Dr. Elio Baldi studied History and Italian Literature and Culture at the University of Amsterdam, followed by a six month stay in Bologna to study Italian History and Literature. Thereafter, he went on to do a Masters in Literature and Cultural Criticism at the Utrecht University and a Research Masters in Literary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. From 2013 to 2016 he was a PhD-candidate and part-time teaching assistant at the University of Warwick.

The monograph The Author in Criticism: Italo Calvino's Authorial Image in Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom focuses on the reception of the works of Italo Calvino in a comparative perspective. By combining insights from paratextual studies, discourse analysis, metacriticism, reception theory, Bourdieu's sociology of culture and celebrity studies the research investigates the dynamics of modern authorial representation and self-representation, which is especially relevant in the case of Italo Calvino, who besides being a respected and quickly canonized author, is also well-known as critic, editor and journalist. This multiplication of roles has provided him with a quasi-omnipresent voice in Italian literary criticism which is highly significant; investigation thereof sheds light on the way even dead authors (as well as The Dead Author) can shape their authorial image by contributing directly or indirectly to it through different media. Moreover, on a more general level, the research is aimed towards a better understanding of the factual ways in which reception, canonization and institutionalization take place.

Dr. Baldi's broader research interests include:

• (The reception of the works of) Italo Calvino
• The 'Rebirth of the Author' in media and paratext
• (Italian) Science Fiction
• Feminist Utopia, Ecofiction and Science Fiction
• Boredom in literature
• Science (Astronomy) and Literature
• Authorial personae (escpecially in the works of Fernando Pessoa)
• Eros in the works of Italo Calvino
• Metacriticism/ Discourse Analysis applied to Literary Criticism
• Church bells and Urbanization

• The Author in Criticism: Italo Calvino’s Authorial Image in Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, March 2020).

• 'Italo Calvinoʼs Colour Blindness and the Question of Race among Einaudi Intellectuals', Modern Languages Open (2019).

• 'For whom tolls the bell? An exploration of the changing meaning of church bells in 19th and 20th century literary descriptions of big cities.', in Margit Dirscherl and Astrid Kohler (ed.), Urban Microcosms, IMLR Books
• Art and Science in Calvino’s Palomar: Techniques of Observation and Their History, Italian Studies, 74:1 (2019), 71-86.
• Ennio Flaiano tussen schoonschrijverij en schuinschrijverij, Roma Aeterna 5:2 (2018), 82-89.
• Ciência, astronomia e taedium metaphysicum: O tédio em Giacomo Leopardi e Fernando Pessoa, Appunti leopardiani, 15:1 (2018), pp. 65-91.
• 'Carmelo Bene's Cannibalization of Dante and Shakespeare', Romance Studies, 35:1 (2017), pp. 198-208. 
• 'Science, astronomy and taedium metaphysicum: An investigation into the boredom of Giacomo Leopardi and Fernando Pessoa', Pessoa Plural, Vol. 11:2 (2017).
• 'Lettere e carri armati. Quattro scrittori, «Il Contemporaneo», il 1956, by Sandro de Nobile', Modern Italy, Vol. 21:2 (2016), 215-216 (review).
• 'Italo Calvino and Science Fiction: A Little Explored Reading', in Elizabeth Scheiber (ed.), Calvino's Combinational Creativity (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), pp. 41-61
• 'Cit(t)a(re) Calvino. Le città invisibili e gli architetti', http://www.doppiozero.com/materiali/calvino-trentanni-dopo/cit-t-re-calvino-le-citta-invisibili-e-gli-architetti, 14/09/2015.
• 'Italo Calvino, l'occhio che scrive. La dinamica dell'immagine autoriale di Calvino nella critica italiana', in: Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani, Vol. 30:1, 2015, pp. 23-33.
• 'Riviste e collane del Novecento: tra fantascienza e mainstream', in: Italian Studies Vol. 70:2, 2015, pp. 275-279.
• 'Science fiction and canon: the case of Italo Calvino', readingitaly.wordpress.com, 03/06/2014.
• 'La sfida al labirinto sessuale. L'eros nell'opera di Italo Calvino', in: Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani, Vol. 27:2, 2012, pp. 60-68.
• 'Dirk Herderschee en het zwakzinnigenvraagstuk in het interbellum', in: Skript Vol. 33:3, Herfst 2011, pp. 145-158.

• Teacher of the Year University of Amsterdam 2018-2019
• Teacher of the Year Humanities UvA 2018-2019
• BKO (Basiskwalificatie Onderwijs) (2017)
• PGA Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (November 2015)
• HRC Doctoral Fellowship (February 2015) for conference on Short Story cycles (February 2016).
• Thesis Prize WIS (Dutch and Belgian Society for Italian Studies) for Master Thesis on Calvino, 07-11-2014
• Nomination for the Horst Frenz Prize at the ACLA conference, March 2014
• 2 week stay in Rome for research at the Royal Dutch Institute in April 2014; one month in March-April 2015