Francesca Bellei is a scholar of literary and cultural studies whose work applies the critical lenses of queer, feminist and postcolonial thought to ancient Greek, Latin, Italian- and English-language texts and visual artefacts. After receiving a BA in Classics from the University of Cambridge, where she first got involved in feminist activism, she worked for Rape Crisis Scotland and remains committed to a trauma-informed and anti-racist pedagogical approach. Francesca also holds an MLitt in Creative Writing for the University of St Andrews and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, where she also worked as a union organizer. Since graduating from Harvard, Francesca has been a Lecturer in Italian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, worked for FSG and Henry Holt, and continued her activities as an editor and translator. Her current book project, Imagined Mothers, deconstructs the racialized and gendered uses of metaphors of motherhood in ancient Greek, Roman, Italian and Anglo-American narratives about identity and power. Her first monograph uniquely combines Gramscian thought with feminist psychoanalysis and is forthcoming with Harvard University Press.