Francesco Chillemi holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University (2014). His research interests include experimental theatre, film semiotics, continental philosophy, modern and contemporary literature, and graphic novels. He has authored a number of essays in peer-reviewed journals on topics at the intersection of these disciplines and has presented papers at international conferences (at Harvard University, Indiana University, the University of South Carolina, the Catholic University of America, the University of Padua). In his first book, L’infondamento. L’enigma del linguaggio e il paradosso dell’autoreferenza in Pirandello, Morante e Bene (“The Unfoundation. The Enigma of Language and the Paradox of Self-reference in Pirandello, Morante, and Bene,” Mimesis 2016), Chillemi tackles the epistemological issue of self-reference by examining seminal works across theatre, literature, and film in Twentieth-Century Italy. He has most recently served as an Adjunct Professor at CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) in Ferrara, Italy.