Investigation of topics in Italian cultural history from a multidisciplinary perspective.

This interdisciplinary seminar investigates cultural expressions and creative productions by and about Italian Americans in order to understand how such expressions construct and restrict identity, shape collective narratives, direct notions of race and ethnicity, and continue to be relevant within constantly-shifting transnational and global spaces. We will chart the field of Italian American Studies within related fields of study and varying notions of Italian mobilities (diaspora, colonialism, etc). We will also explore in-depth specific thematic nuclei around expressive culture, broadly understood, with emphasis on storytelling, performance, visual culture, and experiences of everyday life. Readings will vary widely, with a focus on seminal studies and recent trends in the scholarship (including work by Gabaccia, Gardaphe, Gennari, Giunta, Guglielmo, Fiore, Orsi, Tamburri, Sciorra, Ruberto, and Verdicchio) as well as examples from literature, film, and the other arts.

Required readings include PDFs supplied by the professor and the following books:

Bencivenni, Marcella. Italian Immigrant Radical Culture: The Idealism of the Sovversivi in the United States, 189-01940. New York University Press, 2011. (paperback, 2014)

ISBN: 9781479849024


Cinotto, Simone. The Italian American Table, New York University Press, 2013. (paperback)

ISBN: 0252079345


Ets, Marie Hall. Rosa, The Life of an Italian Immigrant, University of Wisconsin Press, 1999. (paperback)

ISBN: 0299162540


Gennari, John. Flavor and Soul: Italian American at Its African American Edge, University of Chicago Press, 2017. (paperback)

ISBN: 9780226428321


The Italian American Political Solidarity Club, Editors. Avanti Popolo: Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus, Manic D Press, 2008. (paperback)

ISBN: 1933149280


Ruberto, Laura E. and Joseph Sciorra. New Italian Migrations to the United States, Volume. 2: Art and Culture since 1945, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2017. (paperback)

ISBN: 9780252082917


Sciorra, Joseph. Built with Faith: Italian American Imagination and Catholic Material Culture in New York City. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2015 (paperback, 2018)

ISBN: 1621903834

Course Requirements: weekly responses, at least one seminar presentation, and a research paper. Can be taken for 2 or 4 units (with different degrees of work).

Repeat Rules