Christine RistainoDirector of Emory College Language Center and Professor of Practice in Italian Studies
Current Emory courses taught by Professor Ristaino:
- Diaspora in Italy and Beyond through Memoir
- Social Justice in Italy and Beyond through Memoir
- Memoir in Italy and Beyond
- Italian 101-301 language and culture courses
Christine Ristaino is the Director of the Emory College Language Center and Professor of Practice at Emory University. She teaches courses on Italian diaspora, Baroque Italy, social justice, comparative food studies, memoir, and language and culture. Her current research encompasses a comparative study on eight row (otto file) corn in Northern Italy and the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, as well as research on innovative pedagogical approaches to language teaching. She has co-authored an academic publication entitled Lucrezia Marinella and the “Querelle des Femmes” in Seventeenth-Century Italy through Farleigh Dickinson Press as well as the first edition of a book series called The Italian Virtual Class, which teaches language through cultural acquisition. Ristaino has been part of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative since its inception.
Ristaino is an Atlanta author whose memoir, All the Silent Spaces, published in July 2019 by She Writes Press, utilizes a violent attack as a lens to examine both personal and societal repercussions to this event as she confronts trauma, racism, and healing. Ristaino writes and publishes articles, essays, OpEds, and non-fiction, and presents her work in various forums throughout the U.S. and abroad. In addition, Ristaino has published articles in the Guardian, Pacific Standard, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, Ms. Magazine, Visible Magazine, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on education, child advocacy, changing the way we talk about violence, and topics around diversity.
Ristaino participates in social justice work, education reform, and violence prevention. She is an award-winning advisor and teacher and has experience organizing powerful symposiums, seminars, conferences and events. She leads workshops on the topics of using creativity practices to find solutions in the workplace, coming to terms with violence through memoir, writing and talking about difficult topics, equitable practices in the classroom, and creating a public voice. She is also a trained life coach.
