Dr. Valentina Colasanti

Biography

BA (Sapienza, Rome), MA (Sapienza, Rome), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Cantab) I am a linguist. My research profile is situated at the interface between theoretical generative linguistics and Romance linguistics (especially focused on the Italo-Romance sub-family of languages spoken in Italy). Most of my publications contribute to the field of theoretical linguistics as applied to the Romance languages. In the last six years, I have extended my domain of investigation to the study of spoken phenomena at the interface between syntax and semantics. In 2019, after taking up an assistant professorship in linguistics at Trinity College Dublin, my interests grew further into the study of phenomena expressed in the visual-gestural modality. Such phenomena have been almost entirely overlooked in theoretical linguistics. I began to study gestures from a purely formal perspective for the first time, drawing empirically from the languages of Southern Italy. My main project, Gestural Grammar: Investigating Gesture in Southern Italy (GestuGram; PI: Colasanti), received funding from the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute (2020-23), the Higher Education Authority of Ireland (2021-23), the Provost's Office of Trinity College Dublin (Provost's PhD Project Award; 2021-25), and Enterprise Ireland (2023-25). In 2020, I established the 'Gestural Grammar Lab' at Trinity College Dublin after successfully competing for funding from (i) the Trinity Long Room Hub (Arts and Humanities Research Institute), (ii) the Higher Education Authority of Ireland, (iii) the Provost of Trinity College Dublin, and (iv) the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Trinity College Dublin. I am currently the director of the GestuGram Lab, which so far comprises two PhD students, one lab manager, five research assistants, and two fieldworkers. Visit the GestuGram Lab website at: https://valentinacolasanti.it/gestugram/