Zach Aguilar, Ph.D. Student

Zachary Penati Aguilar - from Austin, Texas - received his B.S. in Neuroscience from Brown University (2016) with a focus on trauma, early-life stress, and suicidality. While pursuing his degree in Neuroscience he simultaneously took courses in Italian language and culture, developing a keen interest in linguistics and literature. After graduating, and thoroughly conflicted about which path he wanted to take, he spent a year teaching English in Milan, Italy (2016-2017). Upon returning to the United States – still greatly conflicted – he decided to further delve into the humanities by pursuing an M.A. in Italian Studies at Georgetown University (2020). His thesis, entitled “Body, Space, Memory: The Return Myth from Levi to Scego,” explored themes of migration, exile, belonging, and return in four contemporary Italian novels using a comparativist approach. He is now a fervent humanist and PhD student in Italian Studies at Yale, where he will continue his research on multiculturalism, spatial studies, the poetics of exile, and hybridity in modern and contemporary literature.