Alison Leech

Qualifications

BA Italian Studies (Lancaster, 1992); MA Applied
Linguistics (Lancaster, 2001)

Additional Information

I teach and co-ordinate Part I Italian language and culture. This year I will deliver first year modules on the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Neorealist film plus a final year course on Mafia and Antimafia in 20th Century Italy (though we spend some time in USA, too, seeing as the migration and subsequent globalisation of the Mafia phenomenon form integral parts of our investigations). The course kicks off with a probing discussion of Coppola's Godfather Trilogy which (in reponse to any sceptics out there who may question the appropriacy of such a resource on a university course) " [...] shows a profound understanding of Mafia ethics."1

1Alessandro Camon, inFrancis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Trilogy, edited by Nick Browne. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Current Teaching

• ITAL100:Italian Language & Culture
• DELC357: Mafia and Antimafia in 20th Century Italy
• DELC320: Final Year Dissertation

Office Hours

Please note that my teaching days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays only.

Professional Role

Part I Director of Studies

Other Interests and Hobbies

Since Janury 2009 I have become interested in the the question of Palestinian solidarity and am particularly moved by the works of Illan Pappe (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, 2006), Jimmy Carter ( Palestine: peace not apartheid, 2006) and Mark Thomas (Extreme Rambling, 2011).

For holidays I like to go to Italy, and Sicily especially. I love Palermo and its surrounding towns and villages whereas the most idyllic place I have ever visited is Anacapri, right at the top of the isle of Capri.