Renée D'Elia-Zunino

Renée D’Elia-Zunino received her education in Genova, Italy, with an M.A. and B.A. in Italian and English Comparative Literature, Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy, 1997. She joined the University of Tennessee in 1998.

She is a Distinguished Lecturer and her courses range from beginner Italian to intermediate to cultural upper division. In 2014, she launched an online learning module called Impara l’italiano con l’ispettor Zunicchi, that she implemented in her 341 and 405 classes on Il Giallo – the History of the Italian Mystery Novel. She recently offered a course on Made in Italy, which involved researching what is behind the label and its products, the economic impacts for Italy and the world, and had students interact with Italian companies via Skype interviews.

In Spring 2025, she taught an Italian Culture and Civilization class covering topics like the environment (SDG13) and happiness. The COIL VE component, in collaboration with the University of Palermo focused on SDG3 for health and well-being.

She also designed a course for Engineering students in IE493 and MSE201 preparing to travel to Florence and Milan with UT Faculty. The course covers pronunciation, basic grammar, and cultural and historical elements tailored to their program abroad. Students complete weekly assignments and practice real-life scenarios such as ordering food, taking trains, asking for directions, and using descriptive language.

She has received numerous awards and grants, including the Global Catalyst Teaching and Service Award, May 2022 – Chancellor’s Honors Banquet, and the Global Impact: COIL Innovative Course Design Award, April 2025 – Center for Global Engagement UT.

She is a Volunteer Experience Faculty Fellow (VEFF) and the advisor for UT’s Italian Club.

She published a children’s book: The Curious Adventures of Wickl-Wackl and His Friends, Xlibris, December 2017.

Publications

• The Decameron’s Lessons, and My 100 Days of Seeking Ways to Alleviate the Pain of COVID-19 in My Italian Classes. Teaching During Covid,Special Issue Fall 2020, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College CUNY. http://tilca.qc.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/3.%20D’Elia-Zunino.pdf
• Technology’s Promise: Online or Face-to-Face, the Language is Yours! The Journal of Language, Teaching, and Technology (LTT), Issue 1, Dec. 2018, 33-43 AATI (American Association Teachers of Italian) https://italian.rutgers.edu/news-events/journal
• The Myth of Whiteness and a Changing Italy: Historic Memory and Colonialist Attitudes in Lamerica, in At    Home and Abroad: Historicizing  Twentieth-Century Whiteness in Literature andPerformance– The University of TennesseePress, Knoxville 2009.
• “Passing” for Black or “Passing” for White. Authenticating Middle-Class American Whiteness Through Blackness, in Reconstructing Societies in the Aftermathof War– Bordighera Inc. 2004.

Phone: 865-974-7168

Email: rdelia@utk.edu

Education

MA and BA in Italian and English Comparative Literature, Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy, 1997.