Claudia Zanella studied in Milan, at Università degli Studi di Milano, where she earned a Laurea in Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne with a thesis on the Italian translations of Virginia Woolf’s short stories. In 2007 she received a Master’s in English Literature from DePaul University, writing a thesis on post-colonial and feminist discourses in Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. In 2022 she attended the Master’s in Didattica dell’italiano L2/LS and received her DITALS certifications (I and II level) from the Università per Stranieri di Siena. Claudia’s scholarly interests include women’s literature studies, Italian language pedagogy and translation studies.
Claudia loves living in Chicago. She is a subscriber to the Joffrey Ballet and attends all Italian opera performances at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In her spare time, she also enjoys dancing classes and travelling back to Italy to visit her family and to deepen her knowledge of Italian language, literature and culture.