James Oglethorpe

Biography

I completed my first BA degree in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge in 1979, and subsequently had a first career in Social Services; as part of this I acquired the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work and a post-graduate Diploma in Applied Social Studies at Goldsmiths'' College, University of London, in 1987. I completed a second BA degree, this time in Language Studies (Italian), at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2003, having also acquired a Diploma in Italian from the Institute of Linguists in 2000. In 2005 I was awarded an MA in Contemporary Italian Culture and History at University College London (UCL). This was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, as was my PhD in Italian History and Cultural Studies, also at UCL, which was awarded in 2009. The title of my PhD thesis was ''Change and Memory: The Central Italian Countryside, 1945-1970''.

From 2007 to 2011 I taught part time for UCL''s Department of Italian, first as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant and then as a Teaching Fellow. I was a Lecturer in Italian Studies at Manchester from September 2011 to June 2013, then worked here part time, and am currently an Honorary Research Fellow. I teach occasionally on the MA in Translation Studies at the University of Sheffield, and now principally work as a freelance translator (from Italian to English) and copy editor of academic texts, specialising in Modern Italian History.

I am an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, a member of the Oral History Society and the Associazione Italiana di Storia Orale, and Secretary of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy (ASMI).