Dr Letizia Leonardi

Biography

I got my PhD in Translation Studies from the University of Aberdeen in June 2024. My PhD thesis focused on poetry translation. It investigated the English-language translations from the 19th-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi and their reception among contemporary anglophone speakers. In July 2024, I received an Honorary Appointment as Honorary Research Assistant in the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture. I am currently a Teaching Assistant in the French Department. I also teach French evening classes at the Language Centre.

External Memberships

-Member of EST (European Society for Translation Studies)

Prizes and Awards

 Honours

-Honorary Research Assistant, University of Aberdeen, 2024-2027. 

Research Overview

Publications:

• “Leopardi’s poetry in English and French translation: a cross-linguistic perspective”. In Giacomo Leopardi: Reading, Reception and Legacy in Europe, edited by Hamilton, P. and Marchionni, F., Legenda, 2026 (accepted for publication).
• "Leopardi's 'Cantico del gallo silvestre' in English translation: a contrastive analysis, The Italianist (accepted for publication). 
• “Poetic Machine Translation: an Oxymoron? The case of Giacomo Leopardi into English”. Traducción y sostenibilidad cultural II: retos y nuevos escenarios. Edicionaes Universidad de Salamanca (2025).
• “Implementing Higher Education Training for Intercultural Mediators in Schools”. In Teaching Interpreting and Live subtitling: Contexts, Modes and Technologies, edited by Eugeni, C., Ward, M. and Callum, W., Routledge, (2024).
• “Cantos by Giacomo Leopardi, translated by Aaron Jacob Spatz, Charles & Wonder, 2022, 538 pp., €24,78 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-937620-19-6”. Italian Studies, Volume 79, Issue 4, 1–3 (2024).
• “Literature in and through translation: literary translation as a pedagogical resource”. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation, Vol. 7, No. 3 (2024).
• “Overcoming Linguistic Inequities: Strengths and Limitations of Translation during the Pandemic”. International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2022).
• “The importance of accurate medical translation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic”. Granite Journal (the University of Aberdeen Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Journal), Vol. 7, No. 1 (2022).

Conference papers

• "Leopardi in Scotland: poetry translation as the affirmation of national identity", World Poetry Today, Translation and Reception, University of Tartu (forthcoming, October 2025). 
• "From book to screen: humour and taboo language in Bridget Jones’s Baby", Trextuality 2: Material Turns in Translation – Intermediality and Circulation, University of Galway, Ireland (forthcoming, September 2025)
• “Readers’ reception of translated poetry: an empirical investigation”. The 11th EST Congress: The Changing Faces of Translation and Interpreting Studies, University of Leeds (forthcoming, June 2025).
• "Subjectivity in readerly interpretation of poetic translation: an evidence-based study". Fifth International Conference on Transaltion, Interpreting and Cognition, University of Adger (forthcoming, June 2025). 
• "Science communication on YouTube: an error analysis of French<>English automatic subtitles". VIII International Congress on Science and Translation: interdisciplinary bridges and dissemination of scientific knowledgeUniversity of Córdoba / University of Innsbruck (forthcoming, March 2025).
• “The Cantico del Gallo Silvestre in English Translation”. Leopardi in the UK. University of Oxford (17th June 2024).
• “Digital Poetry Translation Collections: Leopardi’s Canti as a case study”. PETRA-E Network Conference. Confluences: Literary Translation in the Digital Era. Online (30th-31st May 2024).
• “Poetic Machine Translation: an Oxymoron? The case of Giacomo Leopardi into English”. Paper presented at the panel “Literary Translation”, 2nd International Conference on Translation and Cultural Sustainability, Challenges and New Avenues. Universidad de Salamanca, Spain (17th-18th- 19th April 2024).
• “Literature in and through translation: literary translation as a pedagogical resource”. Paper presented at the panel: “Rethinking Translation Curricula”, APTIS 2023, 5th Annual Conference of the Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting: The teaching and learning that matter today. Queen’s University Belfast (2nd -3rd November 2023).
• “Leopardi through translation”. Paper presented at the symposium Leopardi in the UK. University of Oxford (26th May 2023).
• “Problems in Poetry Translation: infinite ways of translating Leopardi’s The Infinite into English”. Paper presented at the PGR Annual Conference. University of Aberdeen (2nd December 2022).
• “The importance of implementing training opportunities at higher education level for linguistic and intercultural mediators in schools”. Paper presented at the panel “Interpreting practice”, APTIS 2022 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting: Translation and Interpreting Pedagogy in a post-pandemic world. New opportunities and challenges. University of Leeds (18th -19th November 2022).
• “Overcoming Linguistic Inequities: translation as a form of connectedness during the pandemic”. Paper presented at the 2022 Annual PG Conference in Comparative Literature and Translation Studies. University of Glasgow (6th May 2022).

Research papers presented at seminar series

• "Death in Giacomo Leopardi and William Drummond". British Comparative Literature Association Seminar Series: Emerging Voices in Comparative Literature (20th February 2025)
• “Poetry translation: the possibility of the impossible”. Paper presented during one of the Centre for Translation and Interpreting Studies’ Research Seminar Series. University of Aberdeen (30th March 2022).

Invited talks

• Panel Discussion on Literary Translation', Centre for Multilingual Research, University of Aberdeen (12th March 2025). 

Knowledge Exchange

In September 2022, I participated in the competition “HERStory Makers”, part of EXPLORATHON 2022 (European Researcher's Night Scotland) producing a short video about my research https://figshare.com/articles/media/HERStory_Makers_2022_Letizia_Leonardi/24422131?file=42870283

Funding and Grants

-EST (European Society for Translation Studies) Conference and Training Grant. The grant will enable me to present a paper at the Fifth International Conference on Translation and Interpreting Cognition (ICTIC 5) in June 2025. 

Teaching Responsibilities

I teach French oral classes in the following course:

-Introductory French Language for Medical Students (ME33IF)

-Qualified French Language 1 (FR1029)

-Advanced French Language 1 (FR2002)

-Qualified French Language 2 (FR1529)

-Beginners French Language 2 (FR1528)

-Advanced Introductory French Language 2 (FR2502/FR2512)

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

-I teach French evening classes at the Language Centre.

-Seminar on Poetry Translation (Course on Literary Translation, MSc Translation Studies, March 2024).

-Seminar on Poetry Translation (Course on Literary Translation, MSc Translation Studies, March 2023).