Charlotte Ross is Reader in Gender, Sexuality and Cultural Studies and Head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham (UK). Her research focuses on how bodies, gender and sexuality are understood, constructed and represented in socio-cultural contexts. She is particularly interested in elaborations of sexuality and identity, in cultural texts as well as in practices of social engagement and activism. Recently, she has been involved in several collaborative projects. With Silvia Antosa (University of Enna ‘Korè’). She is currently working on a BA/Leverhulme-funded project entitled ‘Cultural Discourses on Desire between Women. A Queer Comparative Analysis’, which explores transversal relationships between discourses on female sexuality in Italy, France and the UK between the 1870s and the 1930s. Together with Julia Heim (Baruch College, CUNY) and SA Smythe (UC Irvine), she recently led an AHRC Research Network Project, called the ‘Queer Italia Network (QuIR). See the website for details of the workshops and events organised: www.queeritalia.com.
Previously, she completed an AHRC-funded project called Eccentricity and Sameness: Lesbian Cultural Identity in Italy, which explores the discursive construction and representation of lesbian identities and desire in literary and cultural texts. This has led to the publication of a monograph, Eccentricity and Sameness. Discourses on Lesbianism and Desire between Women in Italy, 1860s-1930s. For more information about this project, see Ross’ blog: http://charlotterossresearch.wordpress.com/
