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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.

 

 

Book Release: Expanding Diasporic Identity by Anthony Julian Tamburri

New book by the Dean of the Institute!

This study examines the changing dynamics of the “Italian” writer and how we, as cultural critics, need to re-think our definitions of the new Italian writer. In so doing, we must also re-consider the notion of the geo-cultural zones that we characterize as “Italian.” Namely, how do we categorize that writer who, having left Italy and now living beyond its geo-cartographic boundaries, writes in Italian? Similarly, who is that other writer who, originating from another country that is both culturally and linguistically different from Italy, writes in Italian? Finally, where within these two groups do we position the writer of Italian origin who also lives in another country and, different from the previous two types of writers, composes his/her work in the language of his/her host country?

Book Release: Gli americani italiani: cultura e società by Anthony Julian Tamburri

New book release in Italian by the Dean of the Institute!

Anthony Julian Tamburri is a leading figure in the field of Italian/American studies. Examining literary and cinematographic works from the perspective of cultural issues related to the concepts of memory, ethnicity, migration, and diaspora, Tamburri has argued for the need to broaden the concept of “Italian identity,” which in recent decades has extended far beyond traditional boundaries. Tamburri has thus initiated a dialogue that aims to launch an interactive process of shared practices and knowledge, which can benefit both “Italian” communities, including in their relations with other American ethnic communities, and the wider contexts in which we operate, including the Mediterranean and countries where the Italian diaspora is present: a textual and cultural journey that ‘will certainly not be easy, as it will confront us with a series of linguistic, cultural and […] ideological deviations’ and will force us to take a close look at stories that have long been removed from our collective imagination.

Academic Year 2025-26

Queens College begins the 2025-26 academic year on Tuesday, August 26. With it, we are launching a new suite of programs at the Calandra Institute!

Our calendar of events has been updated with the talks, readings, and presentations scheduled for the fall semester—including film screenings, historical analysis, and theatrical performances. The first event of the academic year, Captive Sites of Memory: Conflicting Italian Identities in the United States During World War II, takes place September 9 and relates to the current exhibition on display in the Institute’s gallery. Our research, such as our monthly data snapshots, will also resume regular publication. We look forward to hosting new and returning guests at our Midtown location, where we are open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Explore a 3D Model of the Exhibition: Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States

Non-collaborating POWs built this presepio—an Italian nativity scene—near Schofield Barracks, Hawai’i, January 5, 1945. The Islamic architecture suggests a North African setting. Courtesy National Archives.

The Calandra Institute’s current exhibition Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States, curated by Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra, can now be explored via a digital 3D model. View it here. To learn more about the exhibition click here, view the catalog, or read a brief description:

The exhibition presents creative work made by Italian soldiers who were imprisoned by the Allied forces during World War II, focusing on those held in the United States. These objects, often made from salvaged materials, ranged in size from a small inlaid ring to a large Catholic chapel with a 65-foot bell tower. There is no archive or collective depository about World War II Italian prisoners of war in Allied hands. To document this creative work, the exhibit pulls from research completed by co-curator Laura E. Ruberto (Berkeley City College), including historical photographs, rare remaining artifacts, oral testimonies, written accounts, family memories, and private collections. The exhibition, designed by Polly Franchini, brings together a selection of these objects, images, and stories to present this little-known history. Highlighting the artistry of incarcerated Italian servicemen (some of whom maintained allegiance to Fascism) is not meant to trivialize the atrocities of war or to minimize the resistance of those who fought at great sacrifice. Rather, it offers an opportunity to reflect on the myriad ways that identity and imagination are shaped materially during the adverse conditions of war.

The public can also view the gallery in person at the Calandra Institute’s Midtown Manhattan location. It will be on view from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, until November 26.

Calandra Institute Summer Office Hours

The Calandra Italian American Institute’s offices at 25 West 43rd Street, Floor 17, will be closed on the following Fridays, observing CUNY’s summer hours:

August 1, August 8, August 15

The office hours Monday through Thursday for the summer, and Monday through Friday after August 15, are 9:00am to 5:00pm.

Nota bene: The Institute’s Gallery, hosting the current exhibition Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States, will be closed on Fridays until after August 15.

Call for Papers: Italian American Review Special Issue on Sacco and Vanzetti

Abstracts Due: July 1, 2025

Italian American “cause célèbre” and “anarchist martyrs” Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed by the State of Massachusetts on August 23, 1927. Almost a full 100 years later, their names remain important touchstones around the world for migration activists and working-class radicals. The memory of Sacco and Vanzetti has been preserved and recreated through cultural and political manifestations over the ensuing years. While rooted in the diasporic Italian-anarchist communities of which they were a part, these manifestations across the globe—in music and art, in plays and novels, in strikes and street protests—long ago transcended those origins and remain significant to this day.

The Italian American Review seeks essays for a special issue dedicated to a re-thinking and re-articulation of the meaning of Sacco and Vanzetti both historically and today. In addition to submissions related to a revisiting of the details of their trial (and related murders) and the anarchist background from which they emerged, we especially invite submissions that focus on lesser explored themes in the historiography, including the global reach of their defense campaign, the impact of the failed fight to save their lives, how this struggle was used by various groups who rallied to their cause in the 1920s, and what they mean to those who have continued to commemorate their deaths with various actions and gatherings ever since. For more information, click here.

Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States

Unidentified Italian Service Unit member working on an inlayed wooden box, unknown camp location. Credit: National Archives

The exhibition, curated by Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra, presents creative work made by Italian soldiers who were imprisoned by the Allied forces during World War II, focusing on those held in the United States. These objects, often made from salvaged materials, ranged in size from a small inlaid ring to a large Catholic chapel with a 65-foot bell tower. There is no archive or collective depository about World War II Italian prisoners of war in Allied hands. To document this creative work, the exhibit pulls from research completed by co-curator Laura E. Ruberto (Berkeley City College), including historical photographs, rare remaining artifacts, oral testimonies, written accounts, family memories, and private collections. The exhibition, designed by Polly Franchini, brings together a selection of these objects, images, and stories to present this little-known history. Highlighting the artistry of incarcerated Italian servicemen (some of whom maintained allegiance to Fascism) is not meant to trivialize the atrocities of war or to minimize the resistance of those who fought at great sacrifice. Rather, it offers an opportunity to reflect on the myriad ways that identity and imagination are shaped materially during the adverse conditions of war.

Explore a 3D model of the exhibition in our gallery space and read the catalog to learn more.

In addition to the Calandra Institute, funding for this exhibit comes from the Australian Research Council and the Mellon Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies.

ON VIEW May 1, 2025–November 26, 2025
Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm
EXHIBITION OPENING May 1, 2025, 6pm

Video from Event Honoring the Late Professor Robert Viscusi

On the anniversary of the death of Professor Bob Viscusi, poet, teacher, theorist, friend of the Calandra Institute, we hosted a commemoration of him and his work. The event included readings from the Festschrift put together for him in 2021, This Hope Sustains the Scholar, as well as remembrances from colleagues and friends, some from New York City and others from Italy, joining via ZOOM. Click here to watch the entire event.

Italian Heritage and Culture Month 2024: Giovanni da Verrazzano 1524-2024

This year’s theme for Italian Heritage and Culture Month is Giovanni da Verrazzano 1524-2024: 500 Years. We present here the Italian Heritage & Culture Committee, New York, Inc.’s documents anticipating the October celebrations: click here for Cav. Joseph Sciame’s Events Letter; here for the Events Form; here for a Press Release about this year’s celebration; and here for the Donations Request Form.