Kristina R. Varade
Professor
Modern Languages
EMAIL: kvarade@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: S-601V
Office Hours: On sabbatical until Fall, 2020
Phone: +1 (212) 346-8556
Kristina Varade earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (Italian Specialization and Concentration in Irish Studies) from The Graduate Center, CUNY, her M.A. from New York University, and her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College. Dr. Varade has published several articles on Irish and Italian Comparative Literature from a variety of time periods. She has published in New Hibernia Review, Annali D’Italianistica, Forum italicum and Irish Literary Studies, among others. She recently published a book chapter on Irish writer Pat McCabe in “Pat McCabe’s Ireland” (Jennifer Keating, Ed.; Brill/Rodopi 2019) and will soon publish a book chapter on the posthuman and the cellphone in the Italian fiction of Nove, De Carlo and Ammaniti. Dr. Varade is currently preparing a book manuscript on the Anglo-Irish author, consular representative and journalist Charles Lever, and she recently completed a book chapter on happiness and money in the writing of Lever and Maria Edgeworth to be published with Liverpool University Press.
In addition to her work in Irish/Italian Comparative Studies, Dr. Varade has co-organized two international multi-day conferences with Dance Research Forum Ireland (Fóram Taighde Rince na hÉireann). The first, “Uprising,” was held in 2016 at New York University; the second, “Power, Politics and the Dancing Body,” was held in 2018 at Limerick Institute of Technology.
She has been awarded “Associate” fellowships with Notre Dame’s Global Gateway in Rome (2017) and Oxford (2019). She was awarded a fellowship with the Frank McCourt Creative Writing School at Glucksman House, NYU and in tandem with University of Limerick in 2016. She has been granted several internal and external awards for her interdisciplinary research. Finally, as an avid student of the Irish language, Dr. Varade was awarded a scholarship to study in the Waterford Gaeltacht in the summer of 2017.
Most recently, Dr. Varade was awarded two major sabbatical fellowships. The first, a fellowship with the Long Room Hub at Trinity College, Dublin, will take place in Spring, 2020. The second, at University College Dublin’s Humanities Institute, will be completed later that spring and throughout Summer, 2020.
Dr. Varade is proud to work in tandem with her colleagues to strengthen the Italian program at BMCC. The program boasts one of the highest numbers of Italian students enrolled in a U.S. program. In this capacity, she has acted as a faculty consultant to the MLA to improve hiring at the community college level in modern language departments. She teaches Beginner, Intermediate and High Intermediate language courses and a course on Italian cinema and society.
Expertise
Dr. Varade’s area of academic inquiry broadly focuses on comparisons between Irish and Italian fiction in a wide range of historical periods and from a variety of literary perspectives. In particular, Dr. Varade is focused upon comparisons between contemporary Irish fiction in English and Italian contemporary literature. She is equally interested in nineteenth century Anglo-Irish travellers to and perceptions of Italy, including those of Maria Edgeworth, Charles Lever and Sydney Owenson (“Lady Morgan”).
Degrees
- Ph.D. The Graduate Center, CUNY, Comparative Literature/Italian Specialization, Irish Concentration
- M.Phil. The Graduate Center, CUNY, Philosophy
- M.A. New York University, Humanities and Social Thought,
- B.A. Mount Holyoke College, English/Italian
Courses Taught
- This course is for students who have had no previous background in Italian. Grammar is taught inductively and simple texts are read. Skills in comprehension, speaking, reading and writing are developed.
- In this continuation of Italian I, grammar, composition, conversation, and reading of Italian texts are covered. Prerequisite: ITL 101 or departmental approval
- Study in this course includes a review of grammar and of composition. Modern prose is read, discussed and analyzed.
- This course offers the student Social Science field experience in Italy. Orientation, seminars with guest lecturers, field trips to sites of historic interest, and cultural tours are an integral part of the travel program. The field experience base of operations is a university in Italy.
Research and Projects
Dr. Varade is currently investigating the work of Charles Lever (1806-1872), an Anglo-Irish novelist, journalist, and consular representative whose written contributions are deserving of reconsideration and new analysis. She is particularly interested in how Lever’s critical literary eye disrupts the conventional travel narrative and challenges a personal awareness of identity.
Her new project will examine the historical and literary contributions of the ‘Irlandiani,’ or Italian residents of Ireland, to the country. This group of Irish residents has historically been overlooked, yet their contributions to Ireland have been invaluable throughout several of the last centuries.
During her fellowship at Trinity College, Dr. Varade will complete book manuscript work on Lever and will initiate research on classical literary connections between nineteenth century Italian and Irish literature. This research will continue in her second fellowship later that spring at University College Dublin, at which time she will focus on the Irlandiani as delineated above.
Publications
“Money Can’t Buy Me…?” Health and Wealth in Nineteenth-Century Anglo-Irish Fiction and Memoir.” To appear in Happiness in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Mary Hatfield, Ed.). Liverpool University Press. Fall 2019. (Book Chapter).
“Ancora non raggiungibile: Mobile Phones and the Fragmented Subject in Italian Fiction.” To appear in Posthuman Boundaries and Identity in Italian Literature and Film (Enrica Maria Ferrara, Ed.). Palgrave. Fall 2019 (Book Chapter).
“It Ain’t Like the Old Place Anymore’: Contemporary Ireland and the Postmodern, Fragmented Individual in the Fiction of Patrick McCabe.” In Patrick McCabe’s Ireland: The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto and Winterwood (Jennifer Keating, Ed.). Brill/Rodopi Press. Winter 2018. (Book Chapter).
Review of Ireland, Reading and Cultural Nationalism, 1790-1930: Bringing the Nation to Book by Andrew Murphy. Irish Studies Review. Vol. 26:3. May 2018.
Review of War and Peace in Dante by John C. Barnes and Daragh O’Connell, eds. Forum Italicum, Fall 2017.
Dictionary Entry: “Italian American Dancers.” Italian Americans: The History and Culture of a People.ABC-CLIO, December 2016.
“Dressing the ‘Feispora’: Changes in Irish Dance Costume in the New Millennium.” New Hibernia Review, Vol. 19, no. 3. Autumn 2015.
Review of The Irish Dancing: Cultural Politics and Identities 1900-2000 by Barbara O’Connor. New Hibernia Review, Vol. 18, no.3. Autumn 2014.
“Mallrats versus Mall Brats: Consumer Culture and the ‘Nonplace’ in Contemporary Irish and Italian Fiction.” The International Journal of Literary Humanities, vol. 11, issue 2, 2014.
“The Petrarchan Tradition in Romantic-Era Britain.” Petrarch and the European Literary Tradition. Annali d’Italianistica, Inc., vol. 22, 2004.
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
Visiting Fellow, the Humanities Institute, University College, Dublin (Hosted by the UCD School of English, Drama and Film). Upcoming Spring/Summer, 2020.
Faculty Fellow, Trinity Long Room Hub. Trinity College, Dublin (Hosted by the Department of English, TCD). Upcoming Spring, 2020.
Associate Grant Recipient, University of Notre Dame Global Gateway. “Ireland and Britain.” Oxford, June 9-21, 2019.
Grant Recipient, PSC CUNY; TRAD A-50-146. “Gli irlandiani: Italian Irish Connections.” April, 2019.
Fellowship Participant, “Finnegans Wake at 80.” Trinity College, Dublin. April 11-13, 2019.
Invited Faculty Respondent, “Faculty Job Search for Doctoral Students.” The Wasserman Center for Career Development, New York University. April 5th, 2019.
Recipient of the Stefan Bernard Baumrin Associate Professor Travel Award sponsored by the CUNY Academy for Humanities and Sciences. December, 2018.
Invited Faculty Representative, Modern Language Association. Meeting to discuss enrollment and teaching success in community colleges. Fall, 2018
BMCC Grant Recipient, Enhanced Learning in the Classroom (ELIC). September, 2018.
Participant, “Tionól Gaeilge UCD.” Level 3 – Meánrang 1/Lower Intermediate (TnaG17) University College Dublin, Dublin Ireland. July, 2018.
Co-Organizer, “Power, Politics and the Dancing Body”: Dance Research Forum Ireland’s 7th International Conference. Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland. June 28th– July 1st, 2018.
Participant, “The Irish Seminar: Ireland 1600-1800: Kingdom, Colony, Union, Empire.” University of Notre Dame. Dublin, Ireland. June 25th– June 29th, 2018.
Invited Faculty Respondent, “Academic, Research and Writing.” The Wasserman Center, New York University. New York, NY. November 14th, 2017.
Recipient of the Stewart Travel Award sponsored by the CUNY Academy for Humanities and Sciences. October, 2017.
Invited Speaker and Associate Grant Recipient, University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway. “Falling to Pieces: Postmodern Identity in Contemporary Irish and Italian Fiction.” Rome, Italy, June 16-30, 2017.
Grant Recipient, City University of New York. “Moving from Associate to Full Professor.” May, 2017.
Grant Recipient, PSC CUNY; TRAD A 48-532. “Disrupting the Canon on the Literary Margin: Charles Lever, Anglo-Irishness, and the Continent.” April, 2017.
BMCC Grant Recipient, Faculty Development Grant. “European Arab Intersections: An Examination of Hospitality.” April, 2017.
Grant recipient, Irish Language Learners. One of five recipients selected globally to participate in the two-week summer immersion program at Coláiste na Rinne in the Waterford Gaeltacht. Waterford, Ireland, March, 2017.
BMCC and CUNY Preparation for Teaching Online Modules. Successful Completion. November, 2016.
Recipient of the Frank McCourt Summer School in Creative Writing Workshop Scholarship, sponsored by the University of Limerick. July, 2016.
Co-Organizer, Uprising: Dance Research Forum Ireland’s 6th International Conference. New York University, June, 2016.
Fulbright Gaeltacht Summer Award. Alternate. April 22nd, 2016.
Recipient of the Stewart Travel Award sponsored by the CUNY Academy for Humanities and Sciences. October, 2015
Grant Recipient, PSC CUNY; TRAD B 46-101. “Charles Lever: New Considerations and Global Perspectives in Anglo-Irish Literature.” April, 2015.
BMCC Grant Recipient, Enhanced Learning in the Classroom (ELIC). February, 2015.
Grant Recipient, PSC CUNY; TRAD A 45- 65. “It Ain’t Like the Old Place Anymore’: Contemporary Ireland and the Postmodern, Fragmented Individual in the Fiction of Patrick McCabe.” April, 2014.
Recipient of the Stewart Travel Award sponsored by the CUNY Academy for Humanities and Sciences. March, 2014.
BMCC Grant Recipient, Enhanced Learning in the Classroom (ELIC). February, 2014.
Grant Recipient, PSC CUNY; TRAD A 44-194. “Literary Eurocriminals: Irish and Italian Contemporary Crime Fiction and the European Economic Crisis.” April, 2013.
