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Diversity in Italian American Studies: The Status of Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation in Uncertain Times

November 11– November 13, 2021

Final Conference Program
 

Zoom Presentation Update

Location: via Zoom

In-Person Presentation Update

Location: the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, NYC, NY 10036

IASA Hybrid Conference Registration

All attendees and participants must register for the conference by Friday, November 5 or risk being removed from the program.

The registration fee is $50.00

Register Here

Renew Membership or Become a Member Here

CUNY Covid Visitor Policy

 https://www.cuny.edu/coronavirus/reopening-guidelines/guideline-safe-campus-reopening/

Visitor Policy

CUNY’s Visitor Policy is designed to restrict anyone who has not been fully vaccinated or has not received a recent negative COVID-19 test from entering a CUNY campus or office.

Definition of Visitor

A visitor to a University campus is someone who is not a CUNY student, faculty or staff member. Examples of visitors include, but are not limited to:

  • vendors and other individuals coming to campus to perform activities related to a contract with or in support of the University;
  • employees of related entities of CUNY including without limitation auxiliary enterprise corporations, colleges associations, and child care centers;
  • community members and other individuals coming to a campus to use University facilities such as pools and gyms, or to attend activities on campus; and
  • family members or friends of CUNY students, faculty, or staff.

Rules for Visitors

Every visitor to a CUNY campus, whether accessing indoor or outdoor spaces, must provide proof to CUNY that they (i) are fully vaccinated or (ii) have had a negative COVID-19 molecular (PCR) test performed by an accredited lab no more than 7 days prior to the visit. “Fully vaccinated” means:

  • Two weeks after a second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines; or
  • Two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine; or
  • At the time specified in either the FDA licensure or World Health Organization approval, after the final administration of any other vaccines

Visitors are also required to comply with all other University policies and codes of conduct, as well as government and/or campus-specific rules and protocols, applicable to individuals on campus that are intended to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including by way of example:

  • any masking and social distancing requirements; and
  • complying with any applicable federal, state or local quarantine rules.

Exception for Short Visits with No Close Contact

Visitors who are on campus for 30 minutes or less per visit do not have to comply with any COVID-19 vaccination or surveillance testing requirements applicable to CUNY staff unless the visitor expects during that time to be less than 6 feet distant of another person for a total of 15 minutes of more.

***MASK POLICY

  • Wear a face mask inside all CUNY campuses and office buildings. This includes while taking classes, working in a non-enclosed space such as a library cubicle or other open seating, regardless of physical distance from others.
  • Wear a mask outdoors on campus when unable to maintain physical distance from others (for example, while attending a CUNY gathering or sporting event).

The only exceptions to wearing a mask inside are:

  • If a fully vaccinated person is alone in an enclosed space such as an office, conference room, or dorm room.
  • In a classroom, if a vaccinated professor is teaching a class and is able to keep social distance from everyone else in the class, he or she may choose not to wear a mask. Note that this exception applies only to faculty; students are still required to wear masks during classes.
  • Briefly while eating or drinking, provided social distancing is maintained.

These exceptions do not apply to anyone who is not yet fully vaccinated. Those individuals must wear masks indoors and outdoors at all times while on campus, including in enclosed spaces, except when eating (in which case they must maintain strict social distancing from other individuals).

Call for Papers

Diversity in Italian American Studies:

The Status of Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation in Uncertain Times

Location: The conference will be available for participation via ZOOM
or in-person (at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, NYC, NY 10036).

 

Date: November 11 – 13, 2021

Submission Deadline: Friday, August 15, 2021

 

Upload/submit proposals to Submittable:

 https://italianamericanstudies.submittable.com/submit

For inquiries, please contact the conference committee at: IASAConference21@gmail.com

The global pandemic year further opened an unhealed wound; that is, inequality that persists in the postmodern world. We witness, experience or are participants in bias demonstrated towards others due to race, gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, political divide, and wealth distribution. This lack of equal treatment is hardly a new problem; as Langston Hughes wrote in 1926, “I, too, am America.” Philosophers, social scientists, historians, religious leaders and others too have long studied the insidious effects of prejudice in its many forms. In 1912, Corrado Gini, an Italian sociologist and demographer, developed a statistical technique to measure economic inequality. Still used today, the Gini Index (or Gini Coefficient) quantifies how the distribution of wealth varies from country to country and shows how each individual country stands internally with regard to income equality – the higher the value, the greater the inequality. More than one hundred years later, the Gini Index also tells us whether or not any progress has been made in shifting wealth from the richest to the neediest. The United States has a higher Gini Index than all other “western” countries including Italy; plus, the index has risen in the last 30 years. The wealth/class divide is seen currently in the Black Lives Matter movement and the political turmoil that followed bringing further attention to such matters.

 

Where then is Italian American Studies in this upheaval? How has Italian American/Italian Diaspora Studies confronted matters of race, gender, and sexual orientation? The aim of this conference is to explore the current work being done to better understand these issues as they relate to Italian American/Italian Diaspora Studies. Suggested topics and themes include, but are not limited to:

**The interplay of race and ethnicity in the Italian Diaspora

**How the multiplicities of identity intersect with ethnic identity

**Uses of Italian-American stereotypes in film as these pertain to race/gender/sexual orientation

**Representation of the other in Italian American literature and poetry

**The status of intersectional solidarity in Italian American Studies

**Race/gender/sexual orientation as seen from the ethnic margins

**The politics of race and gender in the Italian Diaspora

**Intersectional pedagogies in Italian American Studies

**Gender and foodways

**Race/Gender/Sexual Orientation in the shadow of the global COVID-19 pandemic

**#Black Lives Matter

**#Me Too

**Social media and social movements

**Trans and Transnational

**Why and how an Italian Diaspora came to be

 

The Italian American Studies Association (IASA formerly the American Italian Historical Association AIHA) celebrates its fifty-fourth year of academic inquiry into all things Italian and Italian American. We welcome independent thinkers, scholars, and academics, past and present, to participate in its annual conference This year’s conference theme will focus on borders, boundaries, and walls, both tangible and intangible that influence the lives of Italian Americans.

 

We encourage the submission of organized panels of no more than three presenters, not including the chair and/or respondent; this is also the case for creative writers and artists. All presentations are limited to 15-20 minutes per speaker based upon the number of people on the panel. If you are willing to serve as chair, please indicate that willingness in your cover letter. This is separate from your session presentation.

 

All presenters, respondents, and discussants must be members in good standing of the Italian American Studies Association by October 1, 2021.

 

IASA encourages proposals in diverse formats, including round tables, debates, workshops, teaching sessions, and performances. We prefer fully formed sessions, although we also encourage people to submit individual presentations, as well as we encourage submission of individuals who would prefer to moderate or to comment. If this is your interest, please submit a CV and statement of areas of interest and expertise. We are especially interested in linking scholars across fields and we welcome participants from multiple disciplines, roles, and backgrounds. The conference committee will consider proposals that do not specifically address but may complement this year’s conference theme. 

 

Guidelines for Proposals:

Sessions will be 75 minutes, and we will ask the presenter to limit remarks to 15-20 minutes each, so there is ample time for Q&A and discussion. Proposals may be for one of three forms:

  • Individual presentation, paper, or talk.
  • Panel session or workshop, featuring multiple presenters.
  • Performance, reading, or screening of creative work.

 

Proposals should include:

  • Proposal title and a brief (250-word description)           
  • Suggested topic category (see list above)      
  • Brief biographical statement, affiliation, and e-mail     
  • Technology needs, if any.
  • Indication of whether you will present in-person or via ZOOM.

 

For further information, please visit www.italianamericanstudies.net