The Research Team

Ecocritical perspectives in German-language literature

Principal Investigator

  • University of Salento
    • Giulia A. Disanto

Associated Investigator

  • University of Foggia
    • Lucia Perrone Capano

Associated Investigator

  • University of Salerno
    • Beatrice Wilke

Members

Giulia A. Disanto

Giulia A. Disanto is Associate Professor of German Literature at the Department of Humanities at the University of Salento. After a period of study and research at the University of Bari, Münster and at the Peter Szondi-Institut für AVL at the Freie University of Berlin, she received her PhD in Literary Studies – German Literature in 2006. Research fellow of German Literature from 2007 to 2010 at the University of Bari. 2007 and 2010: DAAD research fellowship in Berlin (FU and TU). 2018: Fellowship of the Robert Bosch Foudation and Deutscher Übersetzerfonds at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin.
Previous Research Fundings: Head of the research unit at the University of Salento within the project PRIN 2017-Line B, with University of Pisa and ISTI-CNR Pisa.
Her research interests include German literature from the nineteenth century to the present, notably with regard to the interplay between literature and history (war and peace studies), in avant-garde studies, in ecocriticism, in the literary genre of poetry. The main authors she has dealt with have been Paul Celan, J.W. Goethe, Franz Kafka, Hans Werner Richter, Erich M. Remarque, Raoul Schrott, Kurt Schwitters and Frank Wedekind. She is member of «EASLCE-European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture, and Environment», and of the editorial board of «Ecozon@. European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment».

Lucia Perrone Capano

Lucia Perrone Capano is Full Professor of German Literature in the Department of Humanities at the University of Foggia.
She is the Coordinator of the PhD Programme in Humanities and the Director of the Language Centre of the University of Foggia. A specialist in classical-romantic, twentieth-century and contemporary German literature, she has analysed in particular the forms of intermediality and interculturality in literary texts, the relations between literature and other forms knowledge (mathematics and ecocritical dimensions), and the writings of exile and migration.
Her latest books are: Re-visioni della modernità nell’opera di Irmgard Keun (Artemide, 2019); “Calcolare e pensare sono un’unica cosa”. Percorsi tra letteratura e matematica da Novalis a Kehlmann (Carocci, 2023).

Beatrice Wilke

Beatrice Wilke is Associate Professor of German Language, Translation and Linguistics at the Department of Humanities (DIPSUM), University of Salerno. She is a member of the Academic Board of the PhD Programme in Literary, Linguistic and Historical Studies (DILLS; University of Salerno) and participates in several scholarly associations and research networks, including AIG, GiG, IVG, and CIRM. She serves on the Scientific Committee of the “Studi e Testi” series published by DIPSUM, as well as on the editorial board of the series “Fields of Linguistics – Aktuelle Fragestellungen und Herausforderungen” (eds. J. Szczęk, A. Dargiewicz, M. Jakosz. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht). She teaches German Language and Linguistics in the Bachelor’s programme in Foreign Languages and Cultures, as well as in the Master’s programme in Modern Languages and Literatures. Her research focuses on spoken language, conversation analysis, contrastive linguistics, and German as a Foreign Language (DaF), as well as on cognitive and figurative language use across diverse textual genres. More recently, she has extended her research to the field of Kulinaristik, with particular attention to linguistic and discursive aspects related to food and food culture, as well as to ecolinguistics, exploring the interrelations between language, society, and the environment.

Antonella Catone

Antonella Catone is Associate Professor of German Language and Translation at the University of Foggia, where she is affiliated with the Department of Humanities. She holds a binational Ph.D. in Literary and Linguistic Studies, awarded by the University of Salerno and the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd (Germany). Her scholarly work is primarily concerned with the teaching of the German language and translation, with particular focus on the analysis of specialized language (Fachsprache) within literary texts, the didactics of German as a Foreign Language (DaF), and the application of digital technologies, including corpora and digital lexicographic resources, in both language education and linguistic research. Catone has published extensively on virtual learning environments for DaF and has held academic positions at the University of Salerno and the University of Calabria.

  • For more details, please see: https://www.unifg.it/it/rubrica/antonella-catone
  • You can contact her at: antonella.catone@unifg.it

Angela Conzo

Angela Conzo has been, since April 2025, a Research Fellow (project PRIN 2022) at the Department of Humanities, University of Salento, and since October 2022, a PhD candidate in Literary, Linguistic and Comparative Studies at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. In 2021 participated in a DAAD research fellowship at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen and in 2022 she worked as a research assistant at the
Paris-Lodron Universität Salzburg. She is a member of the Junges Hölderlin Forum and the Hölderlin-Gesellschaft, with which she published her peer-reviewed article: A. Conzo, Beobachtungen zu Hölderlins Übersetzung der zweiten Pythie, in: M. Vöhler, F. Christen (eds.), Hölderlin-Jahrbuch, 43, 2022/2023, Paderborn: Brill Fink 2023. Her research interests include German and Austrian literature (from the eighteenth century to the present); intercultural transfers between German-speaking countries and Greece; translation theory and practice; cultural studies: ecocriticism and spatial studies.

Nicoletta Gagliardi

Nicoletta Gagliardi is Associate Professor for German language, translation and linguistics at the University of Salerno. She studied at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität in Tübingen and at the University of Pisa. DAAD-Alumna,  member of the Academic Board of the PhD- Programme in Literary, Linguistic and Historical Studies of the University of Salerno, her main research interests are: the language of the authors of Chamisso-Literatur, Gesprächslinguistik, corpus linguistics, contrastive linguistics, polysemy, translation and didactics of Fachsprachen, CLIL, the didactic use of ICT, and film translation analysis.

Karl Gerhard Hempel

Karl Gerhard Hempel (1965) is Associate Professor of German Language, Translation and Linguistics at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy). From 1985 to 1995 he studied Classical Archaeology and Philology (Greek and Latin) in Bonn, Pisa and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich (M.A. 1991, Dr. phil. 1995). Since 1998 he has taught German Language and Translation at various Italian universities. At Lecce he is currently Head of the Foreign Languages and Cultures Programme and Vice-Coordinator of the Doctoral School of the Department of Humanities.
Research interests: technical and scientific languages, culture-bound differences in academic discourse, specialised translation Italian-German, history and theory of translation, language contact and minority languages.

Barbara Sasse

Barbara Sasse is Associate Professor of German Literature at the Department of Humanities Innovation and Research at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro” since 2017. She studied at the Universities of Düsseldorf and Münster (Germany) and she awarded a PhD at Münster in 1991. Since 2018: member of the College of the Research Doctorate in “Languages, Literatures and Arts” at the University of Bari. 1986-1990: Scientific Assistant at the Research Project “Bearers, fields, forms of pragmatic literacy in XIIIth Century”, financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the University of Münster. 1990-1995: Lecturer of German Language at the University of Bari. 1996-2017: Researcher of German Literature at the Foreign Language and Literature Faculty, actually called Department of Humanities Innovation and Research, at the University of Bari. Main research interests: German Literature in the era of Humanism and Reformation (XV-XVIth century); Reception of Italian Renaissance Literature in the German-speaking world; Gender studies. Main authors: Hans Sachs, Sebastian Brant, Johannes Adelphus Muling, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff.

Alessandra Schininà

Alessandra Schininà is Professor of German Literature at the University of Catania. Her research focuses on Austrian Literature, exile and contemporary Literatur. Coeditor of the book series Galatea, Studies on History, Literature and Arts in Central Europe and the Mediterranean (Artemide, Rom). Recently published volumes: (ed.) 1918. Crolli, rivoluzioni e trasformazioni nell’Europa centrale (Milan, 2020); L’eterno burocrate tra mito e realtà. Funzionari e impiegati nella letteratura austriaca (Rom, 2021); (ed.) In Movimento! Sprachen, Generationen, Politiken. Gegenwartsliteratur im euromediterranen Kontext (Rom, 2025).

Giovanni Tateo

Giovanni Tateo is Full Professor of German Literature at the Department of Humanities at the University of Salento since 2003. He studied at the Universities of Bari and Marburg. Since 2013: member of the College of the European International Research Doctorate in “Languages, Literatures, Cultures and their Applications”. 2008-2019: Director of the former Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, later called Department of Humanities of the University of Salento. 1985-1989: Scientific Assistant at the Seminary of Romance Studies at the University of Münster, Chair of Italian Literature. 1984-1985: DAAD scholar at the University of Marburg. Main research interests: Narratology; German-language narrative of Realism and Naturalism; Austrian Literature of the Jahrhundertwende. Main authors: H. Bahr, G. Hauptmann, C. F. Meyer, K. Ph. Moritz, F. von Saar, A. Schnitzler, Th. Storm.