HISTORIAN OF TRANSNATIONAL ITALY

HISTORIAN OF TRANSNATIONAL ITALY

Specialist in Food and Politics

Diana Garvin is Assistant Professor of Italian with a focus on Mediterranean Studies at the University of Oregon. Garvin conducted her postdoctoral research at the American Academy in Rome. She received her PhD from Cornell University, and her AB from Harvard University.

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Praise

"Garvin's research and classes are changing the face of Italian and Italian Studies at the University of Oregon."

-UO Sustainability Teaching Award (2021) for "Eco-Italy" course, committee notes

"A superb article, indeed one of the most compelling that I’ve read for some time. It is beautifully written, theoretically trenchant, and deeply insightful ... it brings deep and humane attention to the material interconnections of gender, class place and history as they impact on lived experience, and it does so with an impeccable balance of creative awareness, persistently probing intelligence, and scrupulous outrage. Wonderful!"

-WCSA Linkon Award for "Singing Truth to Power" article (2017), judge's notes

"Diana made my last year of Italian fun and full of chances to expand my speaking skills. She went out of her way to see if there was anything she could do, as well as giving me many words of encouragement. I thoroughly enjoyed her class!"

-"Mediterranean Ecocriticism" course (2019), student evaluation

"A fascinating work focusing on what seems to be a normal aspect of life... Garvin reveals how Italian women actively participated in this enterprise, proposing original ideas or countering directives and indications about food, tools, and habits."

-MLA Scaglione Publication Award, Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies, Hon. Men. (2020) for Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Women's Food Work, judges' comments

Research & Work

Specialist in food and politics

Women, Food, & Politics

Garvin researches food history to examine how women negotiated politics in Fascist Italy and Italian East Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia).

Reproductive Health

She also studies the history of reproductive health care in Italy from Fascism to Neo-Fascism.

History of Coffee Culture

Garvin recently received the Fulbright Global Scholar award to support her forthcoming book, The Bean in the Machine.

Explore Dr. Garvin's Work:

Articles
Talks & Interviews

Work Featured in:

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Books

feedingfascim

Feeding Fascism

The Politics of Women's Food Work

Feeding Fascism explores how women negotiated the politics of Italy’s Fascist regime in their daily lives and how they fed their families through agricultural and industrial labour.

The book looks at women’s experiences of Fascism by examining the material world in which they lived in relation to their thoughts, feelings, and actions.

In Progress

The Bean in the Machine

The history of coffee culture across three continents in the early twentieth century.

Winner of the 2020-2022 Fulbright Global Scholar Award, 2020 Getty Library Research Grant

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Speaking

Diana Garvin gives lectures at museums and universities and provides interviews for radio and podcasts.

Areas of expertise include:

  • far-right politics
  • reproductive health care
  • Italian food history
  • coffee and caffè culture
Book to Talk