ESSAY CONTEST 2024

FRANCESCO DURANTE AWARD FOR ITALIAN DIASPORA HISTORY / LITERATURE/ CULTURAL STUDIES

To honor the legacy of the late Francesco Durante (b. Anacapri, 1952; d. Anacapri, 2019) an annual prize of $1,000 will be awarded for the best original essay in English or Italian by an emergent scholar of Italian diaspora studies (including literature, history, and cultural studies). The committee will consider essays within the time span 2023-2024 — unpublished ones, not exceeding 7,500 words (notes and bibliography included) and essays of less than book length published up to the deadline for submission, see below.

Special consideration will be given to essays consistent with the spirit of the work of the second volume of Francesco Durante’s monumental Italoamericana: storia e letteratura degli Italiani negli Stati Uniti 1880-1943 (Mondadori, 2005, or its English translation published by Fordham University Press in 2014).

The contest is open to doctoral students and those with the doctorate up to five years after receipt of the degree. Submissions are due on or before January 31, 2025, with the outcome to be announced in the late spring/summer of 2025 and the award ceremony held, with the author presentation of the work in New York City at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, on a date to be set for late fall or early winter of 2025. All inquiries and final submissions should be sent to the following email address: calandra@qc.cuny.edu.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

REGISTRATION

All conference updates will be posted here on the conference page.

Italian American historian Salvatore J. LaGumina died December 31, 2023,  after a brief illness. Born in Brooklyn in 1928, LaGumina completed his undergraduate degree at Duquesne University and his MA and PhD at St. John’s University in NYC. The author of nearly two dozen monographs or edited volumes and more than a hundred chapters, essays, and articles, he was a pre-eminent chronicler of the Italian American experience in the twentieth century.  Professor of History Emeritus and the Director of the Center for Italian American Studies at Nassau County Community College (SUNY), LaGumina was one of the founders of the American Italian Historical Association (now the Italian American Studies Association) in 1966. From anti-Italian discrimination to the history of Long Island Italians, to the role of Italian Americans in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the forerunner of the CIA), LaGumina wrote across a wide range of subjects in a style accessible to many audiences. A full remembrance will be published in the next issue of the Italian American Review.  A more detailed obituary is also posted here.

REGISTER HERE

Position Title:

Ad Astra Fellows, UCD School of English, Drama and Film-University College Dublin - Closing May 26, 2023