Dante Alighieri Society Liverpool

Alessandro is from Mammola, a little village in the province of Reggio Calabria, south Italy. He works as a Senior Lecturer in Computer Networks with the School of Computer Science and Mathematics of Liverpool John Moores University.

Within the Dante Society, he has been in post as a Co-opted Committee Member since September 2023. He has served as president since September 2024 and is also responsible for maintaining the website, managing the library and the book club.

Isabella joined DASL in 2022 and has been in post since October 2024.

Within the Society, she is responsible for DANTE Giovani, which includes helping to prepare the events for young adults with a variety of activities. She also supports the organisation for updating both the website and the social media. 

Isabella is a Pharmacist and she’s working both in hospital and community setting on the Wirral.

She has a strong passion for gardening and she’s spending lot of time looking after her plants. She’s also studying at the College courses with regards to plants and flowers.

Isabella has been living in England since 2008; she is originally from Modena, in Emilia-Romagna.

Jeff lives in St Helens and is a retired College Lecturer, Local Government Officer and Councillor. He first joined Dante just before Covid arrived and did manage to attend one meeting before everything stopped. He has been involved with Dante since it restarted, originally offering to help the then Treasurer, Geoff Roberts, and then taking over as Treasurer at Christmas 2023. As a councillor he was both the Chairman of the Finance Scrutiny Panel and Cabinet Member for Finance.

He is also involved as a volunteer in the local community bookshop in St Helens (hence the photo background) and with the ‘In Harmony’ project run through Liverpool Philharmonic.

He has studied French to A Level and beyond as well as Spanish GCSE. At present he is learning Italian through the U3A and enjoys reading Italian books, usually with a parallel text and a dictionary to hand.

Sofia joined the Society in 2021. Soon after, she became a member of the Steering Committee, actively shaping the process that led to the association’s affiliation with the Rome-based Dante Alighieri Society Headquarters in 2023. She has sat on the DAS Board since then, helping to organize events for the Italian community and for enthusiasts of Italian language and culture.
She also manages relations with the Rome Headquarters and co-leads the Dante Alighieri Youth Team, which aims to inspire young members of our community to preserve their Italian heritage.

Born in Bari, Apulia, she has lived in Liverpool since 2005. She taught Italian at the University of Liverpool for 11 years and now works at the University of Birmingham, where she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules in the field of Italian studies.

Stefania helped DASL to restart after the pandemic with the Open Day held at Mossley Hill in May 2022.

Stefania is a qualified modern foreign language teacher with significant work experience in different countries and institutions.

Within the Dante Society, she delivers Italian language courses, literature workshops and children’s atelier in collaboration with MammaMia Liverpool.

She also helps students in the preparation to language certification exams and supports the organization of cultural events.

Stefania has been living in Liverpool since 2015; she is originally from Turin, Piemonte.

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Judit has been teaching languages in a local secondary school since 2014.

She is from Hungary where she had graduated in Italian Studies and taught Italian for a few years before moving to England.

She joined DASL in 2022 and has been a founding member of our book club. She volunteers in the Society as a librarian.

She is a Romanian and Italian citizen, living in the UK for the past 10 years. Before coming to the UK, she lived in Italy for 13 years and before that in Romania, where was born and raised.

She is working as Finance Business Partner for Weightmans LLP, a historic law firm with its head office in Liverpool.

She joined DASL in 2022 as part of Drama class crew, actively performing since then and she is, also, a member of the Book Club since its institution.

Within DASL committee she is in charge with all matters relating drama class and related events’ organisation, the budgeting process and accounting and she has been appointed as Deputy Treasurer in 2024.

Her passions are neuroscience and everything that relates to personal development, literature, cinema, theatre, travelling, outdoor activities and physical activities (with the last one being more of a “must do” than a passion 😊)

Andrea began his professional career in 2005 with the ‘Assemblea Teatro’ company in Turin.

He has been collaborating with the Turin-based collective for more than 15 years, participating in numerous National and International tours.

In 2017, together with actors Angelo Scarafiotti and Luca Occelli, he founded the independent company “Zona Grappa”. He also delivered theatre training activities for children and adults.

Since 2022 he has been responsible for the theatrical activities of Dante Alighieri Society Liverpool and MammaMia Liverpool.

Born in Ancona, in the Italian central region of Le Marche, Federica moved to the UK after graduating in Modern Languages. She has since worked as Lecturer in Italian Language in several universities in the Northwest, including Liverpool, Manchester and Liverpool John Moores University.

Federica’s involvement with DASL started in late 2021, helping with the re-launch of the branch, the organisation of cultural events and activities, and the delivery of language courses.

She is a founding member of the DASL Book club and the organiser of the DASL Library, having collected and catalogued books in both Italian and English for use by the Society members.

Since Autumn 2024, she is the coordinator for the PLIDA exams, liaising with Rome for the organisation and delivery of the exam sessions.

Valeria Denegri was born in Imperia, Italy, and moved to Liverpool in 2019.

She is a qualified teacher with extensive experience in language teaching, specializing in Italian. She has worked at prestigious institutions such as the University of Liverpool and the Italian Society at the University of Oxford, where she has taught and passionately promoted the Italian language and culture.

Valeria is enthusiastic about continuing to share her skills and love for language education and looks forward to seeing you in class!

Ilaria was born and raised in Ascoli Piceno, in the Marche region of Italy, and has been living in the UK since 2016, primarily in Liverpool. She holds a degree in Translation and Foreign Languages (English and French) from the University of Macerata in Italy. After moving to the UK, she worked as a public service interpreter and translator.

In 2020, Ilaria retrained as a teacher of Italian as a foreign or second language, earning her CEDILS certification in 2021. She immediately fell in love with teaching Italian and remains deeply passionate about her work. She has experience teaching both online and in person, working with individuals and groups in various settings.

Ilaria is an enthusiast of foreign languages, as well as theatre, photography, psychology, and art. 

Giulia, originally from Italy, spent 12 years teaching Rhythmic Gymnastics before moving to Liverpool in 2019. There, she became a qualified childcare practitioner and worked as a SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) learning support assistant in secondary schools.

After gaining experience with language GCSE exams, she started teaching Italian as an additional language to all ages and levels.

Giulia loves music, old cinema, sports, and animals.

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