Conference Registration

You must join or renew your annual membership to register 

Thursday, June 27: Florence

The location for Thursday's events is at Kent State's Palazzo Vettori at Via Camillo Cavour, 26 in Florence.

Thursday's events include a screening of the silent film The Italian (1915) with guitar music by Anthony Sidney starting at 4:00 PM, followed by a brief discussion with Joseph Conte, Irene Lottini, Stefano Maranzana, and Fulvio Orsitto.

Christian Uva's keynote address is at 6:00 PM, and Alan J. Gravano and Fulvio Orsitto will give introductory remarks. There will be a Q&A to follow.  

Friday & Saturday, June 28-29: Fiesole

For Friday and Saturday sessions, we will be at the Villa Le Balze, Via Vecchia Fiesolana, 26 in Fiesole, from approximately 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. We will provide a morning and afternoon coffee break. Additionally, the Villa Le Balze staff will prepare a buffet lunch (pranzo) for those who prepay by June 7; the price per day is USD 35.00. The meal includes a salad, pasta, dessert, wine, and coffee. The closest restaurants are a 20-minute walk uphill and a 20-minute walk back, which do not account for the time needed to order and eat lunch. We highly recommend purchasing the buffet lunch, which includes a salad, pasta, dessert, wine, and coffee. 

Sunday, June 30: Optional Excursion: Florence

There are no conference sessions on Sunday. Instead, we planned an optional excursion for up to 20 participants. The price is USD 110.00 per person. The pickup is in Florence in Piazza fra' Girolamo Savonarola at 9:45 AM. The bus will take us to Montefioralle. We will have approximately 45 minutes to explore the city. From there, we will drive to Greve in Chianti, followed by lunch at Botteghina di Dudda. Greve in Chianti features a triangular-shaped piazza and is the birthplace of Amerigo Vespucci. Finally, we end at Viticcio for a wine and olive oil tasting. We will return by 6:00 PM. We expect this event to sell out, so register soon.

Christian Uva is Associate Professor of Cinema, Photography and Television at Roma Tre University. He has published at length on the relationship between Italian cinema, history, and politics, as well as on the image in the age of digital production. Among his publications are Schermi di piombo. Il terrorismo nel cinema italiano (2007), Cinema digitale (2012), L'immagine politica (2015), and Il sistema Pixar (2017).

Call for Papers

Italian Diaspora and the Representation(s) of Italian Americans

Date: June 27-30, 2024

Where: Georgetown University Villa Le Balze, Fiesole, Italy

Submission Deadline Extended to March 24, 2024

Submit Proposal Here

This year’s Italian American Studies Association’s international symposium theme explores the Italian Diaspora and the representation of Italian Americans in film, literature, and various media forms. As part of such a multidimensional field, Italian Americanness and Italian Diasporic identities should be approached more broadly, considering the complexity of the variegated frameworks to which they belong. Hence, the 2024 IASA symposium encourages proposals in one or more of the following categories.

• The Portrayal of Italian Americans on the Page, Screen, Stage
• Italian American Values in Transnational Context
• The Urban Experience of Italian Americans and Other Diasporic Italians
• Italian Heritage and Cultural Change
• Italian American Identity Politics
• Theorizing the Italian Diaspora
• Italian American Studies Today
• The Conflicts of Immigration Past and Present Migrations
• Diversity in Italian American Studies
• Race, Gender, and Sex in Uncertain Times
• Celebrating/revisiting anniversaries of numerous texts: The Godfather Part II (1974); Happy Days (1974-1984); The Sopranos (1999-2007); Do the Right Thing (1989); Once Upon a Time in America (1984); Italianamerican (1974); True Love (1989); Louise DeSalvo’s On Moving (1999) and The Art of Slow Writing (2014); Maria Mazziotti Gillan’s Things My Mother Told Me (1999); Mario Puzo’s The Godfather (1969) and The Sicilian (1984).

The Symposium Committee welcomes proposals from scholars from any discipline, inter-discipline, or scholarly field, including creative artists (filmmakers, artists, writers) within and outside the university. We will consider proposals that complement this year’s theme. We prefer fully formed sessions, although we encourage prospective participants to submit individual presentations. The preferred language of the symposium is English; however, presentations may be in English or Italian.

Proposals should include a 250-word abstract for each paper and a 75-word bio for each participant, including chairs and respondents, and for all participants in a proposed panel. Each participant’s name, affiliation, email, and preferred address should be listed. Please indicate if the presenter/panel requires AV equipment (each room has a computer, a projector, and speakers). The Symposium Committee will send an email notification of acceptance for individual abstracts or proposed panels through Submittable by Sunday, March 24, 2024.

Guidelines for proposals:

All sessions will be 75 minutes, and we will ask presenters to limit their remarks to 15-20 minutes each for ample time for Q&A and discussion. Proposals may take one of three forms.

• Individual presentation, paper, or talk
• A complete panel session, round table, or workshop featuring multiple presenters (we particularly encourage thematic groupings of presenters from diverse disciplinary fields or methodological approaches; see above for more information)
• Performance, reading, or screening of creative work