Barbara Zecchi

Born in London, United Kingdom, to Italian parents, she grew up in Venice, Italy, and graduated with honors in modern languages and cultures at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. She received a master's degree in literary studies, specializing in Hispanic studies and gender studies, from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and a second master's degree in Italian studies and film studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She completed her PhD at UCLA with a thesis on the representation of gender-based violence in Spain and Italy.{{cite web|title=Faces of HFA|url=https://www.umass.edu/hfa/profile/barbara-zecchi|access-date=8 August 2020|website=Profiles|date=17 December 2014 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst}} More recently she studied screenwriting at the Escuela de Guion in Madrid with Alicia Luna, and video-graphic criticism at Middlebury College with Jason Mittell and Chris Keathley.{{cite web|title=Barbara Zecchi - Film Studies Faculty Profiles|url=https://www.umass.edu/film/member/barbara-zecchi-fs|access-date=7 August 2020|website=Film Studies Program|publisher=University of Massachusetts}}

Zecchi is Professor of Film Studies in the area of Visual and Performance Studies{{cite web|title=Visual and Performance Studies|url=https://www.umass.edu/spanport/visual-and-performance-studies|website=Spanish and Portuguese Program|publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst}} and Director of the Film Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.{{cite web|title=Zecchi Named Director of the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies|url=https://www.umass.edu/hfa/news/barbara-zecchi-named-director-interdepartmental-program-film-studies|access-date=5 August 2020|website=News, Humanities and Fine Arts|date=16 October 2017 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst, October 16, 2017}} She specializes in feminist film theory, adaptation theory, gender studies and cultural gerontology, video-graphic criticism, and digital humanities.{{cite web|title=Film Studies Faculty|url=https://www.umass.edu/film/member/barbara-zecchi-fs|access-date=5 August 2020|website=People|publisher=University of Massachusetts}} From to 2011 to 2015, she served as graduate program director and Head of the Spanish and Portuguese Unit of the Dept. of Languages, Literatures and Cultures.{{cite web|title=Barbara Zecchi - Spanport Faculty Profiles|url=https://www.umass.edu/spanport/member/barbara-zecchi|access-date=7 August 2020|website=Spanish and Portuguese Studies|publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst}} From 2014 to 2016 she directed the UMass Translation Center.{{cite web|title=Zecchi appointed Director of the UMass Translation Center|url=https://www.umass.edu/translation/current-and-past-directors|website=Translation Center|publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst}} She taught at various European and American universities, including Saint Mary's College of California, California State University, Johns Hopkins University, Universidad Carlos III in Madrid, and in the Master programs of the Universitat de Valencia and the Universitat de Girona.{{cite web|title=Barbara Zecchi - Teaching Experience|url=https://www.umass.edu/film/member/barbara-zecchi-fs|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Film Studies - Faculty Profiles|publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst}} She has lectured and presented her video-graphic essays in Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Canada and the United States.{{cite web|title=Barbara Zecchi - Research|url=https://www.umass.edu/film/member/barbara-zecchi-fs|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Film Studies - Faculty Profiles|publisher=University of Massachusetts}}{{cite web|date=March 10, 2016|title=Internationally renowned Hispanist Barbara Zecchi in Canada for the Lansdowne Lecture at the University of Victoria, Canada|url=http://victoria.events/event/14586/ideafest-lecture-by-lansdowne-visitor-barbara-zecchi-professor-of-spanish-film-studies-director-of-translation-center-university-of-massachusetts-amherst|access-date=August 16, 2020|website=Victoria Events - University of Victoria Canada}}{{Cite news|last=Mi Cultura N|date=August 11, 2016|title=Conferencia sobre feminismo y cine en la UNAM|work=Novedades - El mejor diario de Mexico|url=https://www.elnovedades.com.mx/2016/08/conferencia-feminismo-cine-la-unam/|access-date=August 16, 2020}} In 2016 she was elected associate member of the Spanish Film Academy (Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España).{{cite web|date=April 20, 2017|title=Barbara Zecchi Appointed Member of Film Academy of Spain|url=https://www.umass.edu/spanport/news/barbara-zecchi-appointed-associate-member-film-academy-spain|access-date=August 16, 2020|website=University of Massachusetts Amherst - News}}

In her publications, Zecchi develops an analysis of women film production. In Desenfocadas/Out of focus she follows the struggle of different generations of women filmmakers trying to find a space in the male-dominated world of cinema vis-à-vis the evolution of their historical context and of the feminist movement. The ultimate goal of this study is to demonstrate that despite the obvious changes, women are still subjected to traditional values without any real alternative to patriarchal stereotypes in dominant cinema, but at the same time, these stereotypes are deconstructed by each generation of women directors, in each historical period. For Esther Gimeno Ugalde, {{quote|Barbara Zecchi's book has the merit of adding a historical dimension to the phenomenon by tracing the presence of female directors from the origins of Spanish cinema to the present day. The analytical depth and erudition displayed in Desenfocadas makes it an indispensable reference, as much for those who are interested in the history of Spanish cinema as for those interested in feminist film theory.{{cite journal|last1=Gimeno Ugalde|first1=Esther|date=2016|title=Review of Barbara Zecchi's Desenfocadas|url=https://www.academia.edu/32105317|journal=International Journal of Iberian Studies |volume=29|issue=2.1|pages=189–191}}}}

La pantalla sexuada/The Gendered Screen focuses on five topics that are central to feminist film theory (i.e., space, authorship, pleasure, body and violence) in an attempt to reveal the gendered dynamics that have been used in movies to expropriate the feminine and with the goal of studying the gradual process of re-appropriation of a space, a gaze and an agency.{{cite journal|last1=Guillamon Carrasco|first1=Silvia|date=2014|title=La pantalla Sexuada|url=http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:133611|journal=Eutopias|volume=8|pages=138–140}}

She is the founder and director of the Gynocine Project, a Digital Humanities open source project launched with a seed grant of the University of Massachusetts in 2011, with the aim of increasing the visibility of women's cinema.{{cite journal|last1=Sheldon|first1=Megan|date=June 2015|title=Review of Gynocine|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/584441/pdf|journal=Revista de Estudios Hispánicos|volume=XLIX|issue=2|pages=415–417|doi=10.1353/rvs.2015.0047|s2cid=142325132|url-access=subscription}} The term of her coinage "gynocine" is an alternative to the limiting labels that have dominated the discussions on women-directed cinema. According to Pérez Villanueva, Zecchi understands "gynocine" as a "theoretical and practical tool that allows for a feminist reading of any film regardless of the gender of the author".{{cite journal|last1=Pérez Villanueva|first1=Sonia|date=Spring 2016|title=The Beauty of Suffering: Representations of Violence against Women in Spain—from María de Zayas to Alicia Luna and Icíar Bollaín|journal=Hispanic Review|volume=84|issue=2|pages=125–146|doi=10.1353/hir.2016.0014|s2cid=148394618}}

Zecchi is vice-director of the international multidisciplinary network cinemAGEgender based in Birmingham, England, which studies the intersection of cultural gerontology with gender studies and film studies.{{cite web|title=cinemAGEnder|url=https://www.cinemagender.com/}}

In 2020 her book Desenfocadas (Out of focus) was selected by the Spanish daily national newspaper El Diario as one of the “13 books that have defined the decade".{{cite web|title=Books that have defined the decade|url=https://www.eldiario.es/cultura/libros/libros-decada_1_1173409.html|access-date=4 August 2020|website=ElDiario.es|date=29 December 2019 }}

• Sexualidad y escritura (1850–2000) (co-edited with Raquel Medina). Barcelona: Anthropos, 2002 {{ISBN|9788476586372}}
• La mujer en la España actual ¿Evolución o involución? (co-edited Jacqueline Cruz). Barcelona: Icaria, 2004 {{ISBN|9788474267051}}
• Teoría y práctica de la adaptación fílmica. Madrid: Editorial Complutense, 2011 {{ISBN|9788499381305}}
• Gynocine: Teoría de género, filmología y praxis cinematográfica Zaragoza: Publicaciones Universidad Zaragoza, 2013 {{ISBN|9788416935055}}
• Desenfocadas: cineastas españolas y discursos de género, Barcelona: Editorial Icaria, 2014 {{ISBN|9788498885682}}
• La pantalla sexuada, Madrid: Editorial Cátedra, 2015 {{ISBN|978-84-376-3316-9}}
• Tras las lentes de Isabel Coixet: género y cine. Zaragoza: Publicaciones Universidad de Zaragoza, Colección Vidas (PUZ), 2017 {{ISBN|9788498885682}}
• Gender-Based Violence in Latin American and Iberian Cinemas, (co-edited with Rebeca Maseda and María José Gámez Fuentes), Routledge, London and New York, 2020. {{ISBN|9781138349476}}

Zecchi has been involved with national and international film festivals in different capacities.{{cite web|title=Barbara Zecchi - Film Festivals and Conferences Organization|url=https://www.umass.edu/film/member/barbara-zecchi-fs|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Film Studies People|publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst}} She was a member of the Official Jury of the Film Festival Cines del Sur in Granada, Spain, in 2014, and a member of the Flecos Awards Jury in 2017.{{cite news|last1=Redacción|first1=AG|date=7 June 2014|title=La película '40 Days of Silence' consigue la Alhambra de Oro del Festival Cines del Sur|agency=Ahora Granada|url=https://www.ahoragranada.com/noticias/40-days-silence-consigue-la-alhambra-de-oro-del-festival-cines-del-sur/|access-date=5 August 2020}} In 2018 she collaborated with Cines del Sur as a film critic and wrote daily film reviews for Caimán Cuadernos de Cine Journal.{{cite web|title=Festival Cines del Sur día a día|date=5 June 2018 |url=https://www.caimanediciones.es/festival-cines-del-sur-dia-a-dia/|access-date=6 August 2020|publisher=Caimán Cuadernos de Cine}} She participated at MICGénero Film Festival in Mexico in 2016 as a member of the Gender Lab Jury, and in 2018 with Ruby Rich she conducted a workshop on Feminism and Queer Theory. She collaborates with the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival, the UMass Latin American Film Festival, and she is the founder and co-curator of the Massachusetts Catalan Film Festival.{{cite web|title=Programa de mano GenderLab 2016|url=https://issuu.com/micgenero/docs/programa_genderlab_issu|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Catalogue MICGénero Festival México|date=7 August 2016 |publisher=MICGénero}}{{cite web|title=Taller Actualidad Crítica Cinematográfica. Feminismo, género y teoría queer- Imparten: B. Ruby Rich y Barbara Zecchi|url=http://micgenero.com/focus-camp/|access-date=6 August 2020|website=MICGénero Focus Camp|publisher=MICGénero}}

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Category:Living people

Category:University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty

Category:University of California alumni

Category:Film theorists

Category:Italian feminists

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)