Recent Comparative Studies PhD Graduate Arianna Salomon Publishes in Diasporic Italy

Let’s congratulate our own Dr. Arianna Salomon, a recent graduate of Florida Atlantic University’s PhD in Comparative Studies program.

She has published a new article entitled “Nadina LaSpina: The Missing Link in Italian American Disability Studies” in Diasporic Italy: Journal of the Italian American Studies Association .

In the article, Salomon turns attention to Nadina LaSpina and her place within Italian American disability studies. Her research brings together Italian American studies and disability studies, continuing the interdisciplinary scholarly work she developed as a Comparative Studies doctoral student.

Here's the abstract of the article: 

Nadina LaSpina's Such a Pretty Girl: A Story of Struggle, Empowerment, and Disability Pride (2019) bridges the gap between disability studies and Italian American studies. It is the missing link between the tradition of Italian American women writers and the contemporary boom of disability memoirs. The memoir opens in Sicily, where LaSpina's childhood is shaped by religious imagery, pity, and prejudices against her inability to walk caused by polio. Riposto becomes more than a literal place; it serves as a metaphor for the displacement and isolation experienced by disabled people everywhere. As LaSpina transitions to life and freedom in America, she explores essential Italian American themes, including language, the garden, food, the relationship with her mother, and memory. The American Dream, in particular, is not presented as material wealth but as her father's hope for a cure. LaSpina uses writing as a tool for emotional catharsis, reflecting on romantic and familial relationships, abuse, and motherhood. Ultimately, Such a Pretty Girl is a narrative of disability pride that refuses to frame LaSpina's journey in terms of overcoming, recovery, or supercrip narratives. Instead, it recounts the authentic journey of an Italian American woman without losing the materiality and reality of disability.

This publication highlights Salomon’s continued engagement with disability, identity, and Italian and Italian American literature and culture. It also represents an exciting continuation of her scholarly work following the completion of her PhD in Comparative Studies at FAU.

Read Dr. Salomon’s full article in Diasporic Italy here: Nadina LaSpina: The Missing Link in Italian American Disability Studies

Congratulations to Dr. Salomon on this exciting publication and her continued contributions to scholarship in disability studies and Italian American studies!