Alessia Brighi

An alumna of both the University of Sheffield (BA, Archaeology and Prehistory) and the University of East Anglia (MA, Advanced Studies in the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas), I have over 25 years of experience in Higher Education. My teaching specialisations include Italian language, Ethnography, and Intercultural Communication.

As Italian Co-ordinator at the Modern Languages Teaching Centre (MLTC), I oversee the Italian language provision and currently convene and teach the Italian Beginners and Advanced modules.

In my role as Director of One University for the MLTC (2022-25) I led the development and implementation of action plans focused on EDI, staff development, and wellbeing. During this three-year tenure, I developed the MLTC Scholarship Scheme, a programme that supports and provides opportunities for academic staff to engage in scholarly activities and share their research. I continue to serve as the MLTC Scholarship Lead.

My Scholarship research focuses on gender-fair language in Italian, sociolinguistics and affective learning. I have presented my work at the MLTC Scholarship Conferences in 2024 and 2025, at the University of Nottingham for the inaugural event of the Network for Teachers of Italian in the UK (NILI-UK) and I will be one of the speakers at the 3rd Symposium of the Yorkshire Language Teaching Research and Scholarship Network at the University of York.

Professional Activities & Memberships 

• Membership Co-ordinator and Committee Member for the Network Insegnanti di Lingua Italiana-UK
• UNILANG Examiner
• Reviewer for the 3rd edition of the coursebook Italian 1 - Palgrave Foundations 

• Yorkshire Language Teaching Research and Scholarship Network - Member
• Association of University Language Communities (AULC) - Member
• AULC Professional Development SIG - Member
• Gender-Fair Language SIG -  Member

• Member of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities Wellbeing, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (UoS 2022-2025)
• Member of the One University Faculty of Arts and Humanities Forum/ Committee (UoS 2022-2025)
• Member of MLTC and SLC Liaison Committee (UoS 2016-2022)
• Member of the Extra-Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee  (EFLTC) (UoS 2016-2019)
• EFLTC Representative at the Quality and Scrutiny Sub-Committee (QSC) (UoS 2016-2018)
• EFLTC Representative at the Science Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee. (UoS 2016-2018)
• Member of the Board of Extra Faculty Provision (UoS 2012- 2016)