Enrica Aurora Cominetti is a PhD student in Social and Cultural Analysis at Concordia University. Her research interests focus on the lived experiences of women in Canada with multiple sclerosis (MS) and related invisible disabilities. Specifically, she intends to examine how gender, disability, and sensory sensitivities intersect with the embodiment of these women as they navigate social, medical, and institutional challenges in a country with one of the highest MS incidence rates globally. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis and critical disability theory, her proposed research aims to investigate the social construction of disability through an intersectional and interdisciplinary lens. This approach also informs the development of a digital repository and podcast, serving as platforms for storytelling that highlight the complexities of these women’s experiences and explore the essence of their lived realities to foster greater awareness.
Originally from Crema, Italy, Aurora holds a BA in Modern Languages and Literatures from the University of Milan, an MA in Translation Studies from University College London, and a joint MA in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature from the University of Perpignan Via Domitia, the University of Guelph, and NOVA University Lisbon. Before joining Concordia, Aurora taught Italian language and culture courses at the University of Guelph, where she contributed digital pedagogical materials to various textbooks, enhancing the learning experience of numerous students and earning a teaching excellence award for her dedication to fostering academic growth. Her previous work also includes significant contributions to major Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory projects, where she applied Text Encoding Initiative standards to encode original manuscripts.
