Christian Picciolini at Calandra

White nationalist rallies in the United States have drawn the ire of people across the nation and the world, and Christian Picciolini has emerged as an expert at unpacking the dangerous psychology of the white supremacist movement. Picciolini himself was recruited by a now notorious skinhead leader and encouraged to fight to “protect the white race from extinction.” Picciolini read excerpts from his book at the Institute and answered questions about how he got out of the movement and is working now to redeem others from its ranks. For information on how to buy his book White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement and How I Got Out, click here.

Greetings and Fall Preview

As the summer begins to wind to a close, and people turn their thoughts to the new academic year ahead of us, I want to share with you some highlights of what will be happening at the Calandra Institute this autumn so you can understand why we’re so excited about it.

The fall events get off to a great start with a reading from former white nationalist Christian Picciolini from his book White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement—and How I Got Out, (Hachette Books, 2017). Read more about the event here.

With October comes Italian Heritage and Culture Month as well as the continuation of all our series, Writers Read, the Cannistraro Lectures, and Documented Italians film screenings. And in November, among our other regular offerings, we will proudly host the second installment of the three-part multinational Diaspore Italiane/Italy in Movement symposium, which situates Calandra, together with our European and Australian partners, at the absolute cutting edge in research work on Italian diaspora scholarship.

We have also made changes to our TV programming. In addition to Italics, which is cablecast on Ch. 75 (Spectrum and Cablevision/Optimum Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN) and Ch. 30 (Verizon), we also initiated a web platform program titled Calandra TV, for those topics that may require more timely attention.

So, please take a look at our calendar for more information about all our events, and be sure you are included on our mailing list to receive notice of what’s going on at the Institute. And do check back frequently to the site for updates on last-minute events added to our terrific schedule for academic year 2018–2019.