David Gaertner’, Indigenous Voices and Stories, Postcolonial Studies Association Newsletter #27 (2022), 39-40.
De Riso, Valentina. ‘Literatures, Communities, and Learning: Conversations with Indigenous Writers by Aubrey Jean Hanson’, British Journal of Canadian Studies, 35.1 (2023), 107-8.