Julia Heim

Julia Heim (she/they) is a lecturer of Italian at the University of Pennsylvania on the unceded territory of the Lenni-Lenape peoples. As a scholar who focuses on LGBTQIA+ representation in contemporary Italian media, Heim comes to notions of “girlhood” through its margins, thinking through the borders of normalcy and legitimized representation that often constitute media’s representational and discursive genderings. She has published or is co-author of the recent articles “Queer Italian Studies: Critical Reflections from the Field,” “Why LGBTQIA+ Inclusivity Matters for Italian Studies,” and “Italian LGBTQ representation in Transnational TV.” They are currently following up their last co-edited volume Queering Italian Media (Lexington, 2020) with a new co-edited edition about Queer Italian American Media entitled Spaghetti Sissies (forthcoming).  She is an Italian to English translator of queer theory, art criticism, and the children’s book series Geronimo Stilton (as well as his sister Thea Stilton’s equally “fabumous” series). In addition to their research, Dr. Heim was the co-founder of the Queer Studies Caucus of the American Association of Italian Studies, and is co-founder of Asterisk (https://asterisk-academy.com/), an LGBTQIA+ inclusivity task force which seeks to bring awareness, inclusive pedagogy, and inclusive curricula development into institutions of higher learning.