Book presentation of Italian Americans on the Page: Revisiting the Classics and Exploring New Voices with editors Ryan Calabretta-Sajder and Alan J. Gravano. Moderated by Fred L. Gardaphé and Anthony Julian Tamburri.
“This is an invaluable addition to the field of the Italian American studies. While offering new critical approaches to both canonical and noncanonical works, it also extends our understanding of LGBTQ writing in poetry, fiction, and dramatic literature, and it expands the coverage of Italian Americana to include the North American contributions of Canadian dramatists whose work builds on the coverage of traditional concerns with family life and turmoil.”
— Josephine Gattuso Hendin, New York University
Please RSVP by emailing [email protected].
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?
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.
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 
Thursday, April 11, Luisa Del Giudice, author and independent scholar, presented her new book In Search of Abundance: Mountains of Cheese, Rivers of Wine, and Other Gastronomic Utopias (2023 Bordighera Press), in which she outlines the fascinating and complex journey of ideas about plenty and scarcity in the history of Italian diasporic cultures. 
Today Calandra’s dean, Anthony J. Tamburri, will speak to the Appellate Division, Second Department, of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. His topic is “Italian Americans: Who We Were and Who We Are.”