Tag: Italian

ILICA Celebrates 20 Years with Conference and Dinner

Posted on by Sian Gibby

The Italian Language Inter Cultural Alliance (ILICA) commemorated its twentieth anniversary this weekend with a panel discussion on AI, held at Tribeca 360 in lower Manhattan. Free and open to the public, the conference portion of the event featured representatives from the US and Italy who specialize in a range of endeavors, from academia to medicine to technology and high finance. They gathered to discuss the future of artificial intelligence in their respective fields. The panel consisted of Mr. Francesco Rulli (CEO Querlo), Pierluigi Di Tomassi, Esq. (Di Tomassi Law Firm), Prof. Dean Anthony J. Tamburri (John D. Calandra Italian American Institute), Prof. Dr. Antonio Giordano (Oncologist, Pathologist, Researcher & Environmentalist), and Mr. Alfred (Ted) Douglass IV (The Douglass Group- Merrill Lynch Allentown, PA).

The panel was moderated by Dr. Donna Chirico, president emerita of ILICA.

After the panel and discussion, Vincenzo Marra, chairman and founder of ILICA, played host to assembled guests for a lavish dinner including musical accompaniment by Matteo Fedeli and Antonio Scaioli.

Gastrofascism and Empire: Food in Italian East Africa, 1935–1941

Simone Cinotto, University of Gastronomic Sciences Pollenzo

The Italian Fascist regime envisioned transforming Ethiopia into its own granary to establish self-sufficiency to encourage demographic expansion, and to strengthen Italy’s international political position. While these plans failed, the extensive food exchanges and culinary hybridizations between Ethiopian and Italian food cultures thrived, resulting in the creation of an Ethiopian-Italian cuisine, a taste of Empire at the margins. Using a decolonizing food-studies approach and unexplored Ethiopian and Italian sources, Simone Cinotto describes the meanings of different foods for different people at various points along the imperial food chain. Exploring the subjectivities, agencies, and emotions of Ethiopians and Italians, Gastrofascism and Empire (Bloomsbury, 2024) goes beyond simple colonizer/colonized binaries and offers a nuanced picture of lived, multisensorial experiences.

Calandra Institute’s Dr. Joseph Sciorra Wins Bishir Prize

Posted on by Sian Gibby

The Vernacular Architecture Forum has awarded Joseph Sciorra its 2024 Catherine W. Bishir Prize for his article “‘The Strange Artistic Genius of This People’: The Ephemeral Art and Impermanent Architecture of Italian Immigrant Catholic Feste,” published in the Fall/Spring 2023 issue of Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum.

Sciorra looks at late nineteenth and early twentieth-century mobile shrines and street chapels—Baroque confections as tall as sixty feet or as wide as buildings, shaped like altars, towers, or even land-faring boats. Italian American craftsmen created these for their immigrant community feste, or—as Sciorra calls them—“cultural-religious extravaganzas.” He shows the reader these works through the eyes of their intended audiences, as well as those of outsiders—photographers, journalists, visual artists—whose potential biases he carefully considers. Sciorra examines, “how these transient objects of devotion … enacted and proclaimed a diasporic community of believers that challenged hegemonic notions of artistry, religion, the built environment, and the public sphere.” He further expands his gaze to contextualize his hand-crafted sources of study as, in his words, “part of the Progressive era’s xenophobic climate and, in particular, the picturesque gaze that racialized and othered Italian immigrants.”

An online copy of the article is accessible here.

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

Posted on by Sian Gibby

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.

“Translating Italian Mobilities”: Calandra Annual Conference a Success

Posted on by Sian Gibby

Scholars and interested participants began gathering at the Institute on April 26 to listen to presentations by speakers from around the world on the theme of this year’s conference, Translating Italian Mobilities. All sessions were livestreamed. With ten panels and individual presentations on topics related to translation and a keynote (“Rescue, Restore, Redeem: On Translating I Promessi Sposi“) by Michael F. Moore and Lawrence Venuti (“The Bourgeois Shudder: Translating Dino Buzzati’s Politics of Fantasy”)(with discusant Loredana Polezzi), the conference lasted two full days and provided ample material and opportunities for lively and collegial discussion. To review the program and see all the presenters and their topics, click here. Click here to see more photos from the conference.

Intergenerational Memories of World War II: Italian and Italian American Captivities

Delve into the multifaceted narratives of World War II Prisoners of War (POWs) as their descendants share compelling insights during this roundtable discussion. Through a hybrid format blending online and in-person participation, this event offers a unique opportunity to explore the scholarly, artistic, and visual representations of their fathers’ and grandfathers’ captivity experiences.

Speakers: Yemane Demissié, New York University; Laura E. Ruberto, Berkeley City College; Mark Pedri, United States; Anton Pulvirenti, Australia; Elisa Longarato, Italy

This event is part of a series on “Memory, Memories, and Memorialization of WWII Italian Captivity” organized by Elena Bellina (New York University) and Giorgia Alù (The University of Sydney) and co-sponsored by NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, The University of Sydney, The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute (Queens College, CUNY), and the Centre for Italian Modern Art (CIMA). The events aim to investigate how World War II Italian POWs have narrated their long captivity experiences, as well as how these narratives have been recollected and memorialized in Italy, America, Australia, Asia, and Africa.

Those attending in person please RSVP by calling (212) 642-2094.

For online participation, please register in advance for the webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MrgGaW3QS8ieLZk0tHcv-Q

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

For details, please contact Elena Bellina (elena.bellina@nyu.edu); Giorgia Alù (giorgia.alu@sydney.edu.au)

Calandra’s Stephen Cerulli Talks Italian Americans and Ethnicity on NYTN Podcast

Posted on by Sian Gibby

Podcaster Danielle Romero invited Calandra college assistant Stephen Cerulli, who is getting his PhD in Modern History at Fordham University, to talk about matters relating to Italian Americans and ethnicity.

 

The Pietro “Pete” Panto Italian Diaspora Labor Dissertation Fellowship

Posted on by Sian Gibby

SCOPE OF THE FELLOWSHIP

The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, a university-wide institute under the aegis of Queens College, The City University of New York, is offering a fellowship for graduate students who are writing their dissertation on any topic involving Italian emigrant and/or Italian ethnic labor and/or working-class life either in the United States or in the wider Italian diaspora. Submissions may come from all relevant fields of study in the social sciences and humanities, including, but not limited to, history, literary studies, film studies, gender studies, and political science.

The fellowship is named after dockworker and labor activist Pietro “Pete” Panto (1910–1939), who was murdered for leading rank-and-file stevedores in a struggle for safe and democratic working conditions on the Brooklyn waterfront, which had long been in the grip of mobsters and corrupt elements in the union.

The fellowship will run for six years with one award given each year. The fellowship award is $1,000 US per year, distributed by check or bank transfer after the awardee is announced.

ELIGIBILITY

Graduate students will need to have been registered at their university in the twelve months previous to the application deadline. Recently graduated students are eligible to apply as long as they were registered within the twelve months immediately previous.

Applicants must have passed their qualifying exams, been admitted to candidacy, and have submitted an accepted dissertation proposal. This status must be confirmed in the dissertation director’s letter (see below).

Graduate students who do not win in a given year but continue to work on their dissertation or thesis in the following year are welcome to apply again.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

  • Application materials must be in English and submitted in .pdf format. The dissertation itself may be written in any language.
  • Project description: In no more than 750 words (double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font with 1-inch margins), provide a title and brief description of the dissertation project, your progress toward its completion, and an explanation of the project’s contribution to the field of diasporic Italian emigrant and/or ethnic labor and/or working-class life.
  • Curriculum vitae: The CV should include your current mailing address, email address, and telephone number and should focus on publications, courses taken and/or taught, professional activities, and awards. Maximum length not to exceed two pages.
  • Unofficial transcripts: Proof of good standing. There is no need for the transcript to be translated into English.
  • Two letters of reference: One letter must come from the dissertation director and explicitly address the relevance of your project to the furthering of Italian diaspora and labor/working-class studies. Both letters must be in English.

Please upload the documents in .pdf format to Submittable: https://bordigherapress.submittable.com/submit/285828/john-d-calandra-italian-american-institute-pietro-pete-panto-italian-diaspora

For any questions about the application process, please write to the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at the following email: calandra@qc.cuny.edu.

DEADLINE

May 1, 2024. The announcement of this year’s winner will be made on September 2, 2024.

Exhibition Extended through April 2024: “A Legacy of Making: 21 Contemporary Italian American Artists”

Posted on by Sian Gibby
“A Legacy of Making: 21 Contemporary Italian American Artists” currently on view at the John D Calandra Italian American Institute in Midtown Manhattan, will run until the end of April, 2024. Curated by Joseph Sciorra and Joanne Mattera, the exhibition features the work of artists based in New York City who are Italian American, or Italian born and and now living here, whose immigrant experience has informed them personally and artistically.
On Wednesday, December 13, artists in the exhibition will be present to speak informally in the gallery about their work, 6:00-7:30. You are invited. Come and see the show and engage with the artists.
Info:
. The Calandra Institute is at 25 W. 43 Street, 17th floor, New York City.
. Read a conversation between John Avelluto and Joanne Mattera in Two Coats of Paint: https://twocoatsofpaint.com/…/an-italian-american…
. See a walk-through of the show on Mattera’s blog: https://joannematteraartblog.blogspot.com/…/a-legacy-of…
. Artists were selected from the newly published book Italianità: Contemporary Art Inspired by the Italian Immigrant Experience: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/italianit%c3%a0