DAY TWO - FRIDAY, JUNE 7
8:15 am - 8:45 am | Breakfast
8:45 am - 10:15 am | Morning Session - Part I
Description: This series of panels explores the multifaceted representations of disability across medieval Italian culture. Drawing on psychology and psychoanalysis (Song), Donna Haraway, Havi Carel, and the notion of prosthesis (Kalus), and crip theory (Campanello), this panel offers a multidisciplinary reading of Dante’s works. While Song addresses the notion of ‘grounding techniques’ in relation to Virgil’s role in the Commedia, Kalus examines the involvement of non-human materialities in the purification of the human will in Purgatorio. Campanello, meanwhile, discusses her translation praxis as a feminist, crip extension of the Dante translation tradition. |
Chair: Becky Reilly (University of Cambridge) Ruoci Song (University of Cambridge) Frey Kalus (University of Cambridge/Freie Universität Berlin) Kimberly Campanello (University of Leeds) |
Description: This panel examines Italian American women’s reflections on their place in the American racial imaginary in the second half of the twentieth century, especially in New York City. Looking at the writings of Diane di Prima (1934–2020), Marianna De Marco Torgovnick (1949–), and Maria Laurino (1959–), the panel explores these authors’ articulations of the Italian American community’s “whitening” in the postwar United States. The papers take an intersectional lens: by focusing on gender and class in dialogue with racialization in Italian America, we examine the co-construction of these concepts. |
Organizer: Isabella Livorni (New York University) Chair: Claudia Sbuttoni (University of New Hampshire) Isabella Livorni (New York University) Elisa Russian (University of Zurich) Claudia Sbuttoni (University of New Hampshire) |
Description: Following the recent publication of the co-edited issue of Rivista di studi italiani entirely devoted to poetry and the environment, this panel aims to extend the conversation to the luoghi della poesia, namely the spaces, places, territories, habitats, and landscapes of poetry–geographical, typographical, imaginary, and virtual. Poetry’s visceral rootedness in the world–or, equally significant, its stubborn vagrancy and its being out of joint with time and place–is too often overlooked. This panel features contributions about poetry and its intersections with/or across the following areas: Environment, geography, academia, education, the publishing world, translation, the typed or handwritten page, digital platforms and experimentation, technology, film, photography, theater, music, sound, noise, reproduction, place, space, wilderness, and imaginary landscapes. |
Organizer: Serena Ferrando (Arizona State University) Chair: Julia Pelosi-Thorpe (University of Pennsylvania) Mauro Distefano (Independent Scholar) Julia Pelosi-Thorpe (University of Pennsylvania) Elisa Donda (Università di Ferrara) Michele Segretario (University of California, Berkeley) |
Description: Il panel nasce dall’omonimo progetto PRIN, di cui mira a presentare l’impostazione metodologica generale e alcune linee di ricerca specifiche. Atlante del giallo affronta la storia del genere in Italia dal punto di vista intermediale, analizzandone i modi di produzione, le forme e le tematiche nella letteratura, nel cinema, nella televisione e nel fumetto. I quattro interventi di questo panel si concentrano sul giallo televisivo: da un lato, mettono in evidenza le trasformazioni del genere dal periodo del monopolio RAI fino all’epoca della piattaforme streaming; dall’altro analizzano la sua crescente capacità di rappresentare la società italiana nelle sue contraddizioni. |
Organizer: Federico Pagello (Università di Chieti Pescara) Chair: Matteo Pollone (Università del Piemonte Orientale) Federico Pagello (Università di Chieti Pescara) Sara Casoli (Università di Firenze) Arianna Vergari (Link Campus University) Gianluigi Rossini (Link Campus University) |
Description: Il termine Antropocene si è ormai ampiamente diffuso anche nelle scienze umane ed è divenuto un framework teorico e uno strumento narrativo attraverso il quale è possibile interrogarsi sulle più urgenti questioni della contemporaneità. L’analisi culturale della “crisi” ambientale si combina quindi con le questioni del femminismo, del razzismo strutturale, delle relazioni interspecie e del postumano. Questo panel si propone di riflettere sulle rappresentazioni letterarie della “crisi” ambientale e sulla capacità della letteratura di produrre contro-rappresentazioni del rapporto con il pianeta e con gli altri soggetti non umani che lo abitano. |
Organizer: Giulia Fabbri (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) Chair: Caterina Romeo (Università La Sapienza, Roma) Chiara Xausa (Università di Bologna) Rachele Dionisi (Università La Sapienza, Roma) Annamaria Elia (Università La Sapienza, Roma) Giulia Fabbri (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) |
Description: This panel includes papers looking at translation and identity from several angles with the aim to discuss the important role that the act of interlingual or inter-semiotic translation, the work of translators and the trope of translation had in facilitating intercultural dialogue within texts of authors whose identity is poised between two or more cultural and linguistic spaces. Ultimately, this panel aims to explore how new translational identities are created and represented in the 20th and 21st century Italian literature, including eco-translation as co-creation of identity and meaning through a dialogue between human and nonhuman languages. |
Organizer: Enrica Maria Ferrara (Trinity College Dublin) Chair: Michele Monserrati (Smith College) Stiliana Milkova Rousseva, (Oberlin College) Saskia Ziolkowski (Duke University) Enrica Maria Ferrara (Trinity College Dublin) |
Organized by the Women's Studies Caucus Description: Pathbreakers push the boundaries of what is known or accepted, leaving a lasting impact on their respective fields and inspiring future generations. This panel aims to shine a spotlight on the remarkable contributions of Italian women in any time period to the fields of medicine, science, politics, education, arts, and literature. It emphasizes their extraordinary journeys, exploring the challenges they faced, the barriers they shattered, and the enduring impact they left on Italian society and beyond. |
Organizers: Juliet Guzzetta (Michigan State University), Claudia Karagoz (Saint Louis University), & Anna Marra (Vanderbilt University) Chair: Selby Wynn Schwartz (Independent Scholar) Filomena Campus (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) Juliet Guzzetta (Michigan State University) |
Description: La lezione di letteratura non può prescindere dal contenuto e dalla lingua del testo letterario, così come non può far a meno di tenere in considerazione il contesto-classe. La definizione di nuove pratiche didattico-divulgative per l’insegnamento della letteratura tenta di rispondere all’esigenza di avere a disposizione contenuti fruibili dai nativi digitali che siano anche funzionali all’obiettivo didattico. Il panel intende discutere gli approcci innovativi in seno alla didattica della letteratura, proponendo casi di studio specifici o esperienze in classe. |
Chair: Marco Marino (Sant’Anna Institute) Giuseppe Falvo (University of Maryland) Ida Brancaccio (Sant'Anna Institute) Ugo Perolino (Università degli Studi "G. d'Annunzio" di Chieti – Pescara) |
10:20 am - 11:50 am | Morning Session - Part II
Description: This series of panels explores the multifaceted representations of disability across medieval Italian culture. Rayson and Kiltinavičiūtė focus on Dante’s ‘femmina balba’, analysing what this character can tell us about the sins of the mouth and stuttering as a mode of writing in the poem (Rayson), as well as Dante’s perception of gendered disability (Kiltinavičiūtė). Finally, Reilly examines shifting attitudes toward leprosy through the lives of Angela of Foligno and Catherine of Siena. |
Organizer: Fiona Knight (University of Cambridge) Chair: Frey Kalus (University of Cambridge/Freie Universität Berlin) George Rayson (University of Cambridge) Aisté Kiltinavičüté (University College Cork) Becky Reilly (University of Cambridge) |
Description: While the fields of Italian American, Italian Canadian and Italian Australian writing are well established, the same is not true of the writing by Italian immigrants and their descendants in the UK. This panel, featuring established and emerging scholars and focusing on political, interpersonal and linguistic aspects, seeks to deepen knowledge about this branch of Italian migrant writing, from Risorgimento exiles to memoirs of first- and second-generation immigrants and recent works by authors like Claudia Durastanti and Simonetta Agnello Hornby. Topics to be explored include identity formation, relationship to Italy, the representation of language use, and gender. |
Organizers: Selena Daly (University College London) and Manuela D'Amore (Università di Catania) Chair: Raffaella Antinucci (Università Parthenope) Selena Daly (University College London) and Manuela D'Amore (Università di Catania) Andrea Del Cornò (The London Library and Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford) Giuseppe Vitale (Università Parthenope, Naples) Selene Genovesi (University of Kent) |
Description: How do Italian novelists, poets, filmmakers, musicians, and visual artists find ways to frame, employ in place and time, or even perform or sing, what Amitav Ghosh called “the unthinkable”? How do these texts treat everyday life, in the shadow of catastrophe? Which dimensions of global warming are communicated through various media? How is climate change shaping new modes of storytelling, authorship, and aesthetics in Italy? What is distinctively Italian about these narratives? This panel aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue by exploring works that grapple with these questions. |
Organizer: Laura Di Bianco (Johns Hopkins University) Chair: Daniela Fargione (University of Turin) Daniela Fargione (University of Turin) Alberto Baracco (University of Basilicata) Enrico Cesaretti (University of Virginia) Alessandra Vannucci (University of Turin) |
Chair: Scott Lerner (Franklin & Marshall College) Marina Caffiero (Università La Sapienza, Roma); Cosetta Gaudenzi (University of Memphis); Scott Lerner (Franklin and Marshall College); Nicoletta Marini-Maio (Dickinson College); Ignazio Veca (Università degli Studi di Pavia) |
Description: This panel invites participants to explore the life and works of Afrodescendant women who contribute to the enrichment of Italian culture as writers, filmmakers, actresses, activists, and influencers in Italy and beyond. Racial and gender biases often become privileged subjects of their activities, and offer a critical site to reflect on the need of further social and political change. Their collective experience is seen in light of a transnational spatial and temporal continuity between people of African descent in Italy and in the diasporic communities around the world. A transnational and intersectional approach and/or study cases are particularly welcome. |
Organizer: Anna Paparcone (Bucknell University) Chair: Eleanor Paynter (Brown University) Farah Polato (Università degli Studi di Padova) Alessandra Balzani (California State University Long Beach) Giovanna Faleschini-Lerner (Frankiln and Marshall College) Anna Paparcone (Bucknell University) |
Description: This panel explores the political dynamics of importing foreign culture in Italy between the 1920s and the 1950s. The three case studies are ordered chronologically, from the arrival of American comics under fascism to the dissemination of social sciences with the return of democracy and the spread of capitalist values during the Cold War. We are concerned with topics like censorship, the influence of the United States, political culture, micro-histories of publishing houses and their staff, funding and the agency of Italian editors. |
Chair: Jim Carter (Boston University) Guido Bonsaver (Oxford University) Irene Piazzoni and Fabio Guidali (University of Milan) Jim Carter (Boston University) |
Description: Il tema della follia al femminile può declinarsi in molti modi e avere molte sfumature, che vanno dall’eccentricità tollerata in determinati contesti, ma giudicata sempre con severità dai più, all’isteria, versione moderna dei “furori uterini” di buona memoria, fino ad arrivare alle forme patologiche più gravi, vere o supposte tali, come quelle che hanno portato a rinchiudere in sinistre strutture delle donne di genio. Le donne che deviavano dal cammino considerato come “naturale” per il loro sesso erano comunque sospette di disturbi mentali e di “anormalità ”, tanto da aver bisogno di un trattamento che le riconducesse sulla retta via o, se refrattarie, di un allontanamento dalla società (manicomio, convento o carcere). |
Organizers: Laura Nieddu (Université Lyon) & Antonella Mauri (Université de Lille) Chair: Laura Nieddu (Université Lyon) Gianvito Distefano (Università di Cagliari) Sienna Hopkins (California State University) Elisabetta Orlandi (Independent Scholar) |
Description: La lezione di letteratura non può prescindere dal contenuto e dalla lingua del testo letterario, così come non può far a meno di tenere in considerazione il contesto-classe. La definizione di nuove pratiche didattico-divulgative per l’insegnamento della letteratura tenta di rispondere all’esigenza di avere a disposizione contenuti fruibili dai nativi digitali che siano anche funzionali all’obiettivo didattico. Il panel intende discutere gli approcci innovativi in seno alla didattica della letteratura, proponendo casi di studio specifici o esperienze in classe. |
Organizer: Marco Marino (Sant'Anna Institute) Chair: Moira Di Mauro-Jackson (Texas State University) Laura Lenci (Boston University in Padua) Moira Di Mauro-Jackson (Texas State University) Rosina D'Angelo (Ramapo College) |
11:50 am - 12:15 pm | Coffee Break
12:15 pm - 1:45 pm | Morning Session - Part III
Description: This series of panels explores the multifaceted representations of disability across medieval Italian culture. Examining the figure of Sapìa Salvani, Bloomer argues that Dante’s sympathetic outlook on disability can be explained through the notion of ‘blameless defect’ that exonerates those who have impediments limiting their knowledge. Webb investigates what happens to medieval gendered model of vision when sight breaks down, as when Petrarch describes himself as blind in the Rime sparse. |
Chairs and Organizers: George Rayson (University of Cambridge) & Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė (University College Cork) Catherine S. Bloomer (Brandeis University) Ann Webb (Yale University) |
Description: From a historical perspective, much has been written, especially in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, about the social conditions of the Italian diasporic communities in Latin America. What is sometimes forgotten is that the presence of these Italian subjects outside the Italian nation-state also stimulated the circulation of cultural productions to and from Latin America and Italy, the mediation of these spaces within each other's national imaginaries, and, last but not least, a profusion of translations. In what ways Italy and Latin America have imagined each other? What can we learn from thinking about the relationship between these two spaces beyond the history of mass migration? |
Chair: Giulia Riccò (University of Michigan) Maria Cecilia Casini (Universidade de São Paulo) Patricia Peterle (Universidade Federal de Santa Caterina) Alessandra Vanucci (Università di Torino) Nicola Fatighenti (Università per Stranieri di Siena) |
Description: How do Italian novelists, poets, filmmakers, musicians, and visual artists find ways to frame, employ in place and time, or even perform or sing, what Amitav Ghosh called “the unthinkable”? How do these texts treat everyday life, in the shadow of catastrophe? Which dimensions of global warming are communicated through various media? How is climate change shaping new modes of storytelling, authorship, and aesthetics in Italy? What is distinctively Italian about these narratives? This panel aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue by exploring works that grapple with these questions. |
Organizer: Laura Di Bianco (Johns Hopkins University) Chair: Marta Cerreti (Johns Hopkins University) Giulia Bernuzzi (University College Cork) Teresiana Matarrese (California Polytechnic University) Magdalena Maria Kubas (University of Turin) |
Description: Nell’adattamento cinematografico di Nostalgia, gli sceneggiatori Mario Martone e Ippolita Di Maio, caratterizzano il rientro di Felice alla Sanità con un incontro del prete Don Luigi, attivamente impegnato ad evitare che la nuova generazione degli abitanti del quartiere eviti il destino di povertà e delinquenza delle generazioni precedenti. Il personaggio di Don Luigi (Francesco Di Leva) è liberamente ispirato a quello di Don Antonio Loffredo, che attraverso l’approccio alle arti e istruzione ha cominciato a riscattare un intero quartiere. In questo panel discuteremo come in Campania, la media literacy e istruzione ai diversi lavori dell'industria cinematografica, siano alla base della politica culturale promossa da artisti e istituzioni per equiparare ingiustizie economiche e sociali. |
Chair: Giovanna De Luca (College of Charleston) Roberto D'Avascio (Istituto Orientale Napoli) Giovanna De Luca (College of Charleston) Massimiliano Gaudiosi (Università Federico II) |
Description: In this panel we share further findings from our ethnographic work with over 100 young Italian women, about their media consumption, and how and to what extent they use it to shape their identities. |
Chair: Danielle Hipkins (University of Exeter) Maria Elena Alampi (University of Exeter) Leonardo Campagna (Università La Sapienza, Roma) Romana Andò and Camilla Pasqua (Università La Sapienza, Roma) Danielle Hipkins (University of Exeter) |
Description: The panel examines diverse aspects of the working practices within the Italian film and TV industries in different moments. The papers focus on the problems of locating archival evidence of women's work below the line, the role of the casting director (itself a highly feminized profession), and the importance of trade unions in the post-war relations between the Italian and US film industries. The panel is part of recent research trends which seek to make visible the historically contingent and often obfuscated practices of labor relations with the Italian screen industries. |
Chair: Catherine O'Rawe (University of Bristol) Catherine O'Rawe (University of Bristol) Dana Renga (The Ohio State University) Paolo Noto (Università di Bologna) |
Description: Il tema della follia al femminile può declinarsi in molti modi e avere molte sfumature, che vanno dall’eccentricità tollerata in determinati contesti, ma giudicata sempre con severità dai più, all’isteria, versione moderna dei “furori uterini” di buona memoria, fino ad arrivare alle forme patologiche più gravi, vere o supposte tali, come quelle che hanno portato a rinchiudere in sinistre strutture delle donne di genio. Le donne che deviavano dal cammino considerato come “naturale” per il loro sesso erano comunque sospette di disturbi mentali e di “anormalità ”, tanto da aver bisogno di un trattamento che le riconducesse sulla retta via o, se refrattarie, di un allontanamento dalla società (manicomio, convento o carcere). |
Chair: Antonella Mauri (Université de Lille) Diletta Pasetti (Rutgers University) Nicoletta Lepri (Centro di Studi sul Classicismo, Prato) Laura Lenci (Boston University in Padova) |
Description: This panel revisits the golden age of black and white television in Italy through three significant perspectives. Rachel Haworth analyses Milleluci as metatelevision, an object of nostalgia featuring two of the most representative figures in Italian showbusiness, Mina and Raffaella Carrà. Matteo Marinello considers the variety show as a field of cultural production through the evolution of comedy in the work of Alighiero Noschese, Sandra Mondaini and Raimondo Vianello, and Renzo Arbore. Giancarlo Lombardi turns to the ‘sceneggiato televisivo’, focusing instead on the successful crossnational adaptations of gialli authored by John Dickson Carr. |
Chair: Giancarlo Lombardi (College of Staten Island/CUNY & The Graduate Center/CUNY) Rachel Haworth (Independent Scholar) Matteo Marinello (Università di Bologna) Giancarlo Lombardi (College of Staten Island/CUNY & The Graduate Center/CUNY) |
1:45 pm - 3:00 pm | LUNCH
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm | Afternoon Session - Part I
Description: Much historical research is made up of reading between the lines, seeking sources beyond the obvious, and engaging in creative problem-solving. This panel presents papers which demonstrate courageous archival sleuthing and examples of investigative flexibility in a diverse and rich array of subject areas and time periods pertaining to Italian Studies. It includes stories that illustrate the vicissitudes of archival research and the determination of the researcher. In summary, it provides some answers to the question of what we do when we don’t find what we’re looking for and where that path can lead instead. |
Chair: Pierette Kulpa (Kutztown University of Pennsylvania) Jessica Gritti (Politecnico di Milano) Pierette Kulpa (Kutztown University of Pennsylvania) Alexander McCargar (University of Vienna) Mathilde Lyons (University of St. Andrews) |
Description: From a historical perspective, much has been written, especially in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, about the social conditions of the Italian diasporic communities in Latin America. What is sometimes forgotten is that the presence of these Italian subjects outside the Italian nation-state also stimulated the circulation of cultural productions to and from Latin America and Italy, the mediation of these spaces within each other's national imaginaries, and, last but not least, a profusion of translations. In what ways Italy and Latin America have imagined each other? What can we learn from thinking about the relationship between these two spaces beyond the history of mass migration? |
Organizer: Giulia Riccò (University of Michigan) Chair: Alessandra Vannucci (Università di Torino) Andrea Santurbano (Universidade Federal de Santa Caterina) Giulia Riccò (University of Michigan) Zach Aguilar (Yale University) |
Description: How do Italian novelists, poets, filmmakers, musicians, and visual artists find ways to frame, employ in place and time, or even perform or sing, what Amitav Ghosh called “the unthinkable”? How do these texts treat everyday life, in the shadow of catastrophe? Which dimensions of global warming are communicated through various media? How is climate change shaping new modes of storytelling, authorship, and aesthetics in Italy? What is distinctively Italian about these narratives? This panel aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue by exploring works that grapple with these questions. |
Organizer: Laura Di Bianco (Johns Hopkins University) Chair: Serenella Iovino (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Laura Di Bianco (Johns Hopkins University) Danila Cannamela (Colby College) Holden Turner (Ca' Foscari University of Venice) |
Chairs: Dana Renga (Ohio State University) & Stephanie Malia Hom (University of California, Santa Barbara) Giacomo Di Girolamo (Tp24 and Radio Rmc 101); David Horn (The Ohio State University); Alessandra Montalbano (University of Alabama); Ellen Nerenberg (Wesleyan University); Eleanor Paynter (Brown University); Angelica Pesarini (University of Toronto); Robert Rushing (University of California, Los Angeles) |
Chair: Danielle Hipkins (University of Exeter) Cecilia Brioni (University of Aberdeen); Jessica Harris (St. John's University); Bernadette Luciano (University of Auckland); Aine O'Healy (Loyola Marymount University); Alessia Risi (University of Exeter); Anna Saracino (University of Bari) |
Description: The proposed panel is the fall out of a long investigation carried out by a group of professors from Università Roma Tre who, as part of a research project of national interest (PRIN), reflected on the modes of production of Italian cinema since the post-war period until the end of the seventies, with a special focus on independent and alternative cinema. Conferences, books and documentaries have been held and published, the results of which will be reported at the AAIS Conference. Professor Peter Sarram of John Cabot University in Rome, also joined the Roman unit, adding an original twist to the initial project. |
Chair: Chirstian Uva (Università Roma Tre) Elio Ugenti (Università Roma Tre) and Malvina Giordana (Max Planck Institut of Art History) Peter Sarram (John Cabot University) Vito Zagarrio (Independent Scholar) Leonardo De Franceschi (Università Roma Tre) |
Description: Il tema della follia al femminile può declinarsi in molti modi e avere molte sfumature, che vanno dall’eccentricità tollerata in determinati contesti, ma giudicata sempre con severità dai più, all’isteria, versione moderna dei “furori uterini” di buona memoria, fino ad arrivare alle forme patologiche più gravi, vere o supposte tali, come quelle che hanno portato a rinchiudere in sinistre strutture delle donne di genio. Le donne che deviavano dal cammino considerato come “naturale” per il loro sesso erano comunque sospette di disturbi mentali e di “anormalità ”, tanto da aver bisogno di un trattamento che le riconducesse sulla retta via o, se refrattarie, di un allontanamento dalla società (manicomio, convento o carcere). |
Chair: Laura Lenci (Boton University in Padova) Antonella Mauri (Université de Lille) Irene Lottini (University of Iowa) Laura Nieddu (Université Lyon 2) |
Chair: Grazia Menechella (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Gabriella Ghermandi (writer and performer) Grazia Menechella (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Giovanna Bellesia (Smith College) |
4:30 pm - 5 pm | Break
5:00 pm | KEYNOTE: “Diasporic Italies, Diasporic Italians”
Keynote co-presenters in dialogue with this theme and each other: author Claudia Durastanti (Un giorno verrò a lanciare sassi alla tua finestra, A Chloe, per le ragioni sbagliate, Cleopatra va in prigione, La straniera) and Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, author of Madre piccola, Il comandante del fiume, and Le stazioni della luna.
Location: Teatro Tasso in Piazza Sant'Antonino (Sorrento)
Followed by aperitivo on the terrace of the teatro