Professor of Film History at the Università di Padova. She earned a PhD in Film Studies from UCLA and has been a visiting professor in Minneapolis and at UCLA. Her research focuses on the history of American and Italian cinema, gender culture, migration, and screenwriting.
In addition to essays published in Italian and English, she has authored 16 books, including Hollywood/Washington, La lista nera, Scrivere il film, Hollywood’s New Deal, Alle porte di Hays, Quei bravi ragazzi (translated into Mediated Ethnicity), Napoli/New York/Hollywood, Enrico Caruso da Napoli a New York, Napoli/New York andata e ritorno, and Sceneggiatura e sceneggiatori.
She is a member of the ESF programme Changing Media, Changing Europe, and of the networks Women and the Silent Screen and the American Association of Italian Studies. She co-curated the exhibition Italia a Hollywood at the Museo Ferragamo and curated Enrico Caruso. Da Napoli a New York at the MANN. She is also the author of the documentaries Robert Vignola: da Trivigno a Hollywood and Enrico Caruso: The Greatest Singer in the World, produced by the Ministero degli Affari Esteri.