Join the launch of Antigone Power da Palermo: Trasformazioni per l’epoca globale, a book that traces how the 2018 Palermo project reimagines Antigone today. The launch will include a short panel discussion, readings, and a live excerpt that highlights the book’s focus on contemporary feminist and transcultural performance.

Attendees will gain firsthand insights into the book’s interdisciplinary methods and discuss the implications of its practice‑based approaches and community engagement. 

The event aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on how situated theatre practice can produce transferrable cultural and artistic paradigms in the global age.

Laura Lori is an Italian-born lecturer and researcher in Italian Studies. Her research examines the ways literature can positively influence socio-personal and historical discourses on immigration, gender, identity, and colonialism. Laura has published studies on activist literature, challenging historical denial, rigid national identities, and complacency regarding violence against women. She is deeply interested in literature and the performing arts as active tools for promoting social inclusion and equality.

Dr Gregoria Manzin is Senior Lecturer and Convenor of Italian Studies at La Trobe University. Gregoria’s research focuses on contemporary literature with a specific interest for women’s writing. Her work explores questions of identity, specifically the challenges non-dominant identities and cultures face in the interaction and confrontation with mainstream discourse. Gregoria is the author of Torn Identities: Life Stories at the Border of Italian Literature (Troubador 2013) and numerous book chapters and scholarly articles on Italian literature and on the scholarship of learning and teaching. She is co-editor of Mentoring through the Centuries: On the Dynamics of Personal and Professional Growth (Garnier 2022).

Jacqueline (Jackie) Dutton is Professor of French Studies at the University of Melbourne. She has published widely on literature, food, wine, travel and utopia, focusing on their status as intercultural products of regional, national and international geopolitics. Her recent work includes collaborations with Chinese, Japanese, and Indigenous Australian scholars on culturally specific representations of “terroir” – a sense of place – in various winemaking regions. She is the Founding Director of The Pinot Noir Project, an interdisciplinary network of researchers and industry members investigating wine culture through the lens of this unique grape variety.

Cynthia Troup is a writer, editor, and historian, with wide experience working closely with other scholars and artists. Much of her formative background is in Italian Studies; she was also a co-founder of Aphids, the artist-led experimental arts organisation based in Naarm (now in its 32nd year). Cynthia has an abiding interest in how collaborative practice – whether in academic publishing or live arts – fosters shared opportunities for critical reflection, new questions, and activating change. At the University of Melbourne, Cynthia is part of the Arts Research Team, with a focus on delivering the Faculty’s Publishing Development Program.