Italian Diaspora Summer Studies Seminar in Rome

The 2023 edition of the Italian Diaspora Summer Studies Seminar at Roma Tre University has concluded, and it was a huge success. For more information on the Seminar or to apply for next year’s trip and course of study, please go to our IDSSS page. Buona estate.

Online Form for Italian Heritage & Culture Month Events

For 2023, the theme for Italian Heritage &  Culture Month, as selected by the Italian Heritage & Culture Committee of New York, Inc., is The Joys of Learning Italian.

Please click here to submit the online events form or to download the form and print and mail it in physically. To mail the filled-out forms, send them to

IHCC-NY, Inc.
Attn: Joan Marchi Migliori, Program Chair
25 West 43rd Street, 17th Floor, New York, NY, 10036

Forms must be submitted by July 20, 2023. Please use a separate form for each event. Please indicate if the event is part of a series. Please type or print legibly.

 

 

Emma and the Angel of Central Park, by Maria Teresa Cometto

A large crowd viewing a panel at the book launch of the English translation of Emma and the Angel of Central Park
Photograph courtesy of Maria Teresa Cometto

A well-attended book launch was held at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura on May 31 to celebrate the English translation of Maria Teresa Cometto’s new book Emma and the Angel of Central Park (2023 Bordighera Press). The book tells the amazing true story of Emma Stebbins and her path toward designing the famous Angel of the Waters statue for the park’s Bethesda Fountain. The statue is monumental achievement for a woman sculptor in any era, and it was all the more so in 1868. Cometto’s book is a delightful and informative read. The book is available here and here, among other booksellers.

Pete Panto Headstone Installed

Photograph of Pete Panto headstone taken by Dr Joseph Sciorra
Photograph courtesy of Joseph Sciorra

From the Calandra Institute’s Director for Academic and Public Programming Dr. Joseph Sciorra: “I am euphoric to announce that a tombstone for murdered dock worker and labor activist Pietro ‘Pete’ Panto was recently placed at his grave that went unmarked for 82 years. I thank all of you who made this possible, with your support, your donations, and work of various sorts. We will soon be organizing a ceremony at the site. Stay tuned.”

Carlo Tresca Commemorated

January 11, 2023, marked the eightieth anniversary of the murder of activist Carlo Tresca. Tresca was gunned down on the corner of Fifth and 15th St. in 1943 at age sixty-three. To remember this brutal end of a valiant life, Dr. Joseph Sciorra and Stephen Cerulli of the Calandra Institute organized a gathering of Tresca fans on the site of the assassination. Dr. Sciorra welcomed those present and put the event in some historical context, which Cerulli expanded on. They then opened the event up for others to speak, and a handful did so. Calandra’s Dean Anthony J. Tamburri closed the remarks, and the event concluded with the placing of red carnations, Tresca’s favorite flower, on the pavement near where he died.

Sign up for Calandra’s mailing list to receive advance notice of this kind of special event by clicking here.

Italian Charities of America: 2022 Honorees Include Calandra’s Dr. Donna Chirico

On October 23rd, 2022, at the 86th Annual Italian Charities of America Dinner Dance these Italian American honorees were celebrated for their outstanding work and achievements.

Joseph Petrosino, Esq. received the Christopher Columbus Award.

Silvana Mangione received the talian American Ambassador Award.

Giovanni Pinto received the Italian American Community Service Award.

Dr. Donna M. Chirico received the Italian American Leadership Award.

Dr. Antonio Carlo Vitti received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Louisa Calio received the Renaissance Award.

The Godfather: Fifty Years Later

On Saturday November 5, 2022, the Institute convened a panel of scholars to discuss the half-century-old legacy of the Mario Puzo novel and the series of films by Francis Ford Coppola. Some topics covered in the presentations included “The Don’s Tuxedo: Fashion and Costume in The Godfather,” by Rebecca Bauman, “No Girls Allowed: Homosociality and the Man Caves of Identity,” by Dr. Donna Chirico, and “From Scratch: Foodways as a Politic of Representation,” by Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, among other paper topics. Dean Anthony Julian Tamburri served as host and moderator. Stay tuned to this space for upcoming videos of the presentations.

Italian American Community “Summit” Convened at Calandra

Friday afternoon, September 16, 2022, a group of eminent members of the Italian American community came together at the Calandra Institute for the purpose of discussing the state of Italian American studies and the University as well as to underscore the importance of Italian American participation in humanistic philanthropy—namely, supporting the humanities, social sciences, and the arts.

Invited were those in positions of influence among Italian Americans; those who have engaged in philanthropy either personally or through their organizations; and those engaged in research and the promotion of Italian American and Italian diaspora studies. As a result, in attendance were state legislators, heads of some of the most prominent area organizations, professors, and academic administrators, among others.

Speakers included Dr. Anne M. Prisco, President of Holy Family University; Dr. Katia Passerini, Provost, Seton Hall University; Dr. Donna Chirico, former Dean of Arts and Sciences, York College, CUNY. Consul General Fabrizio Di Michele made opening comments and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, Fabio Finotti, offered closing reflections.

The principal topics on the agenda were: the critical importance of Italian American/Italian Diaspora courses as part of the college curriculum; and what academics in positions of influence can do to encourage these studies, especially in collaboration with people from the Italian American population at large. The discussion was focused, frank, and collegial. The meeting was followed by a reception.

Italy’s Candidates for Parliamentary Representatives of Italians Abroad Meet at Calandra

Photograph copyright Terry W. Sanders 2022

La Voce di New York (in partnership with the Calandra Institute, the Co.Mi.Tes from the tristate area, and  Gruppo Esponenti Italiani) convened on Friday, September 9, a debate among candidates campaigning for the votes of Italians abroad. Click here to read the article in La Voce di New York in Italian. (Click here for an English translation of the article, and click here to watch the video of the proceedings.)

 

 

 

Eco Italie: Calandra’s 2022 Conference Videos Live

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
In the spring of 2022, as the world began to be recalled to life (in Dickens’s phrase), the Calandra Institute decided, after two years, to hold its annual international conference in person again (the 2021 edition was held entirely online; click here for more information about those sessions). The 2022 conference, Eco Italie: Material Landscapes and Environmental Imaginaries, took place at the Institute on April 28–30. As usual, participants came from all over, this time to address ecological, philosophical, and literary matters relating to Italy and the Italian Diaspora. Conference sessions covered topics ranging from gardening in Italy to earthquakes and their aftereffects, waste management, irrigation as a Fascist political tool, and roots of the ecological movement on the peninsula. The conference keynote talk was delivered by Enrico Cesaretti and was titled “Green Traces: Vegetal Imagination in Italian Science Fiction from Gilda Musa to Solarpunk.”
This conference, coming as it did at the end of the most disruptive two years of the pandemic, brought together an unusually focused and determined cohort of young scholars who presented creative and thought-provoking research.
Watch videos of the conference sessions on the Calandra Institute’s YouTube page by clicking here; and you can read the conference program here.