I am happy to both teach within and have been educated by the California public higher education system.
- Education
I hold a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, San Diego, an M.A. in World and Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University, and a B.A., with three majors — English, Italian, and Psychology — from the University of California, Davis.
- Teaching and Service at BCC
I’ve been a faculty member in the Humanities Program at BCC since 2004. I’ve also been Chair (or Co-chair) of the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies (2008 to 2016). I have also held other roles at BCC, including Chair of Professional Development and Faculty Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Center. I currently also work on the Academic and Career Communities development (Guided Pathways).
- Research and Writing
I frequently write, speak, and publish on different topics related to film, material culture, oral histories, and vernacular culture within Italian diaspora and transnational contexts. Sometimes I publish as a translator (Italian-English) and as a creative writer too. You can see/access some of my published works at my academia.edu page, through Google scholar, through all the standard library databases, or by emailing me! I am one of two editors of the Fordham University Press series, Critical Studies in Italian Migrations and I am on the editorial boards of California Italian Studies and the Italian American Review.
- Grants and Visiting Professorships
I am a Mellon/ACLS Faculty Fellow (2020-2021) and a Fulbright Scholar (2006). I received a National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Institute grant at the Bard Graduate Center (2011) and a Lola Homsher Endowment Award (2020). I have held visiting positions in Italian Studies at the University of California Berkeley (2015, 2020, 2022) and the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (2006). I’ve also taught in the Italian Diaspora Studies Summer Seminar, at Roma Tre University (with Queens College/CUNY) (2018, 2019).
If you search, you can probably find me on various social media outlets.
If you want to find out more about my teaching at BCC, please visit my home page. If you are a former student of mine, please drop me an email (LRUBERTO@peralta.edu) and let me know how you are doing! I love hearing from my former students.
- These are the covers of books I’ve authored, co-edited, and/or translated.