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International Symposium
June 15 – 18, 2017
University of Calabria, Arcavacata (CS)
“Theorizing the Italian Diaspora”
In Collaboration with the Università della Calabria
&
Under the Patronage of the Fulbright Office, Rome
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Thursday, June 15
Arrival
12:00-5:00 PM: Registration
Foyer of the International Relations Office
6:30-7:00 PM: Opening Remarks
Aula Caldora
Gino Crisci, Rettore, UniCal
Alan Gravano, IASA President, Rocky Mountain University
Margherita Ganeri, Direttora del Programma CLIA, UniCal
Gianpiero Barbuto, Responsabile, Ufficio Speciale Relazioni Internazionali, UniCal
7:00-8:00 PM: Plenary Address
Aula Caldora
Margherita Ganeri, Università della Calabria (UniCal)
“Italian American Studies and Italy: Theorizing the Birth of a New Union”
8:00-9:00: Reception
Foyer of the Aula Caldora
Hosted by the Office of International Relations, UniCal
Dinner On Your Own
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Friday, June 16
8:00AM-5:00 PM Registration
Foyer of the International Relations Office
8:45-10:45 Workshops
Workshop 1: “Theorizing Italian Diaspora Studies”
Classroom: Aula Caldora
Group Leaders:
Mary Jo Bona, Stony Brook University
Anthony Julian Tamburri, John D Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College,
CUNY
Workshop 2: “Creating, Sustaining, Promoting, and Building Italian American Studies
(Programs, Relationships, and Funding Opportunities)”
Classroom
Group Leaders:
Clorinda Donato, CSU, Long Beach
Luisa Del Giudice, Independent Scholar
11:00-12:15
Session 1: “Revisiting John Fante”
Classroom
Chair: Anthony Julian Tamburri, John D Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College,
CUNY
Enrico Mariani, University of Siena, “John Fante and the Italian/American Novel”
Davide Battente, University of Siena, “A Linguistic and Thematic Analysis of Wait Until
Spring, Bandini (Chapter 2)”
Carla Francellini, University of Siena, “John Fante and the Evolution of the
Italian/American Novel”
Session 2: “Historical and Political Examinations of the Italian Diaspora”
Classroom
Chair: Laura Corradi, UniCal
Luke Vitale, University of New South Wales, “British Preference was not British
Preference”: Italians Redefining Britishness in Australia in the 1930s”
Stefano Luconi, University of Florence, “Diasporic Ballots? Italianness and External
Voting Rights for Italian Citizens in the United States from Berlusconi to Renzi”
Antonio Fontana, St. John’s University (Queens), “Criminals and Brigands: The
Risorgimento and the Creation of Italy as a Domestic and Internal Locus of the Italian
Diaspora
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12:15-1:30 Lunch
Mensa of UniCal
1:30-2:45
Session 3: “Trying to Theorize Diaspora and Cultural Studies”
Classroom
Chair: Marghertia Ganeri, UniCal
Marco Gatto, UniCal, “Philology, Wordliness, and Counterpoint: Edward W. Said
against Essentialism”
Carmelo (Luca) Pizzimenti, UniCal, “The Symbolic Shape of Anguish”
Daniella Trimboli, University of Melbourne, “Italian-Australian Diaspora and
Approaches to Ethnic Studies”
Session 4: “Cultural Studies through the New Generation: Pop Culture in the Italian and Italian
American World”
Classroom
Chair: Alan Gravano, Rocky Mountain University
Francesca Spina, UniCal, “Italian and Italian in America: Language, Music and Identity”
Luana Francese, UniCal, “The Cultural Interaction of Two Worlds: The Contemporary
Generation of Italian Americans about Italy and the Younger Italians about Italian
Americans”
Rocco Mesiti, Western New England University, “Italian When We Eat: The Politics of
Identity Development in the 21st Century”
3:00-4:15
Session 5: “A Black Man from Apulia. The Story of an Italian African American in Postwar
Italy”
Classroom:
Chair: Circe Sturm, University of Texas, Austin
Rosetta Giuliani Caponetti, Auburn University
Shelleen Greene, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Antonio Campobasso, Independent Scholar
Session 6: “Female Literary Voices in the Italian Diaspora”
Classroom:
Chair: Mary Jo Bona, Stony Brook University & Laura Corradi, UniCal
Carla Tempestoso, UniCal, “New Italian/American Voices: Lia Spezzano’s Poesie
dall’esilio”
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Sandra Paoli, “Antonio Canova” Languages and Humanities High School, Treviso, “Rita
Ciresi. A Kaleidoscope of Irony”
Giuseppe Capalbo, UniCal, “Writing as a Way of Healing in Louise DeSalvo’s Vertigo
and Breathless”
4:30-5:45
Session 7: “Page, Stage, and Reel in Italian American Studies”
Classroom: Aula Caldora
Chair: Peter Covino, University of Rhode Island
Manuel Pugliese, UniCal, “Breaking Ties: Criminal Families Face Off”
Alan Gravano, Rocky Mountain University, “‘The Working Man is a Sucker’: Working-
Class Values Contested in A Bronx Tale”
Colleen Ryan, Indiana University Bloomington, “Weddings are the Best
Opportunity…Conflicts and Crossroads in Italian American/Italian Canadian Theater”
Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, University of Arkansas, “‘Coming Out’ of the Closet in Italian
American Theater”
Session 8: “Analyzing the Italian Diasporic Narrative”
Classroom
Chair: Fred Gardaphé, Queens College, CUNY
Chiara Grilli, University of Macerata, “The Collective Self: Towards the Construction of
an Italian American Narrative Identity”
Francesco Chianese, Freie Universität of Berlin, “What ‘Italianness’? The Concept of
Home in John Fante’s Wait Until Spring, Bandini, Joseph Tusiani’s in una casa un’altra
casa trovo, and Igiaba Scego’s La mia casa è dove sono”
Erica Russo, UniCal, “Psychoanalytic Criticism and Trauma in Italian American Novels”
6-7:15 Creative Session
Creative Writing in the Italian Diaspora: Poetry Reading
Classroom: Aula Caldora
Chair: Ryan Calabretta-Sajder
Alan Gravano, Rocky Mountain University, “We Only Kill Ourselves”
Anthony Mitzel, University of Bologna and UCL
Giovanna Riccio, Independent Scholar, “Tra-versing Family”
Peter Covino, University of Rhode Island
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Saturday, June 17
8:45-10:45 Workshops
Workshop 3: “Teaching Italian American Studies”
Classroom: Aula Caldora
Group Leaders:
Donna Chirico, York College, CUNY
Fred Gardaphé, Queens College, CUNY
Workshop 4: “Publishing in Italian American Studies”
Classroom
Group Leaders:
Peter Covino, University of Rhode Island
Alan Gravano, Rocky Mountain University
11:00-12:15
Session 9: “Politics, History, and Cultures of the Italian American Diaspora”
Classroom: Aula Caldora
Chair: Matteo Pretelli, NYU
Alessandra Gissi, University of Naples, “L’Orientale”, “Italian Women in the
‘Intellectual Wave’ (Italy/United States of America, 1938-1943)”
Giulia Sbaffi, NYU, “The Negleted Story of a Heedless Idealist: Carl Marzani”
Cathy Robbins, Independent Scholar, “No Room for Theory?”
Maria Chiara De Simone, UniCal, “Italian Migration to American and the Anti-Italian
Bias”
Session 10: “Literature about the Italian Diasporic—Trans Voices”
Classroom
Chair: Bruna Mancini, UniCal
Francesca Bardascino, UniCal, “An Unrestrained Silence: The Talese Family Diaspora”
Francesco Corigliano, UniCal, “The Appropriation of Language in Tony Ardizzone’s In
the Garden of Papa Santuzzu”
Annamaria Scorza, UniCal, “Italian Emigration Seen by Who Remains: Gli Americani di
Ràbbato by Luigi Capuana”
12:15-1:30 Lunch
Mensa of UniCal
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1:30-2:45
Session 11: “Culture in Flux—Italian Americana and the Question of Cultural Studies”
Classroom: Aula Caldora
Chair: Alan Gravano, Rocky Mountain University
Alexandra de Luise, Queens College, CUNY, “Italian Americans—Are We Part of
Ethnic Studies or Merely Elements in the Population? How Terminology Affects Book
Buying in Academic American Libraries”
Anthony Mitzel, University of Bologna & University College London, “Transformative
Culture and Italian Identity in Flux”
Valeria Russo, UniCal, “Saints and Sinners. Contact, Rivalry and Amity between the
Italian and Irish Communities in the USA”
Session 12: “Italian Diaspora and the Latino Culture(s)”
Classroom
Chair: Donna Chirico, York College, CUNY
Clorinda Donato, CSU Long Beach, “Diaspora Synergies: Italian Americans and
Latinos”
Elena Lombardo, UniCal, “Argentina, On the Way to Hope”
3:00-4:15
Session 13: The Coincidence of Italian Cultural Hegemonic Privilege and the Historical Amnesia
of Italian Diasporic Articulations
Classroom: Aula Caldora
Chair: Anthony Julian Tamburri, John D Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College,
CUNY
Donna Chirico, York College, CUNY, “Hegemonic Perceptions as a Negative Factor in
Identificational Assimilation Among the Italian Diaspora”
Margherita Ganeri, University of Calabria, “Amnesia and Removal of the Diaspora in
Pirandello and Sciascia, and in Their Critical Reception”
Session 14: “Italian Diasporas: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”
Classroom
Chair: Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, University of Arkansas
Maria Giovanna Cassa, University of Milano, Bicocca, “Filming New Identities Outside
Italy”
Guido Furci, Paris 3, Sorbonne Nouvelle, “Giovanni Verga and the European Refugee
Crisis” Reading I malavoglia Today
Chiara Reale, UniCal, “A Double Perspective: Italy and the USA”
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4:30-5:45 – Film Screenings
Aula Caldora
Texas Tavola: A Taste of Sicily in the Lone Star State, Presented by director Circe Sturm
(short documentary)
Pasquale’s Magic Veal, DJ Higgins, director (short film)
As Good As Bread, Elisabetta D’Amanda (short documentary)
7:00-8:00: Plenary Address
Aula Caldora
Anthony Julian Tamburri, John D Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY
“Re-appropriating the Forget-me-nots: The [Mis-]state of Affairs of Italian/American Studies”
8:15: Dinner
Departure of Bus for La Scogente Ristorante
Meet in front of the Office of International Relations
Sunday, June 18
8:30
Umbertina Tour
Calabria, Italy
Meet in front of the Office of International Relations
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Call for Papers
Faith, (Ir)reverence, and the Italian Diaspora Fifty Years of Italian American Studies
Marriott Wardman Park / 2660 Woodley Road NW / Washington, DC 2008
November 2-4, 2017
Submission Deadline: June 15, 2017
Upload/submit proposals to Submittable:
https://italianamericanstudies.submittable.com/submit
For inquiries, please contact the conference committee at [email protected]
The Italian American Studies Association (IASA) formerly the American Italian Historical Association (AIHA) celebrates its fiftieth year of academic inquiry into all things Italian and Italian American. In December 1966, a group of historians, educators, sociologists, and other interested persons met at the LaGuardia Memorial House in New York City and founded the American Italian Historical Association. Since then, the Association has grown exponentially to reflect the diversity of scholarship that now subtends Italian-American studies. The organization encourages independent thinkers, scholars, and academics, past and present, to help mark this milestone with their participation at the 50th annual conference in Washington, DC, November 2-4, 2017.
This year’s conference theme will focus on faith in all of its manifestations and will feature Dr. Robert Orsi as its keynote speaker. Dr. Orsi is Professor of Religious Studies and History and Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University.
The conference is interdisciplinary in its perspective and methods. IASA welcomes scholars from all disciplines, especially those interested in the ethno-historical, religious, and psychological ramifications of faith as well as creative writers (novelists, poets, and memoirists), and visual-media artists. The conference committee will consider proposals that do not specifically address but may complement this year’s conference theme.
Please email an abstract of your individual presentation or panel proposal and include a brief biography and academic affiliation, if applicable. The abstract should not exceed 500 words. Include requests for audiovisual equipment or special accommodations.
We encourage the submission of organized panels of no more than three presenters, not including the chair and respondent, and creative writers and artists of three or more presenters. All presentations are limited to 15-20 minutes based upon the number of people on the panel. An individual can participate in no more than two panels. If you are willing to serve as chair, please indicate that willingness in your cover letter.
All presenters, respondents, and discussants must be members in good standing of the Italian American Studies Association by September 15, 2017.
Possible presentation and panel topics may include but are not limited to the following:
Faith
Religion
Religious Histories of the Italian Diaspora
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Literature and Religion
Italian Diaspora and the Arts
The Psychology of Faith
Atheism and Italians
Italian Americans Fifty Years Later
Italian Belief Systems
Italians and the Clergy
Italian Catholics/Protestants/Jews
Catholicism
Catholic Studies
The Social Sciences and the Italian Diaspora
For further information, please visit www.italianamericanstudies.net
The keynote speaker is Dr. Robert Orsi, and the title of his plenary talk is “The Dangers of Italian Americans Reading (Besides Going Blind).” His keynote address will discuss reading as an activity in Italian American homes and its impact on Italian American scholars and intellectuals.
The Italian American Student Association will like to extend its most heartfelt gratitude to
all those who assisted in making this symposium a success.
The Office of International Relations
Gianpiero Barbuto, Director
Alfio Covello
Paola Ciancio
The Conference Committee
Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, Chair
Jessica Femiani
Michele Fazio
Margherita Ganeri
Alan Gravano
Anthony Julian Tamburri
Special Thanks to
Alessandro Tarsia
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Notes
Recommended
