Congratulations to Francesca Spedalieri (MA, '11; PhD, '17) as she was appointed to a tenure track position at State University New York Stony Brook. Her split position is with the Department of English and the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities Studies. Francesca was awarded a University Fellowship when she joined the department to do her MA in Theatre under the supervision of Lesley Ferris.

The work of her dissertation "Seeing the Unseen, Staging the Unspoken: The Gender Politics and Political Language of Emma Dante’s Theatre in the Berlusconi Era (1994-2011)" made possible a major conference in 2014. "'Blurring Boundaries Without Burning Bridges' Italian Contemporary Performance, The Theatre of Emma Dante and Beyond" was an international conference which introduced Emma Dante and Compagnia Sud Costa Occidentale to the USA. The company performed Operetta Burlesque in Sicilian, Neopolitan, and Italian. At the conference Howard Shalwitz, Artistic Director of Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company, delivered the keynote address: "The Challenge of Relevance in a Polarized World". Raymond Bobgan, Artistic Director, Cleveland Public Theatre, was a guest speaker as well as others coming from Ireland, Canada, and the United States. The Wexner Center for the Arts screened the documentary Emma Dante: Sud Costa Occidentale by Clarissa Cappellani.

This year Swan Lake Press, Chicago, published mPalermu, Dancers, and Other Plays by Emma Dante, translated and with an introduction by Spedalieri.  A copy of this book will soon join the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute special collection of women playwrights.