The conference was a resounding success. Click here for the complete conference program. Check back soon for videos of the conference proceedings.
News
Dr. Joseph Sciorra Gives Talk at Italian American Museum of Los Angeles
On Saturday, April 23, Dr. Sciorra made a presentation at the IAMLA in connection with the museum’s show “Woven Lives: Exploring Women’s Needlework from the Italian Diaspora.” The talk incorporated some material from his 2014 book (with co-editor Edvige Giunta, published by University Press of Mississippi) Embroidered Stories: Interpreting Women’s Domestic Needlework from the Italian Diaspora. To watch an earlier presentation (from the Institute’s cable TV show Italics) on this topic by Dr. Sciorra, click here.
Read an Interview with Dean Anthony Julian Tamburri in La Voce di New York (in Italiano)
Anthony Tamburri, the dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY, was interviewed recently by Nicola Corradi for the Italian-language newspaper La Voce di New York. Click here to read the article (in Italian).
Calandra’s Spring Events Commence
Our first in-person events in our regular series took place last night. Calandra hosted filmmaker Mark Pedri and producer Carrie McCarthy (pictured here) for a screening of Dear Sirs (2021) as part of the Documented Italians series. We had a full house in attendance (in accordance with our COVID protocols, everyone showed ID and vaccination cards upon entering, and the crowd was limited to twenty audience members). For more information about all our spring series events, click here.
New Approaches to Italian American Studies
Click here to watch a video discussion among Calandra Dean Anthony Julian Tamburri, Queens College Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies Dr. Fred Gardaphé, Calandra’s Director of Academic and Cultural Programs Dr. Joseph Sciorra, and York College Professor Dr. Donna Chirico on new directions scholars are taking while exploring the historical and contemporary experiences and output of the world’s Italian diaspora.
To watch all Italics programs on YouTube, click here.
Calandra Conference 2022 Eco Italie: Material Landscapes and Environmental Imaginaries
The theme for the 2022 edition of the Calandra Institute’s annual conference will be Eco Italie: Material Landscapes and Environmental Imaginaries. The conference will take place in person at the Institute on April 28–30, 2022.
Italians operating under diverse historical conditions within the national borders and beyond have participated in varied roles and perspectives in transforming the global environment. Building on the growing scholarship analyzing Italian histories and cultures from the perspective of the environmental humanities this interdisciplinary conference encompasses a wide range of topics concerning the environment, broadly understood, from backyard gardening practices to industrial farming, from Fascist-era agricultural projects to the dumping of toxic waste by perpetrators of organized crime. At the forefront of this scholarly encounter is the dire global climate crisis and the science, activism, and everyday cultural shifts involved in alleviating a future catastrophe.
Attendance at the conference is open to all and free of charge. Please register by calling 212-642-2094; space is limited. Proof of vaccination and ID are required upon entry. Masks are encouraged but not required. We will continue to assess the latest data and public health guidance and to act in compliance with CUNY protocols.
The conference will be live streamed. You may watch the conference via live stream link here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84632506433?pwd=NHVpM0RFZ1dRa0YrUTljWmNKWEtVQT09
For more information, email calandra@qc.cuny.edu or call 212-642-2094.
Dr. Joseph Sciorra Wins Studs Terkel Award
As part of the Working-Class Studies Association Awards for work produced in 2020, this year’s Studs Terkel Award for Single Published Articles or Series, Broadcast Media, Multimedia, and Film in Media and Journalism goes to “Protesta Per Sacco & Vanzetti,” by the Calandra Institute’s Director of Academic and Public Programs Joseph Sciorra. A judge writes that the piece includes “extensive research into the songs related to the men’s arrest, trial and executions,” a case they compare with the death of George Floyd. “The balm for xenophobia is knowledge, but the challenge is to bring people to that table. I’m there.” Also, a judge writes that Sciorra has “preserved a vital record of American anarchist history, giving credit to the working-class reproductions of this period’s emotive sounds and sensations of this historical moment.” The essay’s “focus on Italian language items provides an explicit example of working-class experience across languages, cultures, and people.”
Tribute to Robert Viscusi Published
Bordighera Press has just published this volume of essays, a Festschrift for beloved colleague and friend of the Calandra Institute Robert Viscusi (1941–2020). In it scholars deal with an array of Bob’s contributions to the worlds of letters and of academia.
This volume is available everywhere now for purchase. You may buy it at IAMBooks or at Barnes & Noble, among other booksellers. You may purchase the book directly from Bordighera Press by writing to info@bordigherapress.org.
Calandra’s Olivia Tursi Wins Italian Writing Prize
The Calandra Institute’s Olivia Tursi, LCSW-R, MA, has won the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s II Micro Story Contest, sponsored by the college’s Modern Languages Department. Congratulations, Olivia!
Connecting Despite the Pandemic: Calandra Conversations
With the COVID-19 pandemic, venues that devote resources to public programming, like the Calandra Institute, have had to switch things up a bit. These more casual Zoom conversations offer a new and flexible means by which we have been able to continue with some of our scheduled events that could not take place in person as well as add other fun and informative online events. Click here to see all the conversations to date, and check back often, because we are only doing more.