A photo of Vetri Nathan

Vetri Nathan

Associate Professor

E-mail: vnathan@humnet.ucla.edu Office: TBD

Office Hours: Please email for appointment

Fields of interest: Environmental and Multispecies Humanities; Italian/Mediterranean Migrations and Diasporas; Media Studies; Food Studies

Professor Nathan’s scholarly interests range from the study of the cultural foundations of environmental (in)justice to the exploration of national, racial and diasporic identities, particularly but not limited to Italy and the wider Mediterranean region. He is the founder and director of a new humanities lab: The Cybercene Lab. This lab is envisioned as a gathering space to study multispecies wellbeing, healing and habitability, and the connections between cultural discourse, manufactured conflicts, climate change and habitat/biodiversity loss.

Born in Mumbai, India, he holds his Ph.D. in Italian from Stanford University.  Prior to becoming a Bruin in 2024, Professor Nathan has was Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Massachusetts Boston (2011-21) and Associate Professor of Italian and Mellon Chair in Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University (2022-24). His first book, Marvelous Bodies: Italy’s New Migrant Cinema (Purdue University Press, 2017) explores contemporary Italian movies released between 1990 and 2010 that represent the nation’s cultural challenges and opportunities presented by immigration from the Global South. He continues to publish and undertake Italy-related research on a range or topics such as cinema, migrations and food studies.

Professor Nathan’s forthcoming book project, “The Cybercene: Multispecies Healing and Habitability in a Transformed World” proposes a new ecocultural sub-era of the Anthropocene called the Cybercene in order to analyze the intimate connections between the global digital revolution and ecocultural health and sustainability. His other future work includes intersectional analyses of the resilience and expertise of marginalized biopolitical communities and indigenous cultures, studies on the challenges and opportunities presented by cultural hybridity in Europe, as well as initiatives in the Humanities that argue for an inclusion of previously excluded nonhuman (or “more-than-human”) bodies, lives and ecosystems. He is a father to four very loving Siberian Huskies, loves hiking and cooking in his free time, and also finds great joy in exploring the incredible and diverse landscapes of the American West.

Education

  • Ph.D., Stanford University
  • M.A., Stanford University
  • B.A. Connecticut College

Featured Works

Selected Publications

Articles

  • Black and Migrant Ecologies in the Mediterranean: Intra-actions and Co-becomings” (California Italian Studies, special issue on Race and Blackness in Italy), Forthcoming, 2025
  • Edible Nation: Imagining Somalia Through Cuisine.” In Longing for an African Future: Mal d’Afrique, Somali Pain and Afro-Optimism, Routledge Press, December 2023 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003283102-4/edible-nation-vetri-nathan
  • From Intersectionality to Interstitiality: Pathways in Italian Race, Migration and Diaspora Studies.” Italian Culture Journal, Fall 2023 https://doi.org/10.1080/01614622.2023.2256555
  • Hybridize or Decline: Practical Solutions towards a sustainable future for Italian Studies.” In Diversity in Italian Studies. Siân Gibby and Anthony Julian Tamburri, eds. New York: John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 2021
  • L’altrove è sempre qui: L’eredità della commedia all’italiana in Scontri di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio di Amara Lakhous.” In L’altro e l’altrove nella cultura italiana, Cuneo: Nerosubianco Press, Fall 2011, p.197-205
  • Transgression, Integration, Suspension: The Sense Wars/Space Wars of the Body in Italian Literature and Film of Immigration.” In The Cultures of Italian Migration: Diverse Trajectories and Discrete Perspectives, Lanham, Maryland: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, Fall 2011, p. 169-184
  • Mimic Nation – Mimic Men: Contextualizing Italy’s Migration Culture through Bhabha” in National Belongings: Hybridity in Italian Colonial and Postcolonial Cultures, Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, Winter 2010, p. 41-62
  • Nuovo Cinema Inferno: The Affect of Ambivalence in Giuseppe Tornatore’s La sconosciuta.” In From Terrone to Extra-Comunitario: The New Manifestations of Racism in Contemporary Italian Cinema, Leicester, U.K.: Troubador Italian Series, Troubador, Winter 2010, p. 264-279

Selected Presentations

  • Respondent, Critical Conversations in Transnational Italian Studies, AAIS Giornata di studio, Virtual, March 2024
  • Public Talk, “Guess Who’s Coming to an Italian Dinner?: Black Bodies in Italy’s New Migrant Cinema”, Scarlet Speakers Series, Virtual, Rutgers University, March 2024
  • The Cybercene Lab: A Humanities-Based Exploration of Healing and Habitability in a Transformed World” Western Literature Association Conference, Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho, October 2023
  • Extinction Paranoia and Replacement Theory in the 2022 Italian General Elections” North East Modern Languages Association (NEMLA) Conference, Niagara Falls, March 2023
  • Lecture, “Mediterranean Migrations: Italy’s Cinematic, Cultural and Biopolitical Responses.” Flame University, Pune, India, January 2023
  • Pathways between Critical Race Theory and Italian Studies” American Association of Italian Studies (AAIS) Conference, Virtual, May 2021
  • Intersectionality and Hybridity: Disrupting the “Vision” of Italian Studies” Diversity and Decolonization in Italian Studies, Roundtable Series, Virtual, May 2021
  • Manufactured Hate: Imagining the Italian Nation’s Boundaries through Migrant Stereotypes”, North East Modern Languages Association (NEMLA) Conference, Boston, March 2020
  • Ghosts of Cinemas Past in Italy’s New Migrant Cinema.” Symposium on The Geopolitics of Italian Cinema: Expanding Postcolonial Approaches. Concordia University, Montréal, Canada, October 2017
  • Public Lecture, “Italian Food Culture: You are what you Eat?” Department of French, University of Mumbai, India, January 2015
  • Origins of a Young Auteur: Matteo Garrone’s Immigrant Trilogy”, Symposium on Contemporary Italian Cinema, Indiana University, Bloomington, April 2013
  • New Cartographies: Emanuele Crialese’s Terraferma”, North East Modern Languages Association (NEMLA) Conference, Boston, March 2013

Courses commonly taught

  • Courses on Black and Migrant Italy
  • Global Food cultures
  • Environmental and Multispecies Humanities

Honors and Awards

  • Mellon Named-term Chair in Global Racial Justice, Rutgers University, 2022-2024
  • Outstanding Faculty Annual Award, University Professional & Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), 2013

Affiliations

  • ASEH American Society for Environmental History
  • ESEH European Society for Environmental History
  • ASFS Association for the Study of Food and Society
  • AAIS American Association of Italian Studies
  • PAMLA Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association
  • CICIS California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies

Research In-Progress

  • Monograph-in-progress: The Cybercene: Multispecies Habitability and Healing in a Transformed World
  • Agrigento 2025 – An Ecocultural Project – A Cybercene Lab and Montclair State University joint project, Sicily, Italy, Forthcoming, Summer 2025
  • Documentary Film (in post-production): Our Multispecies Futures: Bison in the American West