Dr Luca Paci

Overview

I have a PhD in Italian Studies from Swansea University and a first-class Honours Degree in Philosophy from Pavia University. I have taught all levels of CEFR from A1 to C2.

My academic speciality is the work of the philosopher Benedetto Croce, which has led me to explore in detail the first half of twentieth century Italian history, politics, and culture. I regularly teach modules on History of the Mafia from the origins to today, History of Italy from the Risorgimento to the Second Republic and Classic and Contemporary Italian Cinema and Literature, specialising in Contemporary Poetry.

I am also a poet and translator. I have translated and edited La Ragazza Carla/A Girl Named Carla by Elio Pagliarani (Troubadour, 2006) and Bondo by Menna Elfyn (Ludo, 2021). I have recently edited Alibi (Ensemble, 2022) an anthology of Italian poets residing in the UK and Tempo: Excursions in Twenty-First Italian Poetry (Parthian, 2022). I also devised and curated The Self Help Show with illustrator Chris Glynn.

In addition to teaching and translating I am co-director of the Italian Cultural Centre Wales where I help run a rich programme of cultural events in Cardiff including an annual film festival and a monthly book club on modern and contemporary Italian writers. I am also a member of the executive board of Wales PEN Cymru.

Publications and contributions

• Tempo: Excursions in 21^st Century Italian Poetry edited by Luca Paci (Parthian 2022)
• Alibi: Anthology of Italian poets in the UK edited by Marta Arnaldi and Luca Paci (Roma Ensemble, 2022)
• Bondo, collected poems by Menna Elfyn, edited and translated by Luca Paci and Pino Serpillo (LùDo Edizioni, February 2021)
• Essay: ‘(Re)-Constructing Mogadishu/Xamar: A Note on Multilingual Poetry on Shirin Ramzanali Fazel’ in International Perspectives on Multilingual Literatures ( K.Jones, J.Preece and A. Rees eds.), Cambridge Scholars, November 2020
• Article: History Subsumed: Objectivity and Historiography in Croce’s Early work 'Collingwood and British Idealism Studies' Volume 21, No.2, 2015
• Editor of Pro/Testo, anthology of contemporary Italian poets (Fara Editore, Rimini, 2010)
• Contributor to Vicino alle nubi sulla montagna crollata poetry anthology (Campanotto, Udine, 2008)
• Essay: ‘Estasi e scrittura in Nostra Signora dei Turchi’ in Narrativa italiana degli anni Sessanta e Settanta (Dante & Descartes, Naples, 2007)
• Translation of La ragazza Carla by Elio Pagliarani (Troubador, Leicester, 2006)
• Contributor to Poesia del dissenso (Joker, Genoa, 2006)
• The Fine Line poems in collaboration with Jürgen Ghebrezgiabiher, prefaced by Iain Sinclair (Chanticleer Publishing House, Edinburgh, 2005)