Francesca Malagnini’s research activity spans several fields. Specifically, she has focused on the analysis of ancient literary texts, with particular attention to the linguistic-philological and codicological study of Giovanni Boccaccio’s autographs, on the analysis of nineteenth-century literary texts—especially on the prose of Manzoni, also in relation to the inclusion in the Quarantana edition of the vignettes by Francesco Gonin. Other areas of interest also concern the study of Tommaseo as a lexicographer, journalist, poet, and educator; as well as the teaching of Italian and Italian as a second language (L2). Regarding the latter, she has produced a monograph on the relationship between the history of the language and teaching; she has written a normative grammar relating it to everyday language; she has outlined a diachronic overview of the language of the semi-literate. In recent years, she has devoted herself to the study of semi-literate wall writings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries preserved in the Tezon on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in Venice and to another volume dedicated to the epigraphic writings of the Lazzaretto Vecchio of Venice. She also deals with lexicographic studies, writing articles for the Lessico Etimologico Italiano based at Saarbrucken University, conceived and previously directed by Max Pfister and now led by Wolfgang Schweickard.

She is currently a member of the research team for the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants 2020 project entitled “Graff-IT, Writing on the Margins. Graffiti in Italy, 7th to 16th century” (April 22, 2021).

She was National Scientific Coordinator (PI) and coordinator of the lead unit at the University for Foreigners of Perugia from January 12, 2021, for the PRIN project “PHRAME - Phraseological Complexity Measures in learner Italian. Integrating eye tracking, computational and learner corpus methods to develop second language pedagogical resources,” project code 20178XXKFY, replacing the originator Stefania Spina.

From October 5, 2023 to February 28, 2026, she was a member of the research unit of the PRIN (PI Massimo Fanfani, replaced from November 10, 2023 by Donatella Martinelli) at the University of Parma in the project Archive of the Lexicography of the Nineteenth-Twentieth Century (ALON), approved by decree no. 901 of 21/06/2023, project code 20222FC7A8.

Sandra Covino has been a first-tier professor since 2011 in the SSD L-FIL-LET/12 (Italian Linguistics). At her current institution, she coordinated the PhD program in “Language Sciences” and then the “Linguistic and Philological Sciences” track of the Doctoral School (cycles XXV-XXVIII). She has also held various other institutional roles, including the directorship of the Department of Human and Social Sciences (2016-2017).

She has given lecture series and invited talks at many other universities in Italy and abroad (Malta, France, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Sweden, Austria, Algeria, Norway, Greece, Switzerland, where she was also a visiting scholar at the Romanisches Seminar in Zurich).

She has participated in nationally and internationally significant research projects and is currently: 1) head of the University for Foreigners of Perugia Unit in the PRIN 2022 (call of February 2) "Scholars at War Digital Library: an Innovative Environment for Advanced Document Management. Philology, Politics, Society, from the Franco-Prussian War (1870) to the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and Beyond" (acronym SWarD; CUP D53D23015490006; P.I. S. Rapisarda); 2) co-directs, with M. Loporcaro and F. Franciullo, the project "Gesamtausgabe der linguistischen Schriften Clemente Merlos", funded by the Stiftung für wissenschaftliche Forschung at the University of Zurich and the Romanisches Seminar.

She has been an invited speaker at numerous scientific conferences and has organized several international conferences at the University for Foreigners of Perugia (or at other venues as a member of the scientific committee).

From 2016 to 2019, she was the representative of the Association for the History of the Italian Language (ASLI) in the Inter-Societal Coordination for the History of Linguistic and Semiotic Thought (CISPELS).

From 2013 to 2022, she was responsible for Italian in the Perugia hub of the Accademia dei Lincei project "I Lincei for a new didactics in schools: a national network".

She is a member of various scientific societies, including the "Center for Sicilian Philological and Linguistic Studies" and the "Roman Philological Society", as well as of the Italian Language Observatory at the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C. and the Scientific and Educational Council of the ICoN Consortium.

For information on her interests and scientific output, see CV and research areas.