Dr. Summerfield has taught Italian and French at AU since 2002.  In 2007, she was awarded a PETL -Early Teaching Career Award, and in 2009 she received the Outstanding Scholarly Achievement in Women’s Studies Award and was named “College of Liberal Arts Engaged Scholar” for her civic engagement curricula.

She founded the Languages Across the Curriculum Program in 2004,  Taormina, Italy Study Programs in 2005-2006 (in connection with the Taormina International  Film Fest in 2008 and Libera Terra in 2010), and collaborations with the Italian Embassy in Washington DC and the Italian Consulate in Coral Gables, Florida.  Dr. Summerfield is widely published and has participated in national and international conferences as well as performed as lecturer and poetry reader in various local and international venues.

Some of My Books


Credere aude (Gunter Narr)

2008


Remembering Sicily (Legas)

2009


Ven

               Vendetta: Essays on Honor and   

                Revenge, (CSP) 2010



New Perspectives on the European Bildungsroman, (Continuum) 2010




Research Topics

The long eighteenth-century (1660-1830) French and Italian literature (emphasis on Sicilian writers); religious and philosophical movements; European and Mediterranean history/civilization; material culture. Dr. Summerfield is also a published poet and short-story writer. Her favorite theme is Sicily, her motherland.