Elisa Pesce

Name: Elisa Pesce
Title(s): Ph.D.
E-mail: elisa.pesce87@gmail.com
Affiliation: Independent scholar
Personal Website: ORCID

Bionote:
Elisa Pesce holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Glasgow, where she researched the omission of women from models of fictional maximalism in the contemporary US novel. She is primarily interested in literature as a powerful site of cultural critique. Drawing mostly on queer and feminist studies, ecocriticism, and ethnic and cultural studies, her postdoctoral work continues and expands her dissertation on the cultural significance of the “big” novel, while also turning to popular genres and YA fiction to investigate how they enable readers to envision more inclusive futures and reflect on the complex power structures that shape life in the contemporary US. Pesce is the recipient of a Teach@Tübingen Fellowship (University of Tübingen) for the 2026 summer semester. Her work has appeared in journals such as EJAS, REDEN, Atlantic Studies, and RIAS. She is a member of IASA, where she will be serving on the Executive Council for the 2026-2027 term.

Areas of interest: feminist literature and theory, queer literature and theory, ethnic literatures, the big (American) novel, power dynamics and canon formation