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Patrizia La Trecchia

Associate Professor of Italian

• Office: USF Tampa CPR 451
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Dr. La Trecchia is a cultural studies scholar whose work focuses on the intersection of food studies and the environmental humanities. Drawing from political ecology, decolonial theory, feminist studies, urban studies, visual culture, communication, and sociology, her research examines food justice, food sovereignty, and environmental justice within a global and transnational framework. 

 She is privileged to share her Italian and Italian-American heritage serving ³Ù³ó±ð  at the ×îÐÂÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, a program that she founded, developed with all its current course offerings, and singlehandedly directs since 2004. Additionally, she launched and directs ³Ù³ó±ð Environmental Humanities Initiative at the ×îÐÂÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ under the auspices of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment. Through this initiative, she has established international partnerships with the , the , and the interdisciplinary . She also developed and teaches the first course in the at USF, typically offered in the fall semester,  and ideally followed by , a course on the visual politics of food offered in the spring semester, which was one of the earliest courses to receive Global Citizen certification. 

 She is the author of two textbooks (2009) and (2013) as well as the monograph  (2013), the first study to analyze Naples from a postcolonial and transnational perspective. Her forthcoming monographs include The Politics of Food Justice in Italy: Decolonizing Approaches to Food Studies (Routledge) and Reframing Souths: Naples in Global Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan). Her research has been published in , , , , , , , among others. 

 Since the beginning of her career, she has championed a food-focused pedagogy, pioneering the field of food studies at the ×îÐÂÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. For over fifteen years, she has taught courses on food studies and the politics of food (In the Kitchen, ). She views kitchen work as a political practice of food justice and an essential component of a sustainable food system. Until before the Covid pandemic, she regularly purchased groceries and cooked alongside her students in the demonstration kitchen at the Diabetes Center at the Morsani College of Medicine.  

 She is honored to serve as a nominated and elected board member of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS). She also serves on the jury of , the environmental film festival that founded the Green Film Network, an association of the world’s major environmental film festivals. Additionally, she has been a jury member and advisory board member of the since its inception. In 2014, she was a Visiting Scholar at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and contributed to the Habitat Partner University Initiative Hub on Food Security and the . In February 2013, she was selected to deliver a TEDx talk on . Through her research, teaching, and professional engagements, she remains committed to advancing food justice, sustainability, and cultural understanding in an increasingly globalized world. 

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