Rodica Diaconescu-Blumenfeld is an associate professor of Italian studies at Vassar College. She is the author of Born Illiterate: Gender and Representation in Gadda's Pasticciaccio. She has published articles on Marco Risi, Lina Wertmuller, and Gianni Amelio. Currently, she is working on the politics of cultural repression of the Balkans in European cinemas and on the politics of cultural repression in Italian cinema.Ada Testaferri completed her dottorato in modern languages and literatures in Italy and obtained her Ph.D. in Italian medieval literature at the University of Toronto. She has edited Donne: Women in Italian Culture and co-edited Feminism in the Cinema. She has published articles on Boccaccio and on women issues and is presently teaching Italian literature at York University.