Skip to Main Content
  • 27 Mar 2018 by Alan Gravano

    Position Announcement

    Queens College of The City University of New York invites applications for a Lecturer-Doctoral Schedule Position in its Counselor Education graduate program beginning in August 2018.  After five years of service, the Lecturer is eligible for a certificate of continuous employment (CCE), which is the equivalent of tenure for faculty hired to teach and perform related faculty functions.  The 60-credit Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed.) degree leads to New York State Certification in School Counseling.  The 60 credit Master of Science (M.S.) degree in mental health counseling is registered with New York State and leads NY State licensure (LMHC). Candidate must have an earned doctoral degree in in Counselor Education from a CACREP accredited program. Excellent ABD candidates with a firm completion date preferably before July 1, 2018, will be considered. Candidates who are licensed or license eligible as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in New York State, are preferred.

    Responsibilities include (1) teaching nine [9] graduate courses each academic year in the Counselor Education graduate program (mental health and school counseling) in areas including Counseling Techniques, Developmental Psychology, Counseling Foundations, Mental Health and/or School Counseling Internship, Child and Adolescent Counseling, and Counseling Theories and Methods; (2) supervise and monitor students and supervisors in practicum and internship seminars; (3) liaise with outside agencies to establish new practicum and internship sites; (4) coordination of fieldwork experiences, including performing site visits as needed; (5) student advising and (6) university service. The following qualifications are highly desirable: (1) Two or more years of teaching experience within a Counselor Education graduate program, (2)  Two or more years of experience mentoring and advising graduate Counselor Education graduate students, (3) Two or more years of experience in university-based supervision of fieldwork of Counselor Education graduate students, and (4) Interest and experience in working in urban, multicultural and multilingual settings.. Strong collaborative and organizational skills are required. Competitive salary and benefits commensurate with qualifications and experience. Summer teaching is possible.  

    To apply, go to https://cuny.jobs/, in the box under "What," enter "18412." Click on "Counselor Education Lecturer – Doctoral Schedule." Click on the "Apply Now" button and follow the instructions.

  • 21 Mar 2018 by Alan Gravano

    Last week the Italian-American community of scholars and teachers lost a dear friend. JoAnne Ruvoli succumbed to her battle with cancer on Friday, March 17. JoAnne was an assistant professor of English at Ball State University. Previously, a Mellon postdoc and visiting assistant professor at UCLA. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she specialized in multi-ethnic American literature and also earned an Interdepartmental Concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies. She had published articles on D. W. Griffith, Women Screenwriters of Early Cinema, Mario Puzo, Carole Maso, and Jane Addams’ Hull-House. She co-edited a 2008 special issue of Voices in Italian Americana that focuses on “Reconsidering Mario Puzo,” and previous to that project, for four years, was Assistant Editor at the now-defunct fiction journal Other Voices. In 2007, she won the Frederick Stern Award for Excellence in Teaching at University of Illinois at Chicago where she taught American literature courses in multi-ethnic literature, gender in literature, and writing.

    Mary Jo Bona has agreed to write a few words about JoAnne's connections to the American Italian Historical Association and the Italian American Studies Association and will be posted in a few days. 

    JoAnne, you will be missed. I am lucky to have known you.

    With deepest sympathies, 

    Alan J. Gravano, President

    JoAnne Ruvoli (r.) with friend, colleague, and mentor Mary Jo Bona, Chicago 2013

  • 21 Mar 2018 by Alan Gravano

    With deepest sorrow, we send this brief tribute on behalf of our dear colleague, JoAnne Ruvoli, who passed away unexpectedly on March 15, 2018. Diagnosed in December with a severe strain of leukemia, JoAnne was completing a second round of chemo, feeling tired but hopeful about full recovery.

    Those of us who knew her well or had met her for the first time knew JoAnne Ruvoli to be a deeply generous person, and a brilliant scholar and creative thinker. After completing a dissertation on Italian American literary culture in 2011 at the University of Illinois—Chicago, JoAnne was recipient of a prestigious Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA, where she developed classes in Italian American Studies, worked with archivists, ran conferences, and illuminated her wide-ranging talents as an interdisciplinary scholar across fields and genres.  JoAnne’s profound dedication to teaching continued in her work at Ball State University where she shared her excitement about Italian American literature with students who truly appreciated her intense love for heritage culture and the beauty of language.

    As a long-time member of the Italian American Studies Association (formerly AIHA), JoAnne Ruvoli’s work on behalf of this organization was prolonged and innovative as she delivered our website to the twenty-first century, her technical virtuosity only one of the skill sets she possessed.  The papers she delivered at IASA conferences (and our sister conference at Calandra Institute) were gems in the making and many were ultimately published in a variety of journals, one just released in the journal, MELUS (which was also another beloved organization to which JoAnne contributed so much).  Recent essays on Italian American history for Routledge and on Alison Bechdel for the MLA Teaching Approaches Volume are just two examples of JoAnne’s dedication to intersecting fields of history, literature, and film. An adept intellect fueled by unending curiosity, JoAnne was at the epicenter of a disparate and multifarious community of writers, teachers, and scholars. Countless texts--conference papers, articles, books, syllabi--came to be or were much improved by way of the conversations she led or engaged in with those of us fortunate enough to know her. JoAnne raised the level and widened the field of any discourse. And she did so with humility and grace, with innocent enthusiasm and hard-earned wisdom.

    But JoAnne Ruvoli was more than a listing of her sundry accomplishments to be placed on a curriculum vita.  She knew how important publishing, teaching, and service were and she epitomized a surfeit of generosity in each area. Yet she knew something else was more vital, more necessary to her living in the world as one of the most decent and virtuous women we have had the honor of knowing. She knew that kindness couldn’t be bargained with, and she was kind. She knew that maintaining close relationships were the most important way to love in the world. And JoAnne illuminated that love in all walks of life: with her husband, Henry, and her twin sister, JoEllen: these beloved relationships enhanced JoAnne’s capacity for love for her parents and brothers, and for her friends and colleagues. 

    We are heartbroken by JoAnne’s passing; we know that her death diminishes us. We thank her for the depth of her knowledge, the generosity of her being, and her sterling self.

    A memorial celebration will take place in Chicago on April 14, 2018, which is also JoAnne’s birthday. Further details will be sent out when made available.

    By Mary Jo Bona & Jessica Maucione

  • 06 Mar 2018 by Alan Gravano

     

    Italian American and Italian Canadian Is Multi-Ethnic Too

     

    Class, gender, migration, history, diaspora, ethnicity, politics, radicals, working class, cinema, foodways, literature, media, popular culture, cultural studies, theory, 250-word abstract. Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, U of Arkansas, Fayetteville (calabret@uak.edu); Alan Gravano, Rocky Mountain U (agravano@rmuohp.edu)

    Deadline for submissions: Saturday, March 24, 2018

    Alan J. Gravano, Rocky Mountain U (alan.gravano@outlook.com )