Born in Reggio Emilia (1971), MA in Humanities and a second MA in Music composition, PhD in Theory and Tradition of texts. Her research in the history of education realm focuses on the 16th-17th century (Protestant Reformation, Jesuits, intersections with the history of medicine) and on 19th-century America.
Vice-director of the Humanities Department.
(Summary; complete CV available for download under the photo).
Luana Salvarani (b. Reggio Emilia, 1971; PhD - Theory and tradition of texts; a degree in Music composition) found her first research path in 17th-century literature, providing several editions of Baroque texts (e.g.: Francesco Bracciolini, L’Elettione di Urbano papa VIII, 2006; Claudio Achillini, Prose e poesie, 2008; G.B. Marino, La Lira, 2012),
Her interests later shifted to History of education, and with Cristiano Casalini provided editions and commentaries of several 16th- and 17th-century classics of education (Antonio Possevino SJ, Coltura degl’ingegni, 2008; Juan Huarte, Essame degl’ingegni, 2010; Michel de Montaigne, L’Educazione, 2010; Francesco Negri, Tragedia intitolata Libero Arbitrio, 2014). She also devoted several papers to Jesuit college theatre, later focusing on early Reformation educational history and theatre and the intersections between education and history of medicine. Examples of publications on this subject are the book Nova Schola. Temi e problemi di pedagogia protestante nei primi testi della Riforma (2018) and the articles:
The Quantification of Talents: Education, Galenic Humoralism, and Classification of Wits in Early Modern Culture, in The Quantification of Life and Health from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, eds. Simone Guidi and Joaquim Braga, “Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine”, Palgrave 2023.
Early modern Beruf and its spoiled children: neoliberalism and work revisited under the lens of Luther’s educational reflection, «Jahrbuch für Pädagogik», Thema 2020: Neue Arbeitsverhältnisse - Neue Bildung, 2022.
'Nur bey Leib’: pedagogies of the body in early Reformation Germany, «Jahrbuch für Historische Bildungsforschung», Schwerpunkt: Körper / Körperlichkeit – neue Perspektiven in der Historischen Bildungsforschung, 2021
Another research path focuses on the educational history of 19th century America, with a special attention on popular literature and novels for young readers. Sunday School Literature. Letture e formazione dei giovani americani all’epoca della Frontiera (2012) is the first book in Italian on the subject. Further studies on American education are summarized in her book Nascita di una nazione. Esperienze e modelli dell'educazione nell'America dell'Ottocento (2015; SIPED - Book on Education National Award, 2017) and in essays such as:
Italian Americans and 19th-century educational narratives in the US. In (a cura di) Antonella Cagnolati. Donna Chirico, Carmen Petruzzi, Anthony Julian Tamburri, Educazione migrante tra passato, presente e futuro. Saggi in onore di Leonard Covello, CLUEB, 2024;
“The State’s First Duty”: Public Education and the Liberal Conundrum in American Educational Reports from Germany, in "Transatlantic Encounters in History of Education. Translations and Trajectories from a German-American Perspective", Routledge Studies in Cultural History, 2020;
The invention of the Common School tradition. Early American educational historiography and the building of a long-standing narrative, «History of Education and Children's Literature», XIV, 1, 2019
Principal Investigator in the peer-reviewed project "Seen from Afar". The project ended in April 2016 and its results were published in a book (Seen from Afar. Images of Europe in the Cultivation of American Identity, 2016) collecting essays of the European and American contributors of the project.
Translator from and into English, from and into French and from German for Edizioni Medusa, Editoriale Anicia, Routledge, Brepols and the journal Musica/Realtà.
Board member for the journals "Paedagogica Historica", "Educazione. Giornale di Pedagogia Critica" and "History of Education and Children's Literature". Referee for the journals "Rivista di Storia dell'Educazione", "Annali di Storia dell'Educazione e delle Istituzioni Scolastiche", "Historia Scholastica", "Pedagogia oggi", "Scholé". Book reviewer for "International Journal of the Classical Tradition" (Springer), "History of Education" (Taylor & Francis), "American Studies in Scandinavia" (Syddansk Universitetsforlag), "American Educational History Journal" (Information Age Publishing), Global Intellectual History (Taylor & Francis), Renaissance Quarterly (Cambridge University Press).
OFFICE HOURS
I am ALWAYS available through e-mail.
Students can also book an individual colloquium through Teams or in-person.
Unità Educazione
Borgo Carissimi, 10
43121 Parma
