Call for Papers
Medieval literature and culture | From the Renaissance to the 18th century | 19th century | 20th and 21th centuries | Interdisciplinary Approaches to Italian studies | Cinema | Critical Perspectives | Queer and Gender issues |
Pedagogy
Roundtable: Nurturing The Undergraduate Italian Program
What works in your undergraduate program? What ideas would you like to share? What challenges do you encounter? Participants are invited to give short (7-8 minute) presentations and to share materials [we will provide photocopies of any materials sent to us by April 4, 2013].
Organizer information: F. Regina Psaki, University of Oregon,
Roundtable: Nurturing The Graduate Italian Program
What works in your graduate program? What ideas would you like to share? What challenges do you encounter? Participants are invited to give short (7-8 minute) presentations and to share materials [we will provide photocopies of any materials sent to us by April 4, 2013].
Organizer information: F. Regina Psaki, University of Oregon,
Cineliteracy and the Italian Language Classroom
This panel will address how to integrate Italian language learning with a formal understanding of film. In this image-dominated world, it is critical to offer our students of Italian the linguistic tools necessary not only to communicate in the target language, but also to analyze the language systems and visual codes used in Italian cinema. How can we meaningfully incorporate cinematic form and its technical language into content-based, goal-oriented curricula?
How can we teach cineliteracy in pedagogically sound and communicative ways, keeping in mind specific standards and goals as we instruct and assess our students of Italian?
Please send a 250-word abstract and a short bio to:
Claudia Consolati, University of Pennsylvania,
Lillyrose Veneziano Broccia, University of Pennsylvania,
Round Table Organizing and Managing the Study Abroad Programs in Italy: Approaches, Challenges, and Evaluation.
This roundtable will concern the different ways of organizing study abroad programs in Italy. We will analyze the main difficulties Universities encounter in organizing and managing such programs, the opportunities and challenges for participating students and teachers, as well as for the host communities. We will focus on measuring and evaluating the impact of a study abroad program in Italy on the participants, also by debating how to "extend" the experience once students return to the U.S. Organizer: Cristiana Panicco Affiliation: Sant'Anna Institute-Sorrento Lingue
Roundtable: "New Approaches to Teaching Intermediate Italian Courses"
Intermediate level courses constitute a crucial moment of transition in the student formation. In this round table discussion we will address some of the challenges presented by these courses and the strategies that are being used to stimulate students and advance their knowledge of Italian language and culture. How do we combine the necessity of a thorough study of grammar and an equally important focus on Italian culture and society? The round table organizers, authors of the forthcoming intermediate Italian textbook Andiamo in Italia!, invite colleagues to participate in the discussion and share their views on the subject.
Please send abstracts to ,
New Perspectives in Italian Studies
This panel welcomes papers that provide new perspectives on the fundamental critical paradigms in the field of Italian Studies.
Please send abstracts (250-500 words) by November 1 to Brendan Hennessey (Colby College),
Roundtable "Cuts, Clustering, and Re-Configurations: the Present and Future of Languages Department in the US"
Please send abstracts to Maria Esposito Frank, University of Hartford,
Medieval literature and culture
The Arthur Of Italians
The Arthurian legend in the medieval literature and arts of the Italian peninsula, whether written in an Italian dialect or another language current there.
Organizer information: F. Regina Psaki, University of Oregon,
Topics In Medieval And Renaissance Italian Literature
Session description: Papers are invited in any area of Italian cultural production during the period 1200-1600. Particularly welcome are papers on extracanonical figures and works, and comparative studies (in different languages or in different arts).
Organizer information: F. Regina Psaki, University of Oregon,
The French Of Italy
This panel brings together a range of topics related to the French cultural and literary traditions of medieval and Renaissance Italy. Papers may explore the Franco-Italian epic of northern Italy, the francophone circles of Tuscany, the French texts composed at the Angevin court in Naples, or other topics touching the French of Italy.
Organizer: Stephen P. McCormick, University of South Carolina, ().
Giovanni Boccaccio, Master of Prose
Interested parties should email me at () with a prospectus (maximum 250 words).
Giovanni Boccaccio, Master of Verse
Interested parties should email me at () with a prospectus (maximum 250 words).
The Latin Boccaccio
Interested parties should email me at () with a prospectus (maximum 250 words).
Boccaccio's Legacy
Interested parties should email me at () with a prospectus (maximum 250 words).
Medieval and Renaissance Notions of Love, Homosociability, Homosexuality and Queerness
When we talk about a homosexuality or queerness in medieval Italy, do we include women or is it largely perceived as only a male experience? What were the shared stigmas and bonds between the female and male homosexual experience, if any? Did separate notions of desire and community develop? This panel is interested in topics based on homosocial relationships, communes, counterpublics, or utopias between both men and women within a queer medieval and Renaissance Italy.
Please provide an abstract of 300 words or less to Ayana Smythe ( ) or Julia Heim () by 15 November
Dante’s Genealogies
At the heart of his most sustained reflection on poetic influence and inspiration (Purg. 24-26), we encounter Dante at his most “non-poetic,” expounding the scientific principles of generation and ensoulment via Statius. Far from a digression, its placement here reflects the scope and subtlety of Dante’s interest in genealogies, both literal and metaphorical. What are the ties that bind one generation to the next? When and how do they unravel? This panel welcomes submissions on genealogy in Dante’s thought from one or more of the following perspectives: scientific, poetic, theological, philosophical, political, and religious.
Please send abstracts (250-300 words) by November 15, 2012 to Christiana Purdy Moudarres, Yale University, .
Medieval and Renaissance Astrology
Any aspect of the study and uses of astrology in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, including its connections with alchemy, medicine, theology, music, and other disciplines. Interdisciplinary work involving fields such as literature, art history, history of ideas, history of science, philosophy, political theory, religious studies, etc. is especially welcome.
Please submit abstracts to Elena Daniele, Brown University, elena_daniele@brown.edu
Children in Medieval Italian Literature
Since Philippe Ariès's absolute declaration that in medieval society childhood did not exist, the study of this early stage of life during the Middle Ages continues to be a fertile subject of investigation. This session intends to explore representations, reflections and perceptions of youth in Medieval Italian Literature from infancy to adolescence.
Please send a CV and an abstract of 250 words by November 15, 2012 to James McMenamin,
Francesco Petrarca e il Petrarchismo attraverso i secoli
An open session on Petrarca and his legacy in European and World literature.
Organizer: Massimo Lollini:
From the Renaissance to the 18th century
Text and Image in Pre-Modern Italy
The panel explores the relationship between text and image before 1800, for example visual representations of literary works, ekphrasis, images in printed books, etc.
Please send a paper title, 1-page abstract, and 1-page CV to Nathalie Hester at by November 15, 2012. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
Theater and Spectacle in Renaissance and Baroque Italy
Please send a paper title, 1-page abstract, and 1-page CV to Nathalie Hester at by November 15, 2012. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
Italian and European Academies
This panel seeks papers on any aspect of Italian academies, including their relationships with other European organizations.
Please send a paper title, 1-page abstract, and 1-page CV to Nathalie Hester at by November 15, 2012. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
Travel and Textuality in Pre-Modern Italy
This panel seeks papers on the representation of travel, broadly defined, before 1800.
Please send a paper title, 1-page abstract, and 1-page CV to Nathalie Hester at by November 15, 2012. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
Renaissance and Baroque Women Writers
Please send a paper title, 1-page abstract, and 1-page CV to Nathalie Hester at by November 15, 2012. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
Musica e letteratura fra Sei e Settecento
This interdisciplinary panel addresses the close ties linking music and literature in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy. Papers exploring opera, oratorios, and/or madrigals are especially welcome.
Please send a 150-300 word abstract and brief biographical note to Renée Anne Poulin, University of South Florida by November 15, 2012. Please indicate if you will need special audio-visual equipment.
Giambattista Vico
An open and interdisciplinary panel on Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico.
Organizer: Massimo Lollini (University of Oregon),
Re-Thinking Humanism
This panel will focus on primary sources and recent scholarship engaged in rethinking historical humanism, its origins and developments in a time that has been defined as "Post-human".
Organizer: Massimo Lollini (University of Oregon),
The Italian "Grand Tour": From Myth to the Present.
This panel aims to collect information about the myth of the "Grand Tour" in Italy during the Eighteenth century. The goal of the session is to foster a reflection on the theme of travel in Southern Europe, seen as a way to expand knowledge on relatively unexplored regions and also as a key to understanding the personal changes that each new journey brings. Papers highlighting the intellectual value of the Grand Tour for British, French and German artists, poets and scholars from the Eighteenth century to the present are welcome. Contributions examining the influence of the picturesque scenery of the Grand Tour regions on contemporary cinema and literature are also encouraged. Please submit a 300 word abstract (in English or Italian) to Marco Marino by November 15. Organizer: Marco Marino Affiliation: Sant'Anna Institute-Sorrento Lingue email: marco.marino@sorrentolingue.com
Italy and the Americas 1492-1800
The panel seeks papers that explore the relationship between Italy and the Americas in a variety of contexts including historiography, humanism, poetry, visual arts, cartography, travel narratives, missions, and museums.
Please send a paper title, 1-page abstract, and 1-page CV to Nathalie Hester at by November 15, 2012. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
19th century
The Ottocento in the New Millenium: Perspectives, Approaches, and Praxis
In the wake of the celebrations on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Italian independence, the Ottocento has once again gained prominence as a defining period for the creation of a national Italian literature. Yet, the questions raised by the upheavals of this century are from resolved. Scholars are still grappling with the Southern question, the place of women in Italian society, the relationship between national language and literary tradition, the emergence of literary movements within a European context (verismo, romanticism, decandentism), and the very matter of periodization itself. This panel aims to present new approaches to the central questions of Ottocento criticism. It welcomes papers from all disciplines and theoretical frameworks which illuminate innovative perspectives on the long nineteenth century.
Organizers: Giuseppe Gazzola (Stony Brook University) and Gabriella Romani (Seton Hall University)
The Nineteenth-Century Female Character
Is it possible to identify a discourse on the female character that is specific to Italy's process of nation-making? This panel welcomes proposals which analyze the Italian female character of the Ottocento, understood as a fictional character developed by both male and female authors, but also as an ideological construction within the wider discourse of nation-making, and as an expression of multiple forms of female subjectivities.
Organizer: Gabriella Romani (Seton Hall University) Send abstracts and short bio to:
Giacomo Leopardi: Letteratura Contemporanea E Critica
La sessione, divenuta ormai tradizionale all’interno dell’AAIS, si propone di individuare il significato del pensiero e della poesia di Giacomo Leopardi nella letteratura contemporanea e di presentare gli ultimi sviluppi della critica leopardiana, con lo scopo di offrire indicazioni per una futura ermeneutica del suo lavoro.
Si prendono in considerazione saggi su aspetti ancora poco esplorati dell’opera leopardiana; sulla presenza diretta e indiretta di Leopardi nella scrittura più recente; sull’applicazione ai testi leopardiani di metodologie critiche contemporanee; su nuove prospettive interpretative che contribuiscano ad analizzare la funzione che gli studi leopardiani possono rappresentare nella cultura contemporanea; sulla presenza di Leopardi nel mondo di lingua inglese.
Please write to: . Irene Marchegiani
Translation and Identity in Italy: The Making of Those Italians
Susan Bassnett has written that translation can no longer be considered "a rhetorical form… underpinned by a yearning for some unified original essence but increasingly... as a discursive practice that reveals multiple signs of the polyvalence with which cultures are constructed." This session addresses the role of translation and its influence both on cultural and aesthetic aspects of the literary canon of Italy since the Risorgimento and the formation of a new Italian identity. Papers may address the changing role of translations in Italy, its political impact, the influence of the practice on certain writers, or how dependency on translation fostered both intolerance towards certain groups, genders and genres and genders or furthered or furthered their suppression.
Please submit either the paper or a 300 word abstract to Carol Lazzaro-Weis () by November 15.
Framing The Outside: Risorgimento And The Making Of Italians through Photography and Literature
This panel addresses the role of photography and/or literature in constructing Italian identity shortly after the Unification of Italy. Considering the necessity of the outside-the marginal and exploited identities- to construct the inside -the Italian identity- this panel aims to explore the reality of a new outside. What groups were relegated to the outside? What kind of aesthetic was employed to represent the outside? In what ways did photography and literature cooperate with national politics in the making of Italians?
Please send abstracts (250-300 words) to Nicoletta Pazzaglia,
Censorship, Sexuality, And Eroticism In Nineteenth- And Early Twentieth-Century Italy
This panel considers “taboo” texts that have been censored, edited or have remained unpublished because of their transgressive content.
Please send abstracts (250-300 words) to Nicoletta Pazzaglia,
“The doctor will see you now”: Physicians and Phantasies in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century Italian Narrative
With the rise of positivism in the Nineteenth Century, physicians became the new priests of modern society, possessing the seemingly mystical power to decipher symptoms and treat diseases. As studies in psychology flourished in the fin de siècle and beyond, the medical gaze traversed the flesh and penetrated the psyche, treating physical ailments with medicine, and mental maladies with hypnosis and “the talking cure,” thereby assuming an authority over both the body and the mind. This session will explore representations of the traditional medical doctor, the psychologist, and the psychoanalyst in Italian literature and culture with special focus on Nineteenth and early Twentieth-century texts. Contributions that utilize various theoretical frameworks, as well as comparative and interdisciplinary approaches, are welcome.
Please send 250-word abstracts with name and affiliation to Christina Petraglia at .
Italian Emigration
Through literature and film, this session will explore both the autobiographical and fictional accounts of Italian emigration.
Please send 150-200 word abstract of your proposed paper to Simonetta Milli-Konewko, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, at by November 15.
20th and 21th centuries
Early Twentieth-Century Italian Literature between Modernism and Avant-Garde
The panel invites submissions on early twentieth-century Italian literature, conceived as the setting of a "new cultural wave", oriented toward new topics and new modes of expression. The first decades of the twentieth century was, in fact, characterized by a vivid cultural debate that suffused the hectic activity of literary journals and the provocative messages of manifestos.
The panel welcomes paper on: Crepuscolarism; Milanese Futurism; Florentine Futurism; «Leonardo», «La Voce», «Lacerba» and the other journals of the time; Croce and «La Critica»; Italian Pragmatism; Crisis of Positivism; Pirandello; D'Annunzio; Svevo and the other Friulian authors of the time (Saba, Slataper, Michelstaedter, etc.)
Please send 250-300 word abstracts in English or Italian and a short bio to Mimmo Cangiano () and to Danila Cannamela ()
Il Romanzo Modernista
This panel welcomes papers dealing with the Italian modernist novel, with a particular focus on its construction: the modernist novel as a work in progress, as a literary installation, as a mise en abîme, and as an expression of the fragmented self of the characters.
Please, send an abstract of no more than 250 words, and a short bio to: Lucia Vedovi and to Elena Borelli
Post-War Memories: Dalla Casa Alla Piazza
Critics in the field of memory studies have claimed that the family is a fundamental space in which the creation, mediation, and transmission of memories occur. Rituals of remembrance, especially of traumatic events, are fueled by the transmission of family memories from generation to generation, so much so that frequently households become what Jay Winter calls “sites of memory.” This panel aims to explore how Italian literature and films portray the “Italian family” as a place where memories of the Fascist ventennio and World War II are constructed, preserved, resisted, and erased. How did these memories affect, and how were they affected by, more collective, national representations of those times? What role does post-memory play in these accounts? How does vernacular memory of family stories challenge more official versions of the past?
Please submit a 250-word abstract and brief biographical note to Erika Conti ()
Open Session On Leonardo Sciascia
Please send abstracts to Enrico.Vettore@csulb.edu
Female Futurist Writers
Please send abstracts (250-300 words) to Nicoletta Pazzaglia,
The Anthropology And Culture Of The Senses In Italian Literature
This panel will feature interdisciplinary papers that consider the relation between Italian literature, anthropology, religion and social sensibility, exploring the cultural representations of the 5 senses in their social and metaphorical connotation. Papers can be in >> Italian or English. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
Please submit an abstract, a brief CV and information about audio visual equipment needed to Chiara Fabbian at and Emanuela Zanotti Carney at by November 15, 2012.
Women writers of the Fascist ventennio
This panel welcomes papers focusing on modernist women writers whose works engaged with the politics of the Fascist ventennio, particularly in regard to issues of gender.
Erin Larkin, Assistant Professor of Italian (Southern Connecticut State University)
The Great War and Modern Memory
Inspired by Paul Fussell's seminal work, this session welcomes research that cross genre boundaries to explore World War I as a memory site in areas including, but not limited to, Italian literature, art, philosophy, film, historical narratology, modernism, journalism, and political revisionism.
Organizer: Piero Garofalo, University of New Hampshire Durham,
Immigrant Culture In Italy
This interdisciplinary panel intends to analyze the effects of migration on Italian social fabric and the rise of new cultures derived from the interaction with the immigrant population. In what way is the presence of immigrants and their offspring (first generations) reshaping and redefining Italian culture, language and urban spaces? Are Italian literature, cinema and art effectively narrating the complexities of the contemporary multi-cultural Italian society?
Please send abstracts along with a brief bio to by November, 15th.
Italo Calvino 1943-1949: A Critical Reassessment
La sessione invita all’esame e alla valutazione critica della produzione di solito meno studiata - “racconti giovanili”, racconti esclusi dalle raccolte principali, contributi per i fogli partigiani e per “L’Unità”, etc.- vista in relazione (non esclusiva) alla composizione del Sentiero dei nidi di ragno (1946), all’epistolario 1941-1949 e alla crisi compositiva degli anni1947-1949.
Si prega di inviare un estratto di 250-300 parole a Andrea Dini, Montclair State University ()
Alda Merini
Please send abstracts (250-300 words) to Nicoletta Pazzaglia,
Migration And Media
The aim of this session is to consider migration and/or multiculturalism in relation to cinema, television, news media, photography, websites, blogs, etc.
Please send abstracts of 150-200 words and a brief biographical note to Anna Giannetti, University of Oregon, . Deadline: November 15, 2012
The Italophone Postcolonial
This session will focus on contemporary literature that dialogues with and reconsiders Italian colonial history.
Please send abstracts of 150-200 words and a brief biographical note to Anna Giannetti, University of Oregon, . Deadline: November 15, 2012
Italian Graphic Novels And Comics
Paper proposals on any aspect of Italian graphic novels and comics are welcome.
Please send abstracts of 150-200 words and a brief biographical note to Anna Giannetti, University of Oregon, . Deadline: November 15, 2012.
La Letteratura Cannibale Vent'anni Dopo
La presente sessione si propone di esaminare la strada percorsa da quei giovani scrittori che alla meta' degli anni novanta vennero etichettati "pulp" o "cannibali". A quasi vent'anni dalla pubblicazione di Woobinda (1996), Destroy (1996), Occhi sulla graticola (1996) e Branchie (1994) ci si domanda che fine hanno fatto i vari i loro autori. Si sono integrati nel sistema letterario o, dopo aver fatto breccia nello stagnante panorama della letteratura italiana contemporanea, hanno di fatto continuato sulla strada dei nuovi parametri linguistici e tematici stabiliti dalle loro opere d'esordio?
Inviare un estratto di 250-300 parole a Claudio Mazzola a .
On the Fringe of Neo-Avant-Garde
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the first meeting of Gruppo 63. Over the last fifty years, however, critics have elected to focus on a handful of authors, and only a fraction of their work at best. As a result, one could say that the neo-avant-garde has been neutralized and turned into an art museum. The most recalcitrant experiments have been almost invariably brushed aside, labeled as intractable and thus neglected. Yet, these are some of the most fruitful, vital, and useful texts produced by the neo-avant-garde.
These are considered "minor works" because of the authors who wrote them, the genre they belong to, the medium used, or because they are the lesser known works of artists famous for something else entirely. Contributions should deal with works that lie on the fringe of the neo-avant-garde. Possible topics may include but are not limited to: the influence of the Italian neo-avant-garde outside of Italy (France, Spain, Brazil, U.S., etc); visual poetry; sound poetry; new media/new mediums; the theatre of the neo-avant-garde; conferences/events/exhibitions/happenings; peripheral works/peripheral authors. This panel is organized by the editorial board of sempremai, online blog and literary journal.
Organizer: Beppe Cavatorta, University of Arizona, & Federica Santini, Kennesaw University, .
Berlusconi
Given his possible candidacy in the likely Italian elections of Spring of 2013, the April AAIS conference would seem to be an opportune occasion to reflect on Berlusconi and his legacy. This panel seeks to explore various facets of Berlusconi and Berlusconismo, including, but clearly not limited to, gender, aesthetics, bodies, media, organized crime, populism, religion, celebrity culture, and revisionism, historical or otherwise.
Please send abstracts (250-300 words) to Brandon Schneider by November 15, 2012.
Testimony in Italy from Postwar to Today
In the last decade, testimony has perhaps been one of the most flourishing genres in Italian literary and visual production and played a key role in shaping both the memory and opinions of civil society on issues such as terrorism, mafia, war, and the abuse of power.
This panel will explore the genre of testimony in Italian literature, philosophy, and the visual arts from the postwar period to today. All theoretical approaches are welcome.
Please submit a 250-300 word abstract and brief biographical note to both Alessandra Montalbano and Paola Bonifazio by November 15, 2012.
Italy in America: Immigrant Continuity and Adaptation
Italian immigrants to America traveled with their traditional culture, language and personal ambitions. How did they adjust and adapt to their new environment? There are many interpretations of this phenomenon. This roundtable with explore three very different experiences of the interplay between ethnic preservation and adaptation. Immigrants had to conform, but they also tweaked the ways In which they adopted the contemporary life style. Please send abstracts to Vincenza Scarpacci, University of Oregon,
The Italian Northeast
The panel invites submissions on contemporary authors of the Italian Northeast.
Please send a paper title, a 300-word abstract, a brief CV (one page) and any audio-visual requests to Cristina Perissinotto, University of Ottawa, and Hannah Serkowska, University of Warsaw by November 15, 2012.
Open session on Alda de Cespedes
Please send abstracts to Joseph Francese,
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Italian studies
Framing The Outside: Risorgimento And The Making Of Italians through Photography and Literature
This panel addresses the role of photography and/or literature in constructing Italian identity shortly after the Unification of Italy. Considering the necessity of the outside-the marginal and exploited identities- to construct the inside -the Italian identity- this panel aims to explore the reality of a new outside. What groups were relegated to the outside? What kind of aesthetic was employed to represent the outside? In what ways did photography and literature cooperate with national politics in the making of Italians?
Please send abstracts (250-300 words) to Nicoletta Pazzaglia,
Translation In Italy: History And Theory
Italy is undeniably a translation culture and yet no history of translation in Italy as such exists. This panel seeks contributions to contextualize translation practices within historical periods or theoretical discourses. Possible topics include (but are by no means limited to): literary movements and genres (Futurism, Neoavanguardia, the novel, drama); translation as it pertains to Humanism, Classicism, Fascism, “Americanismo,” Marxism, Orientalism, globalization, migrant writing, Italian philosophy. Please send abstracts to Jamie Richards, University of Oregon,
Getting The Boot: Perspectives On Italian Art And Architecture From Antiquity To Today
The emerging generation of Italianists is exploring and interpreting the art and architecture of the Italian peninsula and its neighboring regions and cultures in fresh and innovative ways. Their work seeks to engage today’s students, scholarly community, and general public. This session is designed to showcase the research of junior scholars with exceptional potential in this area. We invite submissions treating a broad range of topics from all periods of Italian art, from antiquity to the present. We aim to re-imagine the discipline beyond the often narrowly-defined temporal and stylistic frameworks (“Imperial,” “Medieval,” “Renaissance,” “Baroque,” etc.) of the traditional canon by emphasizing original and inventive subjects, perspectives, and methodologies. Topics may incorporate themes such as technique and materials, object and space, viewer reception, ritual, social class, urbanism, nature, politics, ethnicity, current events, popular media, economics, afterlife of images, reinvention of historical structures, and intercultural exchange.
Please submit a CV and abstract of no more than 400 words to session chair Rebekah Perry at . [This session is sponsored by the Graduate Student and Emerging Scholar Committee (GSESC). It is an official committee of the Italian Art Society that offers a supportive community for art history students and recent graduates active in Italian studies.]
Interdisciplinary Approaches To Italian Art And Architecture
For generations, the study of artistic production—whether painting, sculpture, architecture or other—has benefitted greatly from interdisciplinary approaches. Given that the AIAS brings together a diverse assemblage of scholars, this session seeks to tap into the rich methodological approaches inherent to various disciplines. The goal is to shed new light on questions and topics traditionally treated by art historians. Rather than restrict this session chronologically or topically, we invite a broad span of paper proposals that examine the art or architecture of Italy through an interdisciplinary lens.
Please submit a 150-word abstract and brief biographical note to Nick Camerlenghi ().
Rome And Romanitas: The Eternal City Through Ages
No city in the world has an urban fabric so rich in historical layers and dense in historic monuments as Rome. The city has received extraordinary attention from emperors, popes, dictators, pilgrims, architects, and, of course, its own inhabitants for more than two millennia. This session examines the built environment in the largest sense of the term: architecture, urban planning, as well as other art forms (including sculpture, painting, and mosaic) that played a role in defining the Eternal City. Papers from any time period will be considered.
Please submit a 150-word abstract and brief biographical note to Jessica Maier ().Medieval and Renaissance Astrology
Any aspect of the study and uses of astrology in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, including its connections with alchemy, medicine, theology, music, and other disciplines. Interdisciplinary work involving fields such as literature, art history, history of ideas, history of science, philosophy, political theory, religious studies, etc. is especially welcome.
Please submit abstracts to Elena Daniele, Brown University, elena_daniele@brown.edu
Italy and the Americas 1492-1800
The panel seeks papers that explore the relationship between Italy and the Americas in a variety of contexts including historiography, humanism, poetry, visual arts, cartography, travel narratives, missions, and museums. Please send a paper title, 1-page abstract, and 1-page CV to Nathalie Hester at by November 15, 2012. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
The AAIS Caucus on Italian-Jewish Studies Italian Judaism: History, Culture, and Representation
A series of sessions will be dedicated to the study of Italian Judaism in all its historical and cultural aspects (from antiquity to the present) and in the multiplicity of its interdisciplinary connections and interactions with Italian culture (literature, music, theater, cinema, visual arts), including the way in which the Jewish presence has been perceived, appreciated, recognized or opposed in Italy (from anti-Semitism to philo-Semitism). This year, we would like to focus on the ghetto, its history, and its representations. We also welcome session and paper proposals in any area of Italian-Jewish studies, including: social and cultural life in the medieval, pre-modern and modern periods; Hebrew and Italian poetry throughout the ages; literature by or relating to Italian Jews; cinema; translation; ceremonial art and artists; synagogues; and relations with the Church. Papers may be offered either in Italian or in English. Specialists in Italian Jewry from America, Italy, Europe and Israel are invited to apply. Please send 150-200 word abstracts in English or Italian and short bios to the members of the Steering Committee--Professors Gabriele Boccaccini (University of Michigan), Federica Francesconi (University of Oregon) and Scott Lerner (Franklin and Marshall College). E-mail abstracts should be sent to Federica Francesconi, ffrances@uoregon.edu. For sessions information contact Gabriele Boccaccini at gbocca@umich.edu and Scott Lerner at Abstract deadline: November 15, 2012 (early submissions are welcome).
The Anthropology And Culture Of The Senses In Italian Literature
This panel will feature interdisciplinary papers that consider the relation between Italian literature, anthropology, religion and social sensibility, exploring the cultural representations of the 5 senses in their social and metaphorical connotation. Papers can be in >> Italian or English. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable. Please submit an abstract, a brief CV and information about audio visual equipment needed to Chiara Fabbian and Emanuela Zanotti Carney at ezcarney@uic.edu by November 15, 2012.
Immigrant Culture In Italy
This interdisciplinary panel intends to analyze the effects of migration on Italian social fabric and the rise of new cultures derived from the interaction with the immigrant population. In what way is the presence of immigrants and their offspring (first generations) reshaping and redefining Italian culture, language and urban spaces? Are Italian literature, cinema and art effectively narrating the complexities of the contemporary multi-cultural Italian society?
Please send abstracts along with a brief bio to by November, 15th.
Concerts of Words: Italian Literature and Music
This panel aims at exploring and discussing the possible instances of interaction between Italian literature and music. Such instances could be literary works of musical subject, writers-musicians, the contamination of poetic and musical forms, as well as specific cases such as opera librettos and literary texts set to music.
Organizer: Mattia Acetoso, Boston College. Please send 250-word abstract and biographical note to .
From Otium and Occupatio to Work & Labor in Italian Culture
In conjunction with our editing of a special volume for Annali d'Italianistica on the topic of labor in Italian culture, we are submitting the following call for papers at the AAIS Conference in Eugene, OR 2013. As we did last year, papers that are accepted for this panel will also be considered for publication in the 2014 volume that we are co-editing for Annali. Please see the AAIS list serve announcements for a description of the Session, and submit any inquiries to our addresses below.Organizers: Norma Bouchard AND , Valerio Ferme:
Italy and China: Centuries of Exchange
This panel will examine the relationship between China and Italy throughout the ages in literature, film, and the arts. Possible topics that reflect the artistic, political, and economic exchange include Marco Polo’s voyages, Jesuit missionaries in China, the phenomenon of chinoiserie, the Tianjin Concession, representations of China in film (Antonioni, Bertolucci, Amelio, and others) and Chinese immigrants in Italy today.Please send 150-200 word abstracts in English or Italian and short bios to Mary Ann Carolan
Musica e letteratura fra Sei e Settecento
This interdisciplinary panel addresses the close ties linking music and literature in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy. Papers exploring opera, oratorios, and/or madrigals are especially welcome.
Please send a 150-300 word abstract and brief biographical note to Renée Anne Poulin, University of South Florida by November 15, 2012. Please indicate if you will need special audio-visual equipment.
Expanded Italian Cinema
This panel analyzes new transdisciplinary approaches to Italian cinema. The panel is open to papers that explore the interaction between cinema and literature, visual arts, music, architecture, and design. Various theoretical frameworks are welcome.Please send a 250-word abstract to Laura Chiesa () and Gian Maria Annovi () by November 15, 2012. Organizers: Gian-Maria Annovi, University of Denver, Laura Chiesa, SUNY, University at Buffalo, lchiesa@buffalo.edu
Art History in Italian Studies/Italian Studies in Art History
This panel explores the intersection of Art History and Italian Studies, their inherent interdisciplinarity, shared subjects and methodologies, and the logistics and structures of our institutions, professional associations, and disciplinary conferences that often separate us.
Scholars from all disciplines are invited to submit and bridge these divisions.Please send abstracts to /
The Light in the Words and Forms of Italian Art
This panel will explore the concept of light as a research goal, tool or methodology in literature, theater, cinema, art, music and philosophy. Analysis of single works, comparisons, theorethical and philosophical reflections are welcome.
Send abstracts to Anna Cafaro, by November 15, 2012. Organizer: Anna Cafaro, Bard College,
The Great War and Modern Memory
Inspired by Paul Fussell's seminal work, this session welcomes research that cross genre boundaries to explore World War I as a memory site in areas including, but not limited to, Italian literature, art, philosophy, film, historical narratology, modernism, journalism, and political revisionism.
Organizer: Piero Garofalo, University of New Hampshire Durham,
The Urban/Rural Dynamic In Modern Italian Society And Culture
Italy has long been both a highly urbanised society, and at the same time a largely rural one. However, it is only with the ‘economic miracle’ of the late 1950s that urbanisation really began to accelerate, particularly with the growth of the northern industrial cities. During this period, tensions increased between rural and urban Italy, fuelled by migration and the rise of mass culture and communication. Rural depopulation was on the increase while migration, the mass media and the growth of mass tourism in the 1960s, brought rural and urban Italy into direct contact with each other.
Italian history and culture – magazines, fiction, films, first person texts etc – reflected these tensions in all their forms, from snobbery about ‘peasants’, anxiety about women and migrant youth in the city, migration and social conflict to nostalgia for a half imagined rural Italy. This panel invites papers that address the theme, particularly in the post-war period. Perspectives from history, cultural studies, anthropology, literature and film studies are welcomed.
Organizer: Niamh Cullen, Marie Curie/Irish Research Council postdoctoral fellow, University College Dublin/Universita degli studi di Milano
Contemporary Literature and Politics
This panel invites papers offering an analysis of literary texts that show a political engagement with contemporary Italy. The session will explore how these literary texts represent and contribute to the Italian political discourse, including the recent economic crisis, democracy, citizens’ rights and racism.
Please send a paper title, a 300-word abstract, a brief CV (one page) and any audio-visual* *requests to Cristina Perissinotto (University of Ottawa), by November 15, 2012.
Berlusconi
Given his possible candidacy in the likely Italian elections of Spring of 2013, the April AAIS conference would seem to be an opportune occasion to reflect on Berlusconi and his legacy. This panel seeks to explore various facets of Berlusconi and Berlusconismo, including, but clearly not limited to, gender, aesthetics, bodies, media, organized crime, populism, religion, celebrity culture, and revisionism, historical or otherwise.
Please send abstracts (250-300 words) to Brandon Schneider by November 15, 2012.
Austro-Italian
The cultural and literary productions that resulted from Austrian-Italian encounters are less noted than many others, despite the geographic, historical, political, and cultural ties between Austria and Italy. Using the concept of “Austro-Italian,” this panels aims to revisit and consider aspects of Italian literature and culture that have often been overlooked.
Please submit abstracts to Saskia Ziolkowski, Duke University,
Gli Arbëreshë / Gli Albanesi In Italia: Cultura, Scrittura, Vita
Session description: We invite contributions on the Albanian populations of Italy, whether long settled or more recently arrived. All approaches and topics are welcome.
Organizer information: F. Regina Psaki, University of Oregon,
Italian workerism and the deconstruction of political revolt
This panel explores the current influence of early '60s Italian workerism, its rethinking of the very idea of political revolt, and the ways in which this idea has regained its importance in recent years. The aim is to trace an interdisciplinary analysis of technical, cinematographic, literary and artistic material which, moving from workerist theories, prefigured contemporary notions of a cognitive class and digital revolt.
Please send abstracts to Amit Wolf, Southern California Institute of Architecture.
Cinematic Melodrama
This panel will explore cinematic melodrama in relation to literature, visual arts, opera, politics, morality, or religion. Papers that analyze specific use of posture, gesture, and spatial and musical categories are encouraged. All theoretical approaches are welcome. Please send a 250-300 word abstract and brief biographical note by November 15, 2012 to .
Organizer: Maria Alexandra Catrickes, Yale University,
Migration And Media
The aim of this session is to consider migration and/or multiculturalism in relation to cinema, television, news media, photography, websites, blogs, etc.
Please send abstracts of 150-200 words and a brief biographical note to Anna Giannetti, University of Oregon, . Deadline: November 15, 2012
On the Fringe of Neo-Avant-Garde
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the first meeting of Gruppo 63. Over the last fifty years, however, critics have elected to focus on a handful of authors, and only a fraction of their work at best. As a result, one could say that the neo-avant-garde has been neutralized and turned into an art museum. The most recalcitrant experiments have been almost invariably brushed aside, labeled as intractable and thus neglected. Yet, these are some of the most fruitful, vital, and useful texts produced by the neo-avant-garde.
These are considered "minor works" because of the authors who wrote them, the genre they belong to, the medium used, or because they are the lesser known works of artists famous for something else entirely. Contributions should deal with works that lie on the fringe of the neo-avant-garde. Possible topics may include but are not limited to: the influence of the Italian neo-avant-garde outside of Italy (France, Spain, Brazil, U.S., etc); visual poetry; sound poetry; new media/new mediums; the theatre of the neo-avant-garde; conferences/events/exhibitions/happenings; peripheral works/peripheral authors. This panel is organized by the editorial board of sempremai, online blog and literary journal.
Organizer: Beppe Cavatorta, University of Arizona, & Federica Santini, Kennesaw University, .
Cinema
Constructing Normality In Italian Cinema
This panel aims to investigate how a number of identities, life-styles and bodies have come to be constituted as ‘normal’ in Italian cinema. The panel is open to papers that explore the representational strategies and the authenticating mechanisms by which national, racial, class, sexual, gender, religious and linguistic markers are accepted as normal. Papers may also look at the ways in which character types and norms of behavior are validated, and the use of stars as ideal models for collective identification for audiences.
Please submit abstracts to Sergio Rigoletto ()
Italian Film Stars And The “Transnational”
How have Italian film stars been ‘translated’ outside Italy’s borders? How have foreign audiences and popular culture responded to and participated in the stars’ rise to international fame? The panel will explore the construction and reception of Italian stardom in Hollywood and in other non-Italian contexts. It will examine the processes of cross-cultural negotiation that have been involved in the ‘translation’ of these stars and how ideas of race, ethnicity and nationality have been mobilized in this operation.
Please send abstracts to Sergio Rigoletto ()
Filming the Self, Framing the Self: Identity Representation in Italian Cinema
This panel aims to discuss different representations of identity (secret identity, mistaken identity, multiple identity, geographical and national identity, and matters of displacement, selfhood, gender, and agency) in Italian cinema. Various theoretical frameworks are welcome, and relevant comparative studies between Italian and American, European and non-Western cinema are strongly encouraged.
Please send abstracts to Francesco Pascuzzi, Rutgers University, ().
Italian Celebrity Culture and Stardom Studies
This session invites papers addressing issues and developments in Italian celebrity culture and stardom studies. Topics may include (but are not limited to) Italian film, TV, and literary studies; the lives of Italian celebrities; their cultural impact; Italian celebrity couples; and writings by Italian stars.
Please send a paper title, one page abstract, one page CV, and AV needs to Victoria Surliuga by November 15, 2012. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
Cinematic Melodrama
This panel will explore cinematic melodrama in relation to literature, visual arts, opera, politics, morality, and/or religion. Papers that analyze specific use of posture, gesture, and spatial categories are encouraged. All theoretical approaches are welcome. Please send a 250-300 word abstract and brief biographical note by November 15, 2012 to .
Organizer: Maria Alexandra Catrickes, Yale University,
L’identità italiana attraverso il cinema
Questo panel raccoglie contributi utili a rendere conto delle diverse modalità in cui il cinema ha interpretato, raccontato, rispecchiato l’identità italiana quale fenomeno in continua evoluzione e mutazione. Si accettano proposte di paper che indaghino le diverse opzioni stilistiche e narrative praticate dalla produzione filmica e televisiva per affrontare il tema dell’italianità quale progetto e processo storico, politico, sociale in cui si è definita un’identità culturale e l'immagine di una società.
Please submit abstracts to Christian Uva Affiliation: Università Roma Tre email:
Cineliteracy and the Italian Language Classroom
This panel will address how to integrate Italian language learning with a formal understanding of film. In this image-dominated world, it is critical to offer our students of Italian the linguistic tools necessary not only to communicate in the target language, but also to analyze the language systems and visual codes used in Italian cinema. How can we meaningfully incorporate cinematic form and its technical language into content-based, goal-oriented curricula?
How can we teach cineliteracy in pedagogically sound and communicative ways, keeping in mind specific standards and goals as we instruct and assess our students of Italian?
Please send a 250-word abstract and a short bio to:
Claudia Consolati, University of Pennsylvania,
Lillyrose Veneziano Broccia, University of Pennsylvania,
Figures of the maternal and the paternal in Italian cinema
This panel seeks contributions that critically examine the representation of motherhood and fatherhood in Italian cinema. Papers that analyze the figure of the mother and/or the father as the embodiment of varying ideological, social, and political functions are encouraged. All theoretical approaches are welcome, including feminist theory, psychoanalysis, gender and sexuality studies, performance theory, post-colonial studies, and star studies.
200 word abstract and brief bio to Giovanna Faleschini Lerner, Franklin & Marshall College, , and M. Elena D'Amelio, SUNY Stony Brook,
Feminisms and Postfeminisms: Women’s Films in Italy
This panel will explore Italian films by and for women from the late 1960s to the present. All theoretical approaches are welcome. Papers engaging with feminist theories of film and cultural studies are encouraged.
Proposals (up to 500 words in length) should include brief author’s bio and should be submitted by November 15, 2012 to the Culture and Politics of Gender Research Group (Paola Bonifazio, Giancarlo Lombardi, Nicoletta Marini-Maio, and Ellen Nerenberg) at as e-mail attachments in one of the following formats: Rich Text Format (.rtf) or Microsoft Word (.doc / .docx).
Expanded Italian Cinema
This panel analyzes new transdisciplinary approaches to Italian cinema. The panel is open to papers that explore the interaction between cinema and literature, visual arts, music, architecture, and design. Various theoretical frameworks are welcome.
Please send a 250-word abstract to Laura Chiesa () and Gian Maria Annovi () by November 15, 2012. Organizers: Gian-Maria Annovi, University of Denver, Laura Chiesa, SUNY, University at Buffalo,
Violence on Women in Literature, Theater and Cinema
The session will discuss cases of abuse, domestic violence and structural social violence on women represented in literature, theater and cinema in light of the last anthropological, psychological or economic theories.
Send abstracts to Anna Cafaro, by November 15, 2012. Organizer: Anna Cafaro, Bard College,
Alternative Methodologies in Film Studies: Deep Space Compositions in Italian Cinema
This panel seeks to bring together and compare several very specific examples of a particular compositional element (deep space) in Italian cinema. In doing so, we seek to open up and trigger productive discussions of methodological issues in film studies that begin with the formal, rather than using shot composition as the secondary proof of a given cultural trend.
Abstracts of brief papers (10-15 minutes) that focus on one or a few instances of deep space composition in particular can be sent to the organizer, Dom Holdaway ().
Roundtable Sergio Leone.
Il cinema come "favola politica". Spettacolo, mito, favola. Sono queste le principali dimensioni all’interno delle quali la produzione filmica di Sergio Leone è stata tradizionalmente collocata. Accanto ad esse, tuttavia, è necessario evidenziare una corposa componente “politica”. La roundtable intende riflettere proprio su tale aspetto: il carattere fondamentalmente astratto della produzione filmica leoniana costituisce infatti la prospettiva ideale in cui l'autore colloca riferimenti simbolici alla storia e all’attualità, mentre sul piano linguistico la continua rottura degli stilemi classici e la costante necessità di rivoluzionare la forma appaiono mossi, pur all’interno di una concezione spettacolare e industriale della "settima arte", da una volontà di fare cinema politicamente. Organizer: Christian Uva Affiliation: Università Roma Tre email:
The Italian “Otherness” In Contemporary Film
The panel investigates the representation of Italian “diversities” in terms of gender and transgender, race, but also in terms of body, sex and behavior, in Italian cinema, video and television of the 2000s. The representations of gays and lesbians, transexuals, prostitutes, but also immigrants from Africa and East Europe challenge the notion of “normality”. The “Other” also focuses on the role of the grotesque, the “Monster”, the “Alien”, and can be analyzed in terms of psychoanalysis, politics, alternative mode of productions in the context of the digital era.
Organizer information: Vito Zagarrio, Università Roma Tre,
Roundtable: The Glocal Italian Film
The roundtable aims to discuss the role of the recent Italian mode of production (Film Commissions, local institutions, local productions) in the transformation of the new Italian cinema of the 2000s, in terms of landscape, authorship, scripts, dialects, acting typologies, and Imaginaire.
Organizer information: Vito Zagarrio, Università Roma Tre,
Italian Television Studies
This panel focuses upon an often neglected area of Italian scholarship. Papers may explore any aspect of television studies, including advertising, celebrity culture, television auteurs, broadcasting history, and genres such as news, sports, documentary, reality shows, children's programming, and "quality" television series.
Please submit a 250-300 word abstract to Rebecca Bauman, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY,
Critical Perspectives
Re-Thinking Humanism
This panel will focus on primary sources and recent scholarship engaged in rethinking historical humanism, its origins and developments in a time that has been defined as "Post-human".
Organizer: Massimo Lollini (University of Oregon),
Lector In Rete: Figures Of The Reader In Digital Humanities
This panel poses the complex questions of readership of the digital projects. Is the emphasis on active reading as a special component of Web 2.0 justified by actual practices of reading hypertexts and web project in general? How are these practices motivated and implemented? In what ways is digital textuality addressing the question of an increasingly global readership and audience? Will hypertextuality become an important, even privileged, form of world literature as a central and necessary reading and interpretative tool of literary phenomena involving broad geopolitical unities? In what ways and forms? What is the role of translation in the humanist philology associated with hypertextuality?
Organizer: Massimo Lollini (University of Oregon),
From Postmodernism To New Realism?
This panel studies the the philosophical and literary implications of the current debate on New Realism in Italy that was started by Maurizio Ferraris and has involved Salvatore Veca, Carlo Augusto Viano, Emanuele Severino and Gianni Vattimo among others.
Organizer: Massimo Lollini (University of Oregon),
From Bioregionalism To Ecocriticism?
This panel studies the emergence of a bioregional awareness in Italy and its possible relationship with literary and philosophical Ecocritcism.
Organizer: Massimo Lollini (University of Oregon),
Translation In Italy: History And Theory
Italy is undeniably a translation culture and yet no history of translation in Italy as such exists. This panel seeks contributions to contextualize translation practices within historical periods or theoretical discourses. Possible topics include (but are by no means limited to): literary movements and genres (Futurism, Neoavanguardia, the novel, drama); translation as it pertains to Humanism, Classicism, Fascism, “Americanismo,” Marxism, Orientalism, globalization, migrant writing, Italian philosophy. Please send abstracts to Jamie Richards, University of Oregon,
Italian literature and Social Network Sites
The aim of this session is to analyze the presence of Italian literature on social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook or Twitter. The topics include, but are not limited to the following: the role of SNS in disseminating knowledge by and about Italian novelists; the literary and academic uses of SNS that regard modern Italian literature.
Please send abstracts to Jana Vizmuller-Zocco, Associate Professor, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada, ().
Illness Theory
Writers, critics, artists, readers who are most attentive to the phenomena of their time continue to use disease as a critical, cognitive instrument of expression applying it to social and cultural circumstances. Writers, critics, artists, and readers who are ill may use illness as an existential category, a being in the world that spawns an historicized ontological category. Illness is part of their altered being in the world. What was liminal and healthy is now mainstream and diseased; what once remained silent has now acquired voice. The periphery becomes center. Illness semiosis generates an ontology that transcends conventional reference points. This session invites papers that employ illness, personal or otherwise, as a method for exploring the world, a filter for renewed interpretation and insight.
Please send abstract to Franco Ricci, University of Ottawa, ().
Italian workerism and the deconstruction of political revolt
This panel explores the current influence of early '60s Italian workerism, its rethinking of the very idea of political revolt, and the ways in which this idea has regained its importance in recent years. The aim is to trace an interdisciplinary analysis of technical, cinematographic, literary and artistic material which, moving from workerist theories, prefigured contemporary notions of a cognitive class and digital revolt.
Please send abstracts to Amit Wolf, Southern California Institute of Architecture.
Post/Human in Italy
Contemporary development in biotechnologies, informatics, robotics and the deep social and political transformation within a globalizing landscape have dramatically increased the need for urgent reflection on what it means to be human today. Both "posthuman" and "nonhuman" are temporary categories that can help to better define shifts, problematics and perspectives of our present condition. This panel seeks to approach in a plurality of ways the concepts of posthuman and nonhuman in Italian literature and film, in order to promote debate on the current status of Posthuman studies in Italy. All prospective speakers must submit a 150-300 word abstract of their paper, a biographical note, and requests for special equipment to miriama@uchicago.edu This panel invites submissions on these topics: - Hybridism and trans humanism. - Works that challenge the traditional notions of human and gender. - Works that concern the body, medicine, technology, quantum theory and/or cyborgs. - Animal studies, Disability studies and Ecocriticism in relation to the post and new human.
Organizer: Miriam Aloisio, University of Chicago,
Translation and Identity in Italy: The Making of Those Italians
Susan Bassnett has written that translation can no longer be considered "a rhetorical form… underpinned by a yearning for some unified original essence but increasingly... as a discursive practice that reveals multiple signs of the polyvalence with which cultures are constructed." This session addresses the role of translation and its influence both on cultural and aesthetic aspects of the literary canon of Italy since the Risorgimento and the formation of a new Italian identity. Papers may address the changing role of translations in Italy, its political impact, the influence of the practice on certain writers, or how dependency on translation fostered both intolerance towards certain groups, genders and genres and genders or furthered or furthered their suppression.
Please submit either the paper or a 300 word abstract to Carol Lazzaro-Weis () by November 15.
The Ottocento in the New Millenium: Perspectives, Approaches, and Praxis
In the wake of the celebrations on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Italian independence, the Ottocento has once again gained prominence as a defining period for the creation of a national Italian literature. Yet, the questions raised by the upheavals of this century are from resolved. Scholars are still grappling with the Southern question, the place of women in Italian society, the relationship between national language and literary tradition, the emergence of literary movements within a European context (verismo, romanticism, decandentism), and the very matter of periodization itself. This panel aims to present new approaches to the central questions of Ottocento criticism. It welcomes papers from all disciplines and theoretical frameworks which illuminate innovative perspectives on the long nineteenth century.
Organizers: Giuseppe Gazzola (Stony Brook University) and Gabriella Romani (Seton Hall University)
Theories of Love in the Italian Canon
The twelfth-century manual by Andreas Capellanus claims with great authority that true love can only be attained outside of marriage. On the contrary, by the nineteenth century, Romantic writers insisted that true love must be achieved within the bonds of wedlock. In between these extremes, and spanning seven centuries, the word amore comes to signify a range of emotions, behaviours, social practices, and cultural modes of representation. This panel seeks to explore different theories of love within Italian literaure from a variety of angles: psychological interiority, emotional torment, sexual desire, seduction, adultery and the social, cultural and political expressions and regulations of the love experience.
Organizer: Giuseppe Gazzola, Stony Brook University,
The Anthropology And Culture Of The Senses In Italian Literature
This panel will feature interdisciplinary papers that consider the relation between Italian literature, anthropology, religion and social sensibility, exploring the cultural representations of the 5 senses in their social and metaphorical connotation. Papers can be in >> Italian or English. Please note if you are submitting a paper to more than one session or roundtable.
Please submit an abstract, a brief CV and information about audio visual equipment needed to Chiara Fabbian at and Emanuela Zanotti Carney at by November 15, 2012.
Immigrant Culture In Italy
This interdisciplinary panel intends to analyze the effects of migration on Italian social fabric and the rise of new cultures derived from the interaction with the immigrant population. In what way is the presence of immigrants and their offspring (first generations) reshaping and redefining Italian culture, language and urban spaces? Are Italian literature, cinema and art effectively narrating the complexities of the contemporary multi-cultural Italian society?
Please send abstracts along with a brief bio to by November, 15th.
New Perspectives in Italian Studies
This panel welcomes papers that provide new perspectives on the fundamental critical paradigms in the field of Italian Studies.
Please send abstracts (250-500 words) by November 1 to Brendan Hennessey (Colby College),
Italian Television Studies
This panel focuses upon an often neglected area of Italian scholarship. Papers may explore any aspect of television studies, including advertising, celebrity culture, television auteurs, broadcasting history, and genres such as news, sports, documentary, reality shows, children's programming, and "quality" television series.
Please submit a 250-300 word abstract to Rebecca Bauman, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY,
Contemporary Literature and Politics
This panel invites papers offering an analysis of literary texts that show a political engagement with contemporary Italy. The session will explore how these literary texts represent and contribute to the Italian political discourse, including the recent economic crisis, democracy, citizens’ rights and racism.
Please send a paper title, a 300-word abstract, a brief CV (one page) and any audio-visual* *requests to Cristina Perissinotto (University of Ottawa), by November 15, 2012.
Migration And Media
The aim of this session is to consider migration and/or multiculturalism in relation to cinema, television, news media, photography, websites, blogs, etc.
Please send abstracts of 150-200 words and a brief biographical note to Anna Giannetti, University of Oregon, . Deadline: November 15, 2012
The Italophone Postcolonial
This session will focus on contemporary literature that dialogues with and reconsiders Italian colonial history.
Please send abstracts of 150-200 words and a brief biographical note to Anna Giannetti, University of Oregon, . Deadline: November 15, 2012
Queer and Gender issues
Roundtable: The Future of Queer Studies within the AAIS
This session aims to provide a space for the evaluation of queer Italian studies. While we would like to look at the history of the Gay and Lesbian Italian Studies Caucus (GLIS) with some of its original members, our primary aim is to decide how to revitalise the caucus, discussing the place of LGBT and queer topics both within the Association and internationally in Italian Studies departments.
Please contact Ayana Smythe () if you are interested in participating.
Medieval and Renaissance Notions of Love, Homosociability, Homosexuality and Queerness
When we talk about a homosexuality or queerness in medieval Italy, do we include women or is it largely perceived as only a male experience? What were the shared stigmas and bonds between the female and male homosexual experience, if any? Did separate notions of desire and community develop? This panel is interested in topics based on homosocial relationships, communes, counterpublics, or utopias between both men and women within a queer medieval and Renaissance Italy.
Please provide an abstract of 300 words or less to Ayana Smythe ( ) or Julia Heim () by 15 November
Think globally, queer locally: LGBTQ Identities in the Italian Imagination
This panel aims to discuss how contemporary Italian media and literature perpetuate, subvert, or otherwise engage with tropes concerning sexuality and gender. How do these interactions manifest and/or increase the (in)visibility of queerness and the fluidity of gen(e)re and representation, particularly where *glocalismo *has provided permeable boundaries for cultural exchange and (self-)definition?
Please provide an abstract of 300 words or less to Ayana Smythe () or Julia Heim () by 15 November
AAIS Women's Studies Caucus Round Table: Italian feminist/gender/queer theory today
This roundtable, organized by the AAIS Women's Studies Caucus, will feature interdisciplinary papers (drawing from literature, history, philosophy, sociology, cinema, media and the arts) that consider various aspects of Italian feminist/gender/queer theory today and the relation among those fields of study, both in Italy and in the USA. In particular, we are interested in: - Linguistic aspects of women’s writing - Women’s Studies terminology in Italian and English - Italian feminism and transnationalism - New/Alternative Approaches - Feminist theory, gender theory, queer theory and their interrelation - Women and Italian society/politcs/media today -The Societa’ Italiana delle Storiche - Digital Italian Women's Studies
Organizers (on behalf of the Women's Studies Caucus): Cristina Gragnani (Temple University - WSC President); Chiara Fabbian (University of Illinous at Chicago - WSC Secretary).
Please submit your abstract (in English or Italian) and brief cv to Cristina Gragnani ( [1]) and Chiara Fabbian ( [2]) by Nov. 15, 2012. Please make sure to include the following information: Name, affiliation, title in parenthesis, any audio-visual equipment needed.
The Nineteenth-Century Female Character
Is it possible to identify a discourse on the female character that is specific to Italy's process of nation-making? This panel welcomes proposals which analyze the Italian female character of the Ottocento, understood as a fictional character developed by both male and female authors, but also as an ideological construction within the wider discourse of nation-making, and as an expression of multiple forms of female subjectivities.
Organizer: Gabriella Romani (Seton Hall University) Send abstracts and short bio to:
Figures of the maternal and the paternal in Italian cinema
This panel seeks contributions that critically examine the representation of motherhood and fatherhood in Italian cinema. Papers that analyze the figure of the mother and/or the father as the embodiment of varying ideological, social, and political functions are encouraged. All theoretical approaches are welcome, including feminist theory, psychoanalysis, gender and sexuality studies, performance theory, post-colonial studies, and star studies.
200 word abstract and brief bio to Giovanna Faleschini Lerner, Franklin & Marshall College, , and M. Elena D'Amelio, SUNY Stony Brook,
Feminisms and Postfeminisms: Women’s Films in Italy
This panel will explore Italian films by and for women from the late 1960s to the present. All theoretical approaches are welcome. Papers engaging with feminist theories of film and cultural studies are encouraged.
Proposals (up to 500 words in length) should include brief author’s bio and should be submitted by November 15, 2012 to the Culture and Politics of Gender Research Group (Paola Bonifazio, Giancarlo Lombardi, Nicoletta Marini-Maio, and Ellen Nerenberg) at as e-mail attachments in one of the following formats: Rich Text Format (.rtf) or Microsoft Word (.doc / .docx).
Violence on Women in Literature, Theater and Cinema
The session will discuss cases of abuse, domestic violence and structural social violence on women represented in literature, theater and cinema in light of the last anthropological, psychological or economic theories.
Send abstracts to Anna Cafaro, by November 15, 2012. Organizer: Anna Cafaro, Bard College,
Women writers of the Fascist ventennio
This panel welcomes papers focusing on modernist women writers whose works engaged with the politics of the Fascist ventennio, particularly in regard to issues of gender.
Erin Larkin, Assistant Professor of Italian (Southern Connecticut State University)
The Italian “Otherness” In Contemporary Film
The panel investigates the representation of Italian “diversities” in terms of gender and transgender, race, but also in terms of body, sex and behavior, in Italian cinema, video and television of the 2000s. The representations of gays and lesbians, transexuals, prostitutes, but also immigrants from Africa and East Europe challenge the notion of “normality”. The “Other” also focuses on the role of the grotesque, the “Monster”, the “Alien”, and can be analyzed in terms of psychoanalysis, politics, alternative mode of productions in the context of the digital era.
Organizer information: Vito Zagarrio, Università Roma Tre,
Women's Studies Caucus Session: Open session on Miriam Mafai and Italian Women Journalists
This panel, organized by the AAIS Women's Studies Caucus, is a tribute to the life and work of Miriam Mafai and, more in general, Italian women's journalists. We will consider papers on any aspects of Miriam Mafai's writings, and on Italian women journalists from the eighteenth century to the present. Please send a 200-word abstract (in English or Italian) to Cristina Gragnani() and Chiara Fabbian ().