Adj. Prof. of linguistics, language and culture, University of Bologna, Italy
Biographical Sketch: Mitzel is an adjunct professor of linguistics, language and culture at the Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna (Italy) where he teaches courses on Applied linguistics, Social semiotics, Intercultural and Humor studies. Mitzel did his undergraduate work at Youngstown States University and his graduate work at University College London (UK) with a PhD dissertation entitled “Authenticity and Ephemerality: The Memes of Cultural Production In Italian American Culture which focuses on the expression of Italian culture around the world including Youngstown, Ohio. He is also an executive committee member of the Italian American Studies Association. His creative work has been published in journals in Italy and the United States while he has presented his research at conferences in both Europe and North American. His research interests include Linguistics, Semiotics, Multimodality, Culturology, Italian American Studies, Memetics, Humour Studies, Critical Memetic Literacy (CMeL).