Elena Borelli graduated from Bologna University with a Master’s in Classics in 2002 and received a Master’s in Second Language Acquisition from the University of Venice. She then went on to complete a Ph.D. in Italian and French Literature at Rutgers University. From 2012 to 2016 she was Assistant Professor of Italian literature at the City University of New York. Elena joined King’s College London in 2017 and she is now Deputy Team Leader for Italian and Linguistics.

Academic Publications

Borelli, E., Rifeser, J., Puntil, D. “(Un) Doing home or what is home for you? Exploring home-making and identity: A case study from London higher education classrooms” in London Review of Education. Special issue: Belonging and home-making in the internationalised campus, edited by Bojana Petrić, Cristina Ros i Solé and Prue Holmes , September 2023 

Scholarly Activity 

Elena's research focuses on the literature and culture of the European fin de siècle, on the history and practice of translation as well on directionality in translation.

Additional Academic Roles

Higher Education Academy FellowMember of AULCMember of ALTA (American Literary Translators Association)Founding member of NILI UK (Network Insegnanti di Lingua Italiana UK)

Selected Publications

• "Convivial Poems". Translation of Giovanni Pascoli, Poemi Conviviali, with J. Ackhurst. Italica Press, 2022.
• “Traduzione o tradizione? Il dibattito sulla letteratura ne Il Marzocco” in Bouchard N., Ferme, V.(eds), Annali di Italianistica. Nation(s) & Translations 38 (2020), pp.177-192.
• "Taming Desire: Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in Gabriele D'Annunzio's Novels (1889-1900)",  in The Poetics of Decadence in Fin-de-Siècle Italy, co-ed by Stefano Evangelista, Valeria Giannantonio and Elisabetta Selmi, (Peter Lang 2018), 225-50.
• Action or Contemplation? The Ethics of Desire in Fin de Siècle Italy, (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press , 2017)
• “Homo Faber. Giovanni Pascoli tra Scienza e Tecnologia. Rivista Pascoliana 27 (2015), 29-40.
• “The Beast Within. Desire in Fin de Siècle Italian Literature.” in Biological Discourses, ed. David Midgley (Peter Lang, 2017)
• "The Fire Within: Desire in Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature" (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014)
• “Dante in Gabriele D’Annunzio’s Poetry: From Mystical Lover to Poeta Vate”,  in Mediaevalia  Dante politico. Ideological Reception Across Boundaries (2017)
• "L'Effigie dell'Italia Bella: Aestheticism, Darwinism and Nationalism in Gabriele D'Annunzio's Writings." La Fusta XX,  2012, 26-34
• "Morality in Giovanni Pascoli’s Dantean Writings". Dante in the 19th Century, (Peter Lang Cultural Interactions Series, 2011) 331-349.
• "La Femme Orientale et le Héros de l’Occident. Dans le Laboratoire de la Re-écriture Ariostesque". Les Lettres Romanes Numéro Special (2008), 43-54.
• "Language and Identity in Vittorio Alfieri’s Vita". MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, 3, (2008), 1-12.