Christopher Atwood's Biography

Dr. Christopher Atwood graduated from Middlebury College (summa cum laude) in 2003.  In Vermont, he majored in Italian Language and Literature and minored in Spanish.  Between 2001-2002, Atwood immersed himself in Italian culture, studying in Florence, Italy.  He then taught bilingual education (English/Spanish) as a New York City Teaching Fellow.  While teaching full-time, Atwood graduated from Mercy College with a Master's in Education.  

Atwood joined UC Berkeley's Italian Studies Department in 2005 as an M.A./PhD candidate.  He completed a dissertation in 2014, under the supervision of Prof. Barbara Spackman, titled "In A Queer Place in Time: Fictions of Belonging in Italy 1890-2010."  At UC Berkeley, he completed a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.  In 2012, he was the inaugural winner of the Philip Brett LGBT Fellowship.  He has given invited talks in North America and Europe on topics such as Italian Futurism and contemporary fiction.  A part of his dissertation was published in the Cultural Studies issue of Italian Studies.  Atwood recently inked an article for the peer-reviewed journal Gender/Sexuality/Italy (Vol. 6).

Atwood has taught courses in Italian and English, ranging from Italian language to upper-division literature classes.  UC Berkeley's Teaching & Resource Center chose him to mentor and assist first-time instructors.  Atwood led workshops like "Working with Student Writing" and "Using Group-Work Effectively."  In 2012-2013, he helped the university to implement its campus-wide "How Students Learn" initiative, funded by the national Teagle Foundation.  In this project,  he co-designed a seminar on recent research on learning in Neuroscience, Psychology and Anthropology.  Interests include: science and literature (Matilde Serao, Cesare Lombroso, and Primo Levi), travel writing (Aldo Busi, P.V. Tondelli, Nico Naldini), post-war Italian cinema, and Italian Fascism.  He has taught Italian in Northwestern University's French & Italian Department and in Kennesaw State University's Department of Foreign Languages.