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 Humanities; Mediterranean Studies; Digital Media Studies; Food Studies, Italian Cinema
Affiliated Faculty, Food Studies Minor

Professor Nathan’s scholarly interests include the study of the cultural foundations of environmental and cultural wellbeing, analyses of multispecies solidarity and kinship, and the exploration of the mobility and hybridity of cultural 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 an interdisciplinary gathering space to study multispecies entanglements and the connections between cultural discourse and practice, conflicts, climate change and habitat/biodiversity loss. For latest lab news, project status and events, and multispecies fun facts, please click on the lab link.

Professor Nathan holds his M.A. and Ph.D. in Italian from Stanford University. Prior to joining UCLA in 2024, Professor Nathan taught at the University of Massachusetts Boston (2011-21) and 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, teach and undertake Italy-related research on a range of topics such as cinema, migrations and food and sustainability studies.

Professor Nathan’s forthcoming book project, tentatively entitled “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 current and future work via his lab includes showcasing the vibrancy, resilience and expertise of marginalized bio- and ecopolitical communities and indigenous cultures, studies on the challenges and opportunities presented by cultural hybridity in Europe, initiatives within the Humanities that seek the inclusion of previously excluded nonhuman (or “more-than-human”) bodies, lives and ecosystems (plants, animals, fungi, microorganisms, etc.), food and culinary ecocultural histories, as well as community engagement and outreach to make the Humanities far more valued than they currently are by other disciplines and by the general public. 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

  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

  • Keynote Speaker, “On the Epistemic Humility of Multispecies Kinship: Cultivating Attentiveness, Care and Wellbeing.” Christchurch, University of Oxford, April 2025
  • Invited Talk, “The Long Italian Anthropocene: The “Capture-and Control” of Bodies, Lives and Ecosystems in the Cybercene, University of San Diego, May 2025
  • “Rupturing the Nature/Culture Divide in the Cybercene: An Ecocultural Thick-Mapping of “Dunki” Migrations between India and Italy.” California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies (CICIS) Conference, University of California, Berkeley, February 2025
  • “Beyond Doom and Gloom: The Cybercene Lab as an Environmental Humanities Research and Teaching Incubator.” Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association Conference, Palm Springs, CA, November 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
  • Lecture, “Mediterranean Migrations: Italy’s Cinematic, Cultural and Biopolitical Responses.” Flame University, Pune, India, January 2023
  • 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

  • ELTS/Food Studies M25 – Global Food Studies: Ecocultural Diversity and Sustainability
  • Italian 42C Italian Food Studies
  • Graduate seminars in the Environmental and Multispecies Humanities
  • Mediterranean Ecocultures and Italian Cinema

Honors and Awards

  • 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