Linguistic Hybridity & National Consciousness In 21st-Century Poetry
Laurie Desiderio-Giampiccolo (2026) | English
Laurie Desiderio-Giampiccolo is a SURF L&S scholarship recipient and a fourth-year English major. For his SURF project this summer, Laurie is exploring how bilingual poetry challenges traditional ideas of American identity and authorship. By comparing the work of Salvadoran poet Javier Zamora with earlier bilingual writers, he examines how the use of Spanish in contemporary literature reflects changing understandings of nationality, language, and belonging in 21st-century America.
What made you choose this research project? How did your interest in your research topic emerge?
The topic of my research emerged from one of my classes, Poetry as Political Action, in which we read both of the authors at the center of this project, Corky Gonzales and Javier Zamora (who actually joined us on Zoom for a reading and Q&A!). Before that, I have been engaged with scholarship about linguistic experimentation and its literary implications—something I am deeply interested in due to my own background as an international student from Sicily, a place at the crossroads of different cultures.
What is your project about (in simple terms)? How does it relate to issues or ideas you have been studying in your coursework?
My project traces the evolution of the use of Spanish in American literature by Latine authors, particularly starting from Corky Gonzales and Gloria Anzaldua in the late 20th century, and focusing on the changes introduced by Javier Zamora in the 21st century. While the former authors use hybrid linguistic expression to carve out a space for themselves within American society, factually advocating for Chicano nationalism, the latter is more concerned with defying those very borders. During my time at Berkeley, I have been studying ways in which literature has engaged in political discourse, and I am writing my honors thesis about literary nationalism in the U.S., so this project represents an extension and deepening of that.
What are you most excited about this summer? Will your research entail travel, access to special collections, or experiments?
While my project doesn’t entail any extraordinary activities, given its rootedness in critical and literary textual material, I am excited about its simplicity. Not that it is going to be easy, but it is going to be the only thing (or almost) on my mind, and I will be able to dedicate as much time and effort as I need to it.
What do you hope to learn from this experience? What would success look like for you? What challenges do you anticipate confronting?
My ideal learning outcome would be a better understanding of the collaborative academic environment, as I will be interacting with other scholars throughout the summer. I would like to build some connections with other people working on their projects, which could hopefully open avenues for future cooperation. On a different note, some challenges that could arise from the entire process would be being able to maintain a productive schedule, due to the lack of definitive structure, aside from the workshop meetings.
What do you hope comes out of this research? What impact do you hope your research will have?
I would love it if I could turn this project into a decent-length paper that I’ll be able to use for grad school applications in the fall, as well as potentially submit for publication. Also, I would like my research to enter a broader critical conversation regarding the nature of literary languages in defining identities and enforcing or subverting geopolitical borders. It is something that I seek to study in the future, so it will be great to have this kind of basis and experience.