Dr Serena A. A. Ceniccola

Dr Serena A. A. Ceniccola's research focuses on literary multilingualism in contemporary Japanese literature and media. She has been working on the effect of cultural contact and language change on the written language since the early 2010s.

After a BA in Japanese, Finnish, and English from the University of Bologna, in 2015 she graduated with an MPhil in comparative literature with a focus on Finnish and Japanese linguistics from the same university. In 2016, she graduated from La Cattolica University of Milan with a Master's degree in traditional and digital publishing. In 2017, she moved to London where she was offered a place in the MA programme in Victorian Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.

Serena completed her PhD in comparative literature and Japanese studies in 2024 at Birkbeck, University of London, where she holds a post as an Associate Tutor and teach about Japanese literature from both a national and transnational perspective. Her doctoral thesis 'Nanigode kangaeteiruka: A Comparative Study of Multilingualism, Loneliness, and Hybridity in Japanese Contemporary Literature and literary-adjacent Media' discusses the relationship between multilingualism, hybridity, and loneliness, proposing a transnational, transmedia, and diachronic approach to the subject.

She is currently working on a comparative analysis of functional multilingualism and cosmetic monolingualism in the publication and translation of Japanese and Finnish multilingual literary works by authors such as Levy Hideo, Mizumura Minae, and Mia Kankimäki. She is also the Assistant Managing Editor at Japan Forum.