Alessia Ricciardi is currently at work on a third book project entitled Foucault and Agamben: Criticism as a Form of Life. The analysis focuses on how Michel Foucault and a specific genealogy of Italian critics, preeminently represented by Giorgio Agamben, position the concept of a form of life at the center of their critiques of social institutions. In what ways can we say that Foucault and Agamben continue the tradition of their predecessors? In what ways do they transform it? Ricciardi examines how the two theorists and their interlocutors respond to these questions in order to assess their different modes of political engagement. Ricciardi’s essays have appeared in PMLA, Modernism/Modernity, Modern Language Notes, Diacritics, and The Romanic Review, among other publications. Her most recent articles are about works by Pasolini, Foucault, Deleuze, and Agamben.

Alessia Ricciardi holds a B. A. in Philosophy from the University of Pisa, a DEA from Paris VII in Psychoanalysis, and a Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from Yale University.