Professor Margherita Heyer-Cáput completed her education in Italy (Laurea, University of Turin, 1980), Switzerland (Post-graduate Exchange Fellowship, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and University of Berne, 1980-82) and the United States (Ph.D., Harvard University, 1993). She then became an Assistant Professor at the University of Berne, Switzerland prior to joining the Department of French and Italian at UC Davis in 1998. She was the founding Director of the Quarter Abroad Program in Florence, Italy, for which she received the 2019 inaugural prize for Excellence in Teaching of Study Abroad. She led and taught that program from 2011 through 2022, including on recall upon her retirement in 2020. Margherita's areas of research and teaching include modern and contemporary Italian literature in the context of philosophic and scientific thought, Italian Women’s Writing, and Italian and Italian American Cinema. One of her books, Grazia Deledda’s Dance of Modernity, was awarded the 2009 Ennio Flaiano International Prize for Italian Studies for its innovative interpretation of the 1926 Nobel Prize laureate Grazia Deledda in light of philosophical modernity. She was presented with the Honorary Membership of the American Association of Teachers of Italian, the oldest organization dedicated to the promotion of the Italian language and culture in North America, “in recognition of her indelible contribution to the field of Italian and, in particular, Italian American Studies in North America.” On June 10, 2025, the Consul General of Italy in San Francisco Sergio Strozzi, on behalf of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, bestowed upon her the honorific title of "Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy.”
