War has been foundational to the shaping of modern Italian history, memory, and culture—from the wars of the Risorgimento to colonial and Fascist wars of expansion up to and including the two world wars. Furthermore, in all these Italian war efforts, emigrant and diasporic communities have played significant roles whether through moral and material support, serving in the Italian military, or through their opposition to Italian wars. As such, scholars are increasingly turning their attention to the theme of war and its importance to our understanding of the history of Italy, the Italian diaspora, and former colonial subjects.
This interdisciplinary conference explores a wide range of topics concerning war from an Italian—broadly understood—perspective. As in the past, the Institute’s conference proposes an inclusive approach to Italy and Italian mobilities, including inhabitants of the nation-state, members of the diaspora, current immigrants in Italy and their descendants, and former colonial subjects.
This year’s conference title comes from Arturo Giovannitti’s poem “Anniversary II.”
Poster image credit: Digital rendering of Henry DiSpirito’s linocut End of Fascism/Man Destroying Swastika, ca. 1940. Collection of the New York State Museum. Click here to see a larger version of the poster image.
See below for the complete conference program.
FRIDAY, APRIL 25
9:30–10:45 am
The Great War
Chair: Lina Insana, University of Pittsburgh
Wheat Traitors: Propaganda and Autarchy on the Italian Front in World War I, Marius Rusu, Rutgers University
Italian Americans’ Response to the Call of the Motherland in World War I, Stefano Luconi, University of Padua
Rewriting Nationalism: Italo Svevo and Narratives of War at the Northeastern Borderlands (1915–1918), Daria Kozhanova, Duke University
11 am–12:15 pm
Untangling the Strands of Italian Wars in Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia
Chair: Angelyn Balodimas-Bartolomei, North Park University
Garibaldi’s Haunting Presence in Denise Giardina’s Storming Heaven, Nancy Caronia, Chatham University
Read the Room! Heritage Commemoration Between (Fascist) Dreams of Empire and Integration into the American Academy, Lina Insana, University of Pittsburgh
Bitter Bread, If Yinz Were Lucky, Melissa E. Marinaro, Senator John Heinz History Center
1:30–2:45 pm
Women, War, and Competing Legacies of the Risorgimento
Chair: Chiara Mazzucchelli, University of Central Florida
(Domestic) Battles Within Italy: Women and Brigandage in the 1860s, Victoria Calabrese, Lehman College, CUNY
Italian Feminists and the African Question, 1885–1887, Diana Moore, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
Jewish Women Artists and the Unfulfilled Promises of the Risorgimento, Allison Scardino Belzer, Georgia Southern University
3:00–4:15 pm
Italian Creativity in Captivity during World War II across the Pacific and Indian Oceans
Chair: Joseph Sciorra, Queens College, CUNY
Italian Internees in Wartime Australia 1940–1945: Carceral Aesthetics, Flavia Marcello, Swinburne University, and Anthony White, University of Melbourne
Fascism, Art, and Aloha: The Legacies of Italian Prisoners of War in Hawaii, Laura E. Ruberto, Berkeley City College
Climbing beyond Borders: Italian Prisoners’ Mountaineering Adventures in the Himalayas and Mount Kenya (1941–1947), Giorgia Alù, University of Sydney, and Elena Bellina, New York University
4:30-6:10 pm
Albania*Greece*Sicily
Chair: Luisa Del Giudice, Independent Scholar
Reflections on Italian Soldiers in Ismail Kadare’s The General of the Dead Army, Susan Caperna Lloyd, Independent Scholar
Mussolini’s Invasion of Greece: Cold-Blooded Calculation or Vainglorious Imperial Adventure, Andrew R. Novo, National Defense University
Cittadinanza Egea Italiana: Struggling to Remain Greek in the Italian Dodecanese (1912–1943), Angelyn Balodimas-Bartolomei, North Park University
The Taste of Hunger: Sicilian Foodways before and after the 1943 Landing, Teresa Fiore, Montclair State University
SATURDAY, APRIL 26
9:30–10:45 am
Confinement and Texts during World War II
Chair: Donna Chirico, York College, CUNY
Surviving the Years of Hardship: Microhistories of Detention in Africa Orientale Italiana, James De Lorenzi, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
Voices from the Isles of the Displaced: Italian British Memoirs of Internment in the Second World War, Manuela D’Amore, University of Catania
Between Love, Emancipation, and War, Marie-Christine Michaud, Southern Brittany University (Lorient)
11am–12:15 pm
Italian American GIs
Chair: David Aliano, University of Mount Saint Vincent
The View from Connecticut: Italy, United States, and World War II in the Pages of La verità: Corriere del Connecticut, Martina Di Florio, Trinity College
From Private Maggio to War Brides to Real-Life Italian American Soldiers in World War II, Gloria Pastorino, Fairleigh Dickinson University
What Memory of Italian American Service Members in World War II?, Matteo Pretelli, University of Naples “L’Orientale”
1:30–2:45 pm
CONFERENCE ROOM
Anti-Fascism and Resistance
Chair: Manuela D’Amore, University of Catania
Women of War: Examining the Breadth of Contributions of Female Anti-Fascists during the German Occupation of Italy during World War II, Suzanne Cope, New York University
The Pen against the Sword: Jerre Mangione’s Anti-Fascist Literary Activism, Chiara Mazzucchelli, University of Central Florida
Perché ancora? The Resistenza in Luciano Cecchinel’s Poetry, Fabio Fantuzzi, Ca’ Foscari University
CLASSROOM
Language*Education*Propaganda
Chair: Dennis Barone, University of Saint Joseph
The Creation and Formation of Public Opinion during the European Colonial Events of the Nineteenth Century, Roberto Reali, Associazione Nazionale Ex Internati
Languages for War and Peace: Language Weaponization in World War II, Roberto Dolci, University for Foreigners of Perugia
Italy in Representation: Class Wars to Gender Wars from Thomas Paine to Ben Morreale, Paul Fadoul, Queens College, CUNY
3–4:15 pm
Occupation and Tourism in War’s Aftermath
Chair: Nancy Carnevale, Montclair State University
Battlefield Tourism and the Shaping of Italian National Narratives at Home and Abroad, David Aliano, University of Mount Saint Vincent
“A Soldier’s Guide to Italy”: Identity Expectations of American Troops in Italy during World War II, Donna Chirico, York College, CUNY
American Soldiers and Military in Postwar Italy, Michael B. Limmer, University of Missouri
4:30–6:10 pm
Remembering and Contending with the Trauma of World War II
Chair: Nancy Caronia, Chatham University
“Now and at the Hour,” Dennis Barone, University of Saint Joseph
Alberto Del Giudice: IMI—Internato Militare Italiano/Italian Military Internee 1943–1945, Luisa Del Giudice, Indepedent Scholar
Eva Fischer, Painter of the Shoah, Not to Forget, Rosina Martucci, University of Salerno
An Inheritance of Trauma: Two Generations of Italian American Memoir, Annie Lanzillotto, Poet