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  • 30 Dec 2015 by Robert Oppedisano

    The conference program and other essential information for the  annual conference of the American Association of Italian Studies, April 21-23, 2016,  LSU, Baton Rouge, LA. can be found here:

    http://sites01.lsu.edu/faculty/aais/wp-content/uploads/sites/84/2015/10/Sessioni-AAIS-2016.pdf

    http://sites01.lsu.edu/faculty/aais/

    There is also call for papers for one panel: Anachronism and Historicism in Italian Modern and Contemporary Art 

    The dominant narratives of Modernism promote an iconoclastic approach to the past. Postmodernism, with its impulses towards appropriation and pastiche, would engage a more absorptive, constructive approach to history. Both, however, obscure the reality of the Italian circumstance. Passatismo Italianità and the ever-visible presence of the past created innumerable opportunities to explore complex temporal structures in their work through subtle reference, utilization and reconfiguration of histories both national and local, recent and distant. Recognition of temporal nuances within the work of modern and contemporary Italian artists is often neglected in favor of more literal interpretations. In such instances, a myopic reading of the signs within a work fails to comprehend the multifaceted meanings and temporalities that can be present simultaneously. To fully appreciate the dynamics of twentieth-century Italian art, a more focused analysis of how these artists utilize an anachronic collapse of time within their work to critically analyze the present through the lens of the past and invite a distant, yet still active voice to speak to concerns of the day is needed. This panel calls for papers that explore the myriad ways in which the visual arts of the Italian nation and its cultural diaspora attend to the past in areas such as artistic creation, exhibition installation, performance, and reconstruction of past works and exhibitions.

    Please send abstracts by January 4, 2016 (ca. 200 words) and CV to both Lucienne Auz, Assistant Professor, Memphis College of Art, lauz@mca.edu & Adrian R. Duran, Associate Professor, University of Nebraska at Omaha, arduran@unomaha.edu.  

  • 30 Dec 2015 by Robert Oppedisano

    EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 1 February 2016, by 5pm EST

    The editorial collective of disClosure seeks submissions that explore Transnational Lives as they are understood in a variety of areas and disciplines, including (but not limited to) Sociology; Gender and Women’s Studies; History; Philosophy; Anthropology; Political Science; Hispanic Studies; Communications; Theories of Transnationality, Hybridity and Bifocality; and Literature (particularly analyses dealing with border studies, immigration, or transnational lives). Possible topics might include:

    • Migration
    • Transnational
    • Translocality
    • Bifocality
    • Intersectionality
    • Globalization
    • Immigration (all forms)
    • Border studies
    • Hybridity
    • Mestizaje
    • Cosmopolitanism
    • International gender relations
    • International affairs
    • Ethnography
    • Belonging/inclusion/exclusion
    • Home

    disClosure is a blind refereed journal produced in conjunction with the Committee on Social Theory at the University of Kentucky. We welcome submissions from all theoretical perspectives and genres (scholarly articles, essays, interviews, reviews, short fiction, poetry, artwork) and from authors and artists (academically affiliated or not) concerned with social theory. The 25th volume will include interviews with Nina Glick Schiller, Otto Santa Ana, Floya Anthias, and William Nericcio.

    SUBMISSION INFORMATION:

    Scholarly Articles, Essays, Poetry, and Fiction: Please submit electronically, in PDF or Word format, to http://uknowledge.uky.edu/disclosure. Submissions should be double spaced with no more than 10,000 words. Manuscripts, notes, and bibliographies should follow Chicago format, where applicable.

    Book Reviews: Please submit electronically in PDF or Word format to http://uknowledge.uky.edu/disclosure. These should be approximately 1,000 words and should review works published no earlier than 2010.

    Art and Digital Media: Artists should submit material as high‐quality .jpgs to http://uknowledge.uky.edu/disclosure.

    Inquiries: Cate Gooch and Ashley Ruderman, disclosurejournal@gmail.com

  • 29 Dec 2015 by Robert Oppedisano

    H-ItAm, a member of H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine, provides an interactive network for scholars and activists relating to the Italian American Experience, and more generally, the ethnic culture of the Italian diaspora worldwide.

    H-ItAm is currently looking for new editors to take over the network and take an active role in developing new online materials and resources for the field. We also looking for contributors, bloggers, discussants, resources gatherers, etc. If you are interested in helping build this site, please contact Patrick Cox, H-Net's Vice-President for Networks, at vp-net@mail.h-net.msu.edu.

    https://networks.h-net.org/h-itam

  • 28 Dec 2015 by Robert Oppedisano


    Fairfield, New Jersey is the most Italian place in the United States according to the United States Census Bureau, whose latest numbers came out earlier this month. Just more than half of residents —50.3 percent — of its 7,475 residents claim Italian ancestry. Less than a percentage point behind, at 49.5 percent, in second place nationally, is Johnston, Rhode Island. Third place was taken by North Branford in Connecticut at 43.9 percent followed by East Haven at 43.6 percent.

           The recent statistics also reveal a sizeable increase in the number of Italian Americans since the last national census in 2010. The number of people who identified themselves as Italian American in 2010 was 16 million, however, this latest census found that 18 million said they were Italian American. Despite being in the U.S. for more than 120 years, the latest statistics also revealed that Italian Americans were the only European group whose population increased. So why the increase? Maybe it’s because the younger generation are starting to identify with their Italian roots in order to maintain their cultural identity.

    Italian-Americans in the United States, based on the percent of population who reported Italian ancestry:

    1. Fairfield, N.J., 50.3 percent

    2. Johnston, R.I., 49.5 percent

    3. North Branford , Conn., 43.9 percent

    4. East Haven, Conn., 43.6 percent

    5. Hammonton, N.J., 43.2 percent

    6. Ocean Gate, N.J., 42.6 percent

    7. East Hanover, N.J., 41.3 percent

    8. North Haven, Conn., 41.2 percent

    9. Cedar Grove, N.J., 40.8 percent

    10. Wood-Ridge, N.J., 40.6 percent

    11. North Providence, R.I., 38.9 percent

    12. Dunmore, Pa., 38.9 percent

    13. Newfield, N.J., 38.8 percent

    14. Saugus, Mass., 38.5 percent

    15. Jenkins, Pa., 38.4 percent

    16. West Pittston, Pa., 37.9 percent

    17. Old Forge, Pa., 37.8 percent

    18. Lowellville, Ohio, 37.5 percent

    19. Hughestown, Pa., 37.5 percent

    20. Prospect, Conn., 37.5 percent

    SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau

  • 16 Dec 2015 by Robert Oppedisano

    41st Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association, Chicago, Illinois, November 17-20, 2016. Conference Theme: "Beyond Social Science History: Knowledge in an Interdisciplinary World". Submission Deadline: February 20th, 2016


    The SSHA is the leading interdisciplinary association for historical research in the US; its members share a common concern for interdisciplinary approaches to historical problems. The organization's long-standing interest in methodology also makes SSHA meetings exciting places to explore new solutions to historical problems. We encourage the participation of graduate students and recent PhDs as well as more-established scholars, from a wide range of disciplines and departments.
               We hereby invite you to submit panels, papers, and posters related to the theme of migration widely defined for the forthcoming conference on “Beyond Social Science History: Knowledge in an Interdisciplinary World" in Chicago. We encourage submissions on all aspects of social science history. Submission of complete sessions and interdisciplinary panels are especially welcome.
             The Migration Network is one of the largest and most active networks at the SSHA. This year’s theme focusing on interdisciplinary historical studies and that ways in which disciplinary boundaries have stretched to integrate new methodologies, data, tools from the physical and biological sciences, as well as literature, arts, medicine and technology offers especially rich opportunities for migration scholars.
    We are seeking submissions that address the topics below. Related subjects and new ideas are also welcome:

    • Refugees, Public health and the Law
    • Public Policy and Refugees
    • Refugees and the “European Crisis,”
    • Gendering of Mobility: Refugees, Labor Migrants, Family unification
    • Migration, Mobility and Environmentalism (epidemiology public health, climate change)
    • Migration and the Digital Humanities
    • Forced and Free Migrations
    • Migration history in the Public Sphere
    • Narratives of Migration: Oral Histories and Storytelling
    • Emotions and Migration
    • Citizenship and the Law: Forms of Inclusion (birthright) and Forms of Deportation
    • Migration and Diplomacy
    • Migrants, Refugees and Grassroots politics
    • War and Migration
    • History, Memory and the shaping of Contemporary Migration Debates
    • Migration Scholars as Public Intellectuals
    • Teaching Migration: National Differences or Disciplinary Challenges

    We are now accepting conference submissions for the 2016 SSHA Annual Conference. You may login to submit a panel or paper directly at (http://ssha.org). Individuals who are new to the SSHA need to create an account prior to using the online submission site. Please keep in mind that if your panel is accepted, every person on the panel has to register for the conference. Graduate students are eligible to apply for financial support to attend the annual meeting (see http://www.ssha.org/grants).


    Please feel free to contact the Migration Network Representatives for comments, questions, assistance creating a panel or for help with submissions:
    Marina Maccari-Clayton (mmaccari@utk.edu) Gráinne McEvoy (mcevoygr@gmail.com)
    Linda Reeder (ReederLS@missouri.edu)

     

  • 09 Dec 2015 by Robert Oppedisano

     IASA members are invited to vote for five open seats on the Executive Council,  starting on December 15, 2015, and ending on  December 29. Voting will be on this website. Here are the biographies and state,emts of the six nominees.

     

    IASA 2015-16 Executive Council Nominees

     

    Donna Chirico 
    Professor of Psychology and Dean, Arts and Sciences at York College of The City University of New York

    My research explores how Italian American identity contributes to psychological development.  I have published and presented in this area including this past year at AATI and delivered an invited lecture to the University of Calabria’s Italian Diaspora Studies Summer School of the John D. Calandra Institute for Italian American Studies.  I am Chair of the Institute’s Italian American Faculty and Staff Advisory Council and President of the Italian Language Inter-Cultural Alliance in the United States.  ILICA is embraces Italian as an international language and Italy as a global culture to promote Italianità in all cultures. I hope to bring this experience and perspective to IASA in its endeavors.

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    Ryan Calabretta-Sajder 
    Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

    I teach courses in Italian, Film, and Gender Studies.  I am an Italian American born and raised in Chicago and have had the opportunity to study Italian American literature and cinema as an undergraduate, masters and doctoral student. I am the author of the forthcoming book Divergenze in celluloidi: colore, migrazione e identità sessuale nei film gay di Ferzan Ozpetek (Celluloid Divergences: Color, Migration, and Sexual Identity in the Gay Series of Ferzan Ozpetek) and editor of the forthcoming  Pasolini’s Last Interview: Death, Eros, and Literary Enterprise in the Opus of Pier Paolo Pasolini.  My research interests include the integration of gender, class, and migration in both Italian and Italian American literature and cinema.  My next book project examines the homosexual Italian American author Robert Ferro and his series of gay novels through the lens of gender and class-structure.  

    I am currently the Director of Communications for the American Association of Teachers of Italian, the President of Gamma Kappa Alpha, the National Italian Honors Society, and the Co-chair for the Committee of Graduate Students in the Profession for the Modern Language Association.  I received a research grant from the South Central MLA Association to conduct archival research on Italian American authors at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 2015 and attended the Italian Diaspora Summer School through the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at the University of Calabria. 

    I have been a member of IASA and attended the annual conference for last three years.  As an Italian American, Italianist who also works in Italian American Studies, I find the constant misplacement and instability of Italian American Studies unacceptable.  If elected to the Executive Council, one of my main goals would be to better bridge the relationships between the Italian, Italian American, and American Studies worlds, both in North America and in Italy through diverse membership tactics (across professional organizations) and even through a possible joint conference, with a roundtable or two, directly related to discuss these issues faced by our three fields.  

    Additionally, I would attempt to find outside funding and create relationships to help lower the overall costs for our conferences and assist in benefiting more while spending less.  Although a challenge, I believe it can be done.  Another objective of mine is to raise the visibility of the organization now that a formal brand and updated website has been created.  The next move would be to expand visibility in other social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, and maybe even sell ‘gear’ with our logo on it.  In this manner, the organization will grab the attention of new, younger members just beginning their careers.  Another way to facilitate fresh membership is to increase membership benefits and co-memberships, in particular for graduate students and contingent faculty.  For example, we could create a reciprocation program with the American Association of Teachers of Italian and the Italian American Studies Association for graduate students; they would only need to pay one membership but would be registered members of both organizations. 

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    Michele Fazio 

    Associate Professor of English, Theatre and Foreign Languages at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

    I received my Ph.D. from SUNY-Stony Brook and teach courses on American literature, contemporary U.S. ethnic literature, service-learning, and working-class studies.  I have been an active member of IASA for many years and my work on Italian American literature has appeared in Voices in Italian Americana and MELUS: The Journal of Multi-ethnic Literature of the U.S.  My current research project explores the cultural legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti in literature and music. 

    As a member of the Executive Council, I would focus on increasing further networking opportunities at annual conferences for graduate students, junior faculty, and new members as well as fostering collaborations with other academic organizations.

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    Caroline Pari-Pfisterer 

    Department of English, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York

    My contribution to Italian American Studies includes book reviews and essays in VIA  on Italian-American women writers (in the forthcoming anniversary issue as one of the best essays in 25 years).  I have given numerous presentations on Italian-American literature, autobiography, and pedagogy; it is my primary field of research.

    I have been teaching Italian American Literature at BMCC since 2010 when the course was created.  I am one of the only ones in the country who teaches the course online, thus inviting a larger student population to take the course, including students  from Belgium, the Caribbean, and many other countries.  By taking an interdisciplinary approach, I’m able to convey the complex history of Italian immigration in this country.  Students not only read the fiction of Italian American authors, but learn of Italy’s past, the Risorgimento, regions, dialects, culture, religion, and beliefs, thus enriching their understanding of the literature.  I am currently writing an essay that reinterprets Pascal D’Angelo’s Son of Italy as an autobiography inscribing a worker identity, above and beyond that of an American identity.  I also plan to complete field research on the role of the Italian American fraternity, Alpha Phi Delta, in the lives of children of Italian immigrants who attended CUNY in the 1940s. 

    As an Executive Council member, I hope to contribute to IASA in many ways.  For one, I’d like to help plan the conference. I would also like to help IASA promote the teaching of Italian American literature, and focus on pedagogical approaches, perhaps even creating a handbook on teaching.  I’d like to help IASA create connections nationally and internationally with students, faculty, researchers, writers, organizations and social media.  

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    Anthony Julian Tamburri 

    Distinguished Professor of European Languages and Literatures and Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute (Queens College,  City University of New York). 

    His research interests lie in literature, cinema, semiotics, interpretation theory, and cultural studies. He has divided his intellectual work evenly between Italian and Italian/American studies, authoring fourteen books and one hundred essays circa on both subject areas in English and Italian. He is also the editor of more than thirty volumes and special issues of journals. His more recent publications include: authored volumes: Re-reading Italian Americana: Specificities and Generalities on Literature and Criticism (2014; pbk, 2015); Re-viewing Italian Americana: Generalities and Specificities on Cinema (2011); Una semiotica dell’etnicità: nuove segnalature per la scrittura italiano/americana (2010); and Narrare altrove: diverse segnalature letterarie (2007); co-edited volumes: Europe, Italy and the Mediterranean (2014); Italoamericana: The Literature of the Great Migration, 1880-1943, edited by Francesco Durante in Italian (2014); The Cultures of Italian Migration: Diverse Trajectories and Discrete Perspectives (2011); Mediated Ethnicity: New Italian-American Cinema (2010); and the best-selling anthology, From The Margin: Writings in Italian Americana (1991; 2000 2nd edition). He is also a co-founder of Bordighera Press, publisher of Voices in Italian Americana, Italiana, and three book series, VIA Folios, Crossings, and Saggistica, as well as The Bordighera Poetry Prize.

                Tamburri is a member of numerous organizations.  He was a Delegate for Foreign Languages of the Modern Language Association, a member of its Executive Committee for the Division on Modern Italian Literature, and co-founder of the Discussion Group on Italian/American Literature. For the Italian American Studies Association, he was the Newsletter editor for eight years, a member of its Executive Council since 1993, and its president from 2003-2007. He was also vice-president of the American Association of Teachers of Italian for 2006-2007, and served as president for 2008-2009.
                  I have served the Italian American Studies Association in various capacities since the early 1990s, first as Newsletter editor from 1993 to 2000. In addition to the usual material, we added two other sections: a review section and a “writing on the wall” section, where we would include members’ comments—a small innovation that opened up channels to the membership at large. 
                  As president subsequently and also as long-standing member of the Executive Council, one of my goals was to be sure that the scholarship emanating from our publications continued to develop into more broad fields and, as well, into a type of trans-disciplinarity. When I first join IASA/AIHA in 1987, critical theory, the precursor to cultural studies, was for the most part lacking. While the scholarship was rigorous, it was, in many cases, couched within traditional frameworks that did not always allow room for the theoretical.
    I am delighted to say that over the years things have changed, the playing field is much more broad than it was in 1987. But there is still more work we need to do. Most recently, IASA established a refereed publication, IASA Annual. Our  new editor, Robert Oppedisano, will need our help in getting it up and running. Secondly, membership has fallen over the years. We shall have to examine possible reasons, engage in a self-study as to what has changed and how that may have affected membership, and develop a strategy to increase membership. Thirdly, we need to be sure that along with increased membership there is a more broadening of representation of the various fields of inquiry. As implied above, we live in an inter- if not trans-disciplinary world, and we need to be sure that all fields of intellectual interrogation are well represented by and within IASA.

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    Jessica Femiani 

    Doctoral student in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Binghamton University and an adjunct professor at SUNY Broome Community College.

    I first became a member of the Italian American Studies Association in 2012. At the 2013 Conference in New Orleans I presented my master's thesis, written under the supervision of Robert Viscusi at Brooklyn College, Polytextual Recovery in Immigration Memoir. In 2014 I worked with former president George Guida to arrange an intergenerational poetry reading, Ten Writers Read, that followed the opening reception at the University of Toronto. As a member of the Conference Committee for this year’s Conference in Washington D.C., I collaborated with colleagues to review proposals and coordinate programming. In D.C. I also presented creative work in Negotiating Transnational Identity, as well as a critical paper The Poetics of Maria Mazziotti Gillan: The Diasporic Condition. Both panels sprung from my work this past summer in the Italian Diaspora Studies Summer School at the University of Calabria, which allowed young scholars to forge connections with one another, and work with leading scholars in the field. 

    The opportunity to dialogue is essential and an organized effort must be made to schedule networking opportunities for scholars new to IASA, not only to meet and greet, but also to encourage scholarly collaborations that may assist to increase the presence of Italian Diaspora Studies at other related national conferences: MELUS, NAES, ASA, etc.

    Lastly, the recent development of the IASA Annual has created a committee to nominate and select a diverse grouping of established scholars. It is my intention to prioritize women applicants as well as established scholars with a progressive edge.