Francesca Malagnini's research activity covers multiple 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, and on the analysis of 19th-century literary texts, especially the prose of Manzoni, also in relation to the inclusion of Francesco Gonin’s illustrations in the Quarantana edition. Other areas of interest also include the study of Tommaseo as lexicographer, journalist, poet, and educator; and the teaching of Italian and Italian as a second language. Regarding the latter, she has prepared a monograph on the relationship between language history and language teaching; she has written a normative grammar corresponding to contemporary usage; she has outlined a diachronic framework on the language of the semi-educated. In recent years, she has devoted herself to the semi-educated wall writings from the 16th-17th centuries preserved in the Tezon on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in Venice, and to another volume dedicated to the epigraphic writings of Lazzaretto Vecchio in Venice. She is also involved in lexicographical studies, preparing articles for the Italian Etymological Lexicon based at the University of Saarbrucken, originally conceived and directed by Max Pfister and now by Wolfgang Schweickard.

She is currently a member of the research group 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. 

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

Sandra Covino has been a full professor since 2011 in the field of L-FIL-LET/12 (Italian Linguistics). At her institutional location, she coordinated the PhD program in "Language Sciences" and then the "Linguistic and Philological Sciences" area 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 research projects of national and international significance and is currently 1) head of the University for Foreigners of Perugia Unit in the PRIN 2022 project (call of February 2nd) "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-director, with M. Loporcaro and F. Franciullo, of the project "Gesamtausgabe der linguistischen Schriften Clemente Merlos," funded by the Stiftung für wissenschaftliche Forschung an der Universität Zürich 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 locations 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 Intersocietal Coordination for the History of Linguistic and Semiotic Thought (CISPELS).

From 2013 to 2022, she was responsible for Italian in the Perugia branch 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 "Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani" and the "Società filologica romana," as well as the Italian Language Observatory at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C., and the Academic Scientific Council of the ICoN Consortium.

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