Sam Zawacki

Samuel Zawacki is a Visiting Instructor in the Department of Transnational Italian Studies at Bryn Mawr College. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Italian and Linguistics (2018) and a master’s degree in Italian studies (2019) from New York University where he earned grants from the D’agostino Fund, departmental honors, and the Guido Cavalcanti Award for excellence in Italian. 

Currently Samuel is completing a PhD in Italian Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University. In his dissertation project “Queer Lies: Truth, Identity, and Dissimulation in Italian Trans Auto-Narration,” he explores the performance of trans identity and the strategic deployment of dissimulation and self-misrepresentation in trans-authored works of memoir and auto-narration. His broader research interests include contemporary Italian literature, film, critical theory, feminist and gender studies, trans theory, autobiography studies, translation, and the digital humanities. 

Beyond his research, Samuel is an avid translator and is currently completing a full-length translation of Romina Cecconi, the first trans woman in Italy’s Io, la “Romanina” (forthcoming 2027, Rutgers University Press) as part of a larger project to make Italian trans narratives accessible (and teachable) in the anglophone world. In July 2023, Samuel was awarded the ESSAYS Fellowship sponsored by Italy’s Ministry of Culture and its Centro per il libro e la letteratura for this project. 

Most recently, Samuel joined the editorial team of Dante Today, an online archive of contemporary Dante sightings and citings, as Assistant Editor, generously supported by a grant from the Singleton Center for the Study of Premodern Europe. He has also served as Assistant Editor to the Italian issue of Modern Language Notes since 2019.