I am a historian of Italy and the US with expertise in political theory and cultural studies. My research focuses on ideology, identity, and the intersection of politics and popular culture in twentieth-century Italy. In my recently published book, Comic Fascism, I examined the representation of political ideas in popular comics in Italy during the Fascist era and the early Republic in order to identify continuities and ruptures in Italian culture and political discourse during this period of transition. I am particularly interested in the ways in which Fascist ideas persisted within political groups entangled with the Fascist regime, particularly the conservatives who had formerly given it support.
Beyond this project, my research has ranged from the use of comics to teach history, to the evolution of political ideas on the far-right, to contemporary geopolitical events.
Books
Comic Fascism: Ideology, Catholicism, and Americanism in Italian Children’s Periodicals (OSU Press, 2025). Now available for purchase
Book Chapters
“Materializing the Past: Teaching History through Graphic Novels,” in Teaching, Learning and Comics in Primary and Secondary Education, edited by Robert Aman and Lars Wallner (Spring International Publishing, 2022)
Articles
“Authoritarianism is Built on Collaboration: How Supporters Enabled and Normalized the Fascist Consolidation of Power,” Democracy Seminar (5 March 2025)
“How Claims of National Sovereignty Can Legitimize Border Invasions: Putin and the Dictator’s Playbook,” Democracy Seminar (14 April 2022)
Presentations & Conferences
“ ‘Heroes with Foreign Names’: Italo-American Cultural Exchange and Conflict through Comics, 1930–42.” Paul Lucas Graduate History Conference, Indiana University History Graduate Student Association (2024).
“Between Conflict and Complicity: Fascism and the Catholic Church in the Pages of ‘Il Vittorioso’.” Cantieri di storia XII, Società italiana per lo studio della storia contemporanea (2023).
“Neofascism and Reactionary Populism: The Failings of Liberal Democracy and the Rebranding of the Italian Far Right.” Democracy and Populism: Equality, Truth, and Disagreement in the Age of Covid, Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics, & Ethics (2021).
“Hearst, Mondadori, and the Fascist Leaders: Transnational Cultural Entanglements and the Evolution of Fascist Thought, 1930–1960.” Fascism and the Radical Right: Comparison and Entanglements, Third Convention of the International Association for Comparative Fascist Studies (2020).
“Why do the Ascari Smile?: Visual Representations of Colonial Troops in Italian East Africa.” Panel on Diversity and Visual Culture, Indiana University (2018).
“Why do the Ascari Smile?: Visual Representations of Colonial Troops in Italian East Africa.” Unsituated Knowledges Conference, Rutgers Italian Graduate Society (2017).
Reviews
America in Italian Culture: The Rise of a New Model of Modernity, 1861–1943, Journal of American History, Volume 111, Issue 4, March 2025, Pages 802–803, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaae307
Invited Talks
Moderated discussion of Christian Nationalism and the film Bad Faith: Trinity Episcopal Church (October 15, 2025)
Zane Elward 