Chiara Benetollo (Puttkammer Center for Educational Justice and Equity at the Petey Greene Program), Research Grant for a project on the construction of mountaineering heroes from the 1920s to the 1960s in Italy.

Chiara Benetollo (MA, SNS; PhD Princeton U) has left the academic world to become the Executive Director of the Puttkammer Center for Educational Justice and Equity at the Petey Greene Program, one of the largest providers of education in carceral spaces in the country. The Ragusa Foundation fellowship supports her book-project on the construction of mountaineering heroes from the 1920s to the 1960s in Italy, arguing that in the celebration of first ascents to alpine peaks, the construction and expansion of the modern state intersected with the construction of the new model citizen (male, fit, disciplined). Dr. Benetollo’s research explores the simultaneous creation of model bodies and national identities through rhetoric and narrative, with a focus on the Italian and Russian political and literary traditions. Her articles have appeared in numerous refereed journals, including Italianistica, Modern Language Notes, and Il Verri.