Staff Profile

• PhD in English Literature (Newcastle University).
• MA in Intercultural Studies (Università di Padova)
• MA in Modern Philology (Università di Padova)
• BA in Italian Studies (Università di Padova)

Research interests

• Italian & Anglophone Postcolonial Literature.
• World Literature.
• Diaspora Studies.
• Comparative Literature.
• African Literature(s).
• Literary Geographies.
• Blue Humanities.

I have a background in Italian Studies and Modern Philology (BA and MA), Intercultural Studies (MA), and Anglophone Literatures, Diaspora, Comparative and Postcolonial studies (PhD). My research navigates these interdisciplinary areas, with a new additional focus on the Blue Humanities and Ecocriticism from a postcolonial perspective.

An integral part of my work involves Literary Geography, particularly the study of urbanscapes. I explore the colonial planning and its enduring legacy in former Italian colonies and how urban spaces/places are represented in novels. Additionally, my research engages with Diaspora studies, examining diasporic experiences through a literary lens and investigating the connections and networks that emerge between authors and texts across languages, geographies and cultures.

My book, Literature of the Somali Diaspora (Bloomsbury, 2024), offers a comparative analysis of Somali diasporic novels written in English and Italian by authors such as Nuruddin Farah, Igiaba Scego, Garane Garane and Cristina Ali Farah. It examines the lasting impacts of colonialism and the Somali Civil War, which caused widespread displacement. The book highlights the ways Somali authors use the novel form to explore nationhood, identity and transnational belonging, fostering a multilingual and transnational literary community.

Other Activities

• European Connections at NCL (NUHRI-funded Project)
• NPRG: Reading Groups and Work-in-Progress Sessions
• Editorial board: Il Tolomeo

Current Teaching

SEL1023. Transformations (2024—25)

SEL1033. Doing Criticism (2024—25)

SEL1034. Beginnings (2024—25)

Prior Teaching

Newcastle

SEL1033. Doing Criticism (2023—24)

SEL1023. Transformations (2022—24)

SEL1030. Close Reading (2021—23)

SEL2233. Literatures of Decolonisation (2022–23)

SEL3362. Dissertations (2021—23)

SEL2205. Fiction of Migrations (2020–2022)

SEL1003. Introduction to Literary Studies I (2018—20)

Glasgow

ENGLIT4099 (Honours): Postcolonialism Writing & Theory (2021–22)

ENGLIT 4117: Dissertations (2021–22)

• Articles

  • Medugno M. Oceanic Futurism and Decolonial Ecologies from the Global South in the Multilingual Anthology Ecoceanic: Southern Flows (2024). Literature, Critique, and Empire Today 2026, (March). Submitted.
  • Medugno M. Colonial Traces in Contemporary Italian Literature: The Cases of Giulia Caminito’s La Grande A (2016) and Mario Tobino’s Il deserto della Libia (1952). Italian Studies 2024, 79(3), 299-317.
  • Medugno M. Rereading Afropean Identities through Espérance Hakuzwimana’s Tutta intera. Il Tolomeo 2023, 25, 133-152.
  • Medugno M, Bertolin M. Literary Map of I quindicimila passi. Trasparenze 2020, 6, 130.
  • Medugno M. Dante in Mogadishu: The Divine Comedy in Nuruddin Farah’s Links. Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 2020, 5(1), 45-55.
  • Medugno M. The Distinctive Use of the Italian Language in Nuruddin Farah’s Late Production. From the European South 2018, 3(1), 71-84.
  • Medugno M. A Contested Spatiality: The Representation of Mogadishu in Somali Anglophone and Italian Literature. Italian Studies in Southern Africa 2018, 31(1), 110-134.

• Authored Book

  • Medugno M. Literature of the Somali Diaspora. Space, Language and Resistance in Somali Novels in English and Italian. New York; London; Dublin: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.

• Book Chapters

  • Medugno M. "Diaspora". In: Byford, Andy; Nitschke, Claudia, ed. Handbook of Modern Languages and Cultures. De Gruyter, 2025. Submitted.
  • Medugno M. “Experience that Generates Experience”: The Influence of the Comedy in three South African Writings. In: S. Fanucchi, A. Virga, ed. A South African Convivio with Dante: Born Frees’ Interpretations of the Commedia. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2021, pp.131-143.
  • Medugno M. Influenze della tradizione orale somala nel romanzo Il latte è buono di Garane: una nuova possibile prospettiva di analisi. In: T. Cancro, C. De Paoli, F. Roncen, V. Russo, ed. Oralità e scrittura: i due volti delle parole. Padova: Padova University Press, 2019, pp.119-211.

• Online Publication

  • Medugno M. The présence Africaine in the Italian academia. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University, 2021. Available at: https://bit.ly/3BGw81M.

• Reviews

  • Medugno M. Love and Space in Contemporary African Diasporic Women’s Writing. Making Love, Making Worlds. Contemporary Women's Writing 2023, 17(3), 339-340.
  • Medugno M. Postcolonial Poetics: 21st-Century Critical Readings by Elleke Bohemer [Book review]. Interventions 2020, 22(2), 296-299.
  • Medugno M. Book Review / Recensioni: Italy and the Literatures from the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti. Beyond the Language and the Territory, by Daniele Comberiati & Xavier Luffin (eds). Studi di Italianistica nell'Africa Australe 2019, 32(1), 127-132.