AIHA 2011 Annual Conference : The Program

AIHA 44th Annual Conference

October 20th–22nd, 2011

Tampa, Florida

The Tampa Waterside Marriott

The Tampa Convention Center

The Italian Club of Tampa

Italian American Body Politics:

Private Lives and Public Sphere

SPONSORS

Bordighera Press

John D. Calandra Italian American Institute

The National Italian American Foundation

The University of South Florida

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

Rita Ciresi

Michael Eula

George Guida

JoAnne Ruvoli

Denise Scannell-Guida

Anthony J. Tamburri

Thursday, October 20th


4:00-7:00 p. m.
REGISTRATION
Second Level Hallway


4:00–7:00 p. m.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING
Meeting Room 5


7:30-9:30 p. m.
OPENING RECEPTION
Meeting Room 6




Friday, October 21st


8:00-9:00 a. m.
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
Meeting Room 12


8:30 a. m.–4:00 p. m.
REGISTRATION
Third Level Hallway


All Day
BOOK TABLE DISPLAYS
Meeting Room 13


CONCURRENT SESSIONS


9:00-10:15 a. m.


SESSION A
Meeting Rooms 8+9
TRAGEDY AND COMEDY IN ITALIAN FILM
Chair: Patrizia La Trecchia, University of South Florida
JoNette La Gamba, University of South Florida,
“Italian Cinema and the Prostitute, Le Notti di Cabiria”
Patrizia La Trecchia
“The Politics of Identity and Southern Differences
in the Surrealist Humor of Incantesimo napoletano”


SESSION B
Meeting Room 10
RECKONING WITH ITALIAN ROOTS
Chair: Luisa Del Giudice, Independent Scholar
Luisa Del Giudice
“Living Memory, Embodied Ancestors”
Domenica Diraviam, Florida Atlantic University
“Paesani Abruzzesi: Generational Homecomings”


SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
ITALIAN AMERICAN CREATIVE WRITERS I—A READING
Organizer: Joseph Ricapito, Louisiana State University
Chair: George Guida, New York City College of Technology
Readers: Rachel Guido DeVries, Jean Feraca, George Guida, Joey Nicoletti




10:30-11:45 a. m.


SESSION A
Meeting Rooms 8+9
ITALIAN AMERICAN/ NATIVE AMERICAN (DIS)CONNECTIONS
—A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION OF COLUMBUS DAY LEGACY
Organizer and Chair: Circe Sturm, University of Texas


SESSION B
Meeting Room 10
GLOBAL HEALING: CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN AMERICAN WOMEN, MEN,
AND EVERYONE ELSE.  A SPIRITUAL LEGACY CONFIRMED IN SCIENCE AND MANY OTHER WAYS OF KNOWING.  WHO KNEW?
—A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Organizer: Chickie Farella, Multimedia Artist
Chair: Anthony J. Tamburri, The John D. Calandra Institute
Participants: Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum (California Institute of Integral Studies),
Louisa Calio (Author), Chickie Farella, Fred Gardaphé (Queens College/The John D. Calandra Institute), Mary Beth Moser (California Institute of Integral Studies)


SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
ITALIAN AMERICANA PRESENTS ITS AUTHORS—A READING
Organizer and Chair: John Paul Russo, University of Miami
Respondent: George Guida, New York City College of Technology
Perri Giovannucci (American University in Dubai), “The Italian Presence in Modern Egypt”
Alan Gravano (Marshall University), Poems
John Paul Russo, “Camerino in Mid-August”




Noon-2 p. m.
LUNCH ON YOUR OWN
(Trolley to Ybor City Recommended)




2:00-3:15 p. m.


SESSION A
Meeting Rooms 8+9
THE POETRY DEAL: A FILM WITH DIANE DI PRIMA
—A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION
Organizer and Chair: Melanie LaRosa, Hunter College
Participants: Maria Mazziotti Gillan (Binghamton University/The Poetry Center),
Melanie LaRosa


SESSION B
Meeting Room 10
MIGRATIONS FROM ITALY
Chair: Chiara Mazzuchelli, University of Central Florida
Chiara Mazzuchelli, “Vigàta-Chicago Round Trip: Andrea Camilleri’s ‘Being Here’”
Victoria Spiering, Roosevelt University/Middlebury College
“The Exodus of Italians from Venezia Giulia after WWII”
Karen Tintori, Author, “Bodies In A Coal Mine: Italian Victims Of The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster”


SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
PERSONAS AND PRAYERS—A READING
Organizer and Chair: JoAnne Ruvoli
 Marisa LaBozzetta, New Fiction
Roxanne Christofano Pilat, “Kitchen Girl, Cow Girl”
JoAnne Ruvoli, “Prayers for the Body: Ex Voto Short Shorts”


3:30-4:45 p. m.


SPECIAL PLENARY SESSION
Meeting Rooms 8 +9
THE ITALIAN AMERICAN BODY POLITICS OF NEW YORK
—A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION
Organizer and Chair: Ottorino Cappelli, The John D. Calandra Institute/Universitá degli Studi di Napoli
Participants: Ottorino Cappelli, Fred Gardaphé (Queens College/The John D. Calandra Institute), Anthony J. Tamburri (The John D. Calandra Institute)




5:00-6:15 p. m.


KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Meeting Rooms 8+9
GARY MORMINO, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
“"From Dago Hill to Ybor City: Reflections of an Immigrant Historian"


7:00-9:00 p. m.
INFORMAL BUFFET DINNER ($10) AND CASH BAR
The Italian Club of Tampa Cantina
1731 East Seventh Avenue
Ybor City, Tampa






Saturday, October 22nd




BREAKFAST ON YOUR OWN


8:30 a. m. – 4:00 p. m.
REGISTRATION
Third Level Hallway


All Day
BOOK TABLE DISPLAYS
Meeting Room 13






CONCURRENT SESSIONS


9:00-10:15 a. m.


SESSION A
Meeting Rooms 8+9
ITALIAN AMERICAN ART AND LIFE IN FLORIDA
Chair: Circe Sturm, University of Texas
Erin Elio Patel, Florida Atlantic University
“Tom Di Salvo: An Italian/American Artist (Re)defined”
Jonathan Daniel O’Neill Ramazzini, Florida Atlantic University
“Household Shrines in Italian America:  the Restaurant as Domestic Ex Voto
in a South Florida Italian Family”
Antonietta Di Pietro, Florida International University
“Italians in Dade County, 1910-1930: an Introduction to an Untold Story”


SESSION B
Meeting Room 10
MICHELANGELO, THE LEGEND OF THE MAGI RING,
AND THE MAKING OF A NOVEL
Arthur Cola, Italian Community Center, Milwaukee Wisconsin


SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
 HUMOROUS HAPPENINGS WHILE TRAVELING IN ITALY
—A BOOK PRESENTATION
Organizer and Chair: Edward A. Maruggi, Winston Press
Respondent: George Guida, New York City College of Technology
Readers: Louisa Calio (Author), Joseph Ricapito, Others TBA


SESSION D
Meeting Room 12
ALL THINGS DELILLO: THE AUTHOR IN THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY WHITE ETHNICS—A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Organizer and Chair: Paul Giaimo, Highland Community College
Participants: Paul Giaimo, Alan Gravano (Marshall University)




10:30-11:45 a. m.


SESSION A
Meeting Rooms 8+9
ITALIAN AMERICAN MEN IN AND OUT OF FRAME
Chair: Alan Gravano, Marshall University
Stelios Christodoulou, University of Kent
“‘A straight heterosexual film’: Masculinity, Sexuality, and Ethnicity
in Saturday Night Fever”
Courtney Ruffner Grieneisen, State College of Florida
“Hey Joe (Palooka)”: Hollywood Prize Fighters On and Off Screen”
Samuele F. S. Pardini, Elon University
“The Dago (Bruce Springsteen) and the Darkie (Clarence Clemons),
Or Love and Death on the American Stage”


SESSION B
Meeting Room 10
NEW DIRECTIONS IN ITALIAN AMERICAN HISTORY
—A PRESENTATION OF THREE BOOKS
Organizer: Marcella Bencivenni, Hostos Community College
Chair and Respondent: Fraser Ottanelli, University of South Florida
Marcella Bencivenni
Italian Immigrant Radical Culture: The Idealism of the Sovversivi in the United States
Nancy Carnevale, Montclair State University
New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945
Jennifer Guglielmo, Smith College
Living the Revolution: Italian Women's Resistance and Radicalism
in New York City, 1880-1945


SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
WRITING IA WOMEN’S LIVES—A READING
Organizer and Chair: Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Binghamton University/The Poetry Center
Rachel Guido DeVries (Independent Scholar), “A Home Between the Waves”
Maria Mazziotti Gillan, “What We Pass On”
Josephine Gattuso Hendin, from The Right Thing To Do and New Fiction


SESSION D
Meeting Room 12
AMERICANS IN ITALY: CODES AND IDENTITIES
Chair: John Paul Russo, University of Miami
Denise Scannell-Guida, New York City College of Technology
“Amanda Knox and the Bella Figura: Performing a Guilty Verdict”
John R. Mitrano, Central Connecticut State University
“‘Quest for the Self’: The Role of Ethnic Tourism
in the Construction of an Italian American Identity”


Noon-1:30 p. m.
LUNCH ON YOUR OWN


1:30-2:45 p. m.


SESSION A
Meeting Rooms 8+9
THE TWO MARTYS OF ITALIAN AMERICAN FILM
Chair: Jonathan J. Cavallero, University of Arkansas
Jonathan J. Cavallero
“What Made Marty Different: Delbert Mann’s Marty (1955), Italian American Stereotypes, and Hollywood’s Representation of Italianità in the 1950s”
Cavaluzzi—Scorsese [AV]
Anthony D. Cavaluzzi, State University of New York at Adirondack
“Music as Signifier in the Films of Martin Scorsese”
Phillip Sipiora, University of South Florida
“Walking the Mean Streets: Martin Scorsese’s Calculus of Cultural Codes”


SESSION B
Meeting Room 10
ITALIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
Chair: Anthony J. Tamburri, The John D. Calandra Institute
Judith Pistacchio Bessette, Order of the Sons of Italy in America, Greater Boston Chapter
“Italians in Early 20th Century Politics: North Providence, Rhode Island”
Laurie Buonanno and Michael Buonanno
“Italian-American Political Leadership in the Tea Party Era:
Conservative, Progressive, Reactionary?”
Tommaso Caiazza, Univerisitá degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”
“The Impact of World War II on the Italian American Community of San Francisco”


SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
REMEMBERING THE BODIES OF MEN—A READING
Organizer and Chair: Rita Ciresi, University of South Florida
Rita Ciresi, “Enormous Men”
Maria Giura (Montclair State University), “After Mass”
Joanna Clapps Herman (Manhattanville College), “Flesh and Bone”


SESSION D
Meeting Room 12
REAL ITALIANS: INTERPRETING POSTWAR ITALIAN MIGRATION
TO THE UNITED STATES—A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Co-Organizers and Co-Chairs: Laura Ruberto, Berkeley City College,
and Joseph Sciorra, The John D. Calandra Institute
Participants: Danielle Battisti (Kalamazoo College/Colby College), Nancy Carnevale (Montclair State University), Laura Ruberto, Joseph Sciorra,
Stefano Luconi (Universitá degli Studi di Padova)




3:00-4:15 p. m.


SESSION A
Meeting Rooms 8+9
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN FUNNY, FUNNY HOW?”:
EXPLORATIONS OF HUMOR, PARODY, AND SCHERZI IN ITALIAN NORTH AMERICA
Organizer and Chair: Joseph Sciorra, The John D. Calandra Institute
Giovanna Del Negro, Texas A & M University
“Nonna Maria’s Cantina Canadese: Language, Cultural Ambivalence,
and Ethnic Nostalgia”
Fred Gardaphé, Queens College/The John D. Calandra Institute
“‘What’ya mean I’m funny?’: Ball-busting Humor and Italian-American Masculinities”
Joseph Sciorra, The John D. Calandra Institute
“‘The Italian-American Political and Moral Bocce Club of Paradise’:
Parodic Alternatives and Re-inventing Community in the Digital Era”


SESSION B
Meeting Room 10
READING TEXTUAL BODIES—HANDS, VOICE, KNEES AND SKIN 1:
MEMOIR AND ESSAY
Organizer and Chair: JoAnne Ruvoli, University of California, Los Angeles
Roxanne Christofano Pilat, University of Illinois at Chicago
“Bound by Bended Knee”
JoAnne Ruvoli
“Framing the Transnational Body in Kym Ragusa’s The Skin Between Us”
Illaria Serra, Florida Atlantic University
“The Body in Space: Spacial Obsessions in De Salvo’s Crazy in the Kitchen
and On Moving”


SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
ITALIAN AMERICAN CREATIVE WRITERS 2—A READING
Chair: Joseph Ricapito, Louisiana State University
Readers: Joanne Detore-Nakamura (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University),
Fred Misurella (East Stroudsburg University), Joseph Ricapito


SESSION D
Meeting Room 12
ITALIANS ACROSS AMERICA
Chair: Teri Ann Bengiveno, Las Positas College
Teri Ann Bengiveno
“From Valley of Heart’s Delight to Silicon Valley, San Jose: The Italian Way”
Patricia M. Coate, University of Nebraska at Omaha
“Sebastiano Salerno: The Life and Death of the ‘Philanthropic Padrone’
in Omaha, Nebraska”
Frank A. Salamone, Iona University/University of Phoenix
“Changes in the Italian Population of Rochester, New York over the Twentieth Century”


4:30-5:45 p. m.


SESSION A
Meeting Rooms 8+9
RECONSTRUCTING ITALIANS IN CHICAGO—A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Organizer and Chair: Dominic Candeloro, Author
Respondent: Salvatore J. LaGumina, Nassau Community College
Participants: Dominic Candeloro, Frank Cicero (Author), Fred Gardaphé (Queens College/The John D. Calandra Institute), Ernesto R. Milani (Independent Scholar),
Gary Mormino (University of South Florida),
Vincent Romano (TaylorStreetArchives.com)


SESSION B
Meeting Room 10
GRAMSCI
Chair:  Stefano Luconi, Universitá degli Studi di Padua
Dario Biocca, Università degli Studi di Perugia
“Revolution into Ashes: the Cremation of Antonio Gramsci”
Mauro Canali, Università degli Studi di Camerino
“The Schucht Sisters in Italy and the Gramsci Affaire”


SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
READING TEXTUAL BODIES—HANDS, VOICE, KNEES AND SKIN 2: POETRY
Organizer: JoAnne Ruvoi, University of California, Los Angeles
Chair: Angelina Oberdan, Clemson University
Angelina Oberdan
“More Fleshy than Cerebral: Bodies in the Poems of Italian American Women Writers”
Josephine Gattuso Hendin, New York University
“The Body as Voice:  Women Writing of Revolution, Resistance, Recovery”
Marie Plasse, Merrimack College
“‘When You Do Something with Your Hands:’ Reading Female Hands, Touch,
and Handwork in the Poetry of Maria Mazziotti Gillan “


SESSION D
Meeting Room 12
POST-WAR ITALIAN AMERICANS
Chair: Michael Eula, El Camino College
Michael Eula
“Italian-American Parenting and the Limits of Bourgeois Culture in Vietnam-Era America”
Alexandra DeLuise, Queens College
I’ve Got the World on a String…the 1950s, the Italian Immigrant and Print Media


6-7 p. m.
AIHA BUSINESS MEETING
Meeting Rooms 8 + 9
open to the entire membership
George Guida, President
Michael Eula, Vice President
Alan Gravano, Secretary
Dawn Esposito, Treasurer
Ottorino Cappelli, Curator


8:00-11:00 p. m.
ANNUAL BANQUET
The Tampa Convention Center
333 South Franklin Street
(down the block from the Marriott)




Sunday, October 23rd


10:00 a. m.
TOUR OF TAMPA ITALIAN CLUB
1731 East Seventh Avenue
Ybor City
Tour given by Joseph Caltagirone

President's Letter

 Our Name and Our Work

What's in a Name? What isn't? 

For over forty years the American Italian Historical Association has called itself by the same name. In the course of those years, however, AIHA has become something other than its name suggests: an American association dedicated to the study of Italian history. It is now, in fact, an association concerned mainly with the study and promulgation of Italian American history, culture and arts. Of course the association continues to sponsor presentations and publications on Italian history, but usually as this history relates to  the Italian American experience. Not to mention that we share the acronym AIHA with the American Italian Heritage Association and the very Googleable American Industrial Hygiene Association. So to the question of naming, and of renaming.

            In 1997 AIHA’s membership voted down a proposal to change the association’s name. Since then, as one might expect, the membership itself has changed. In recent years talk of renaming has reemerged. Last year AIHA’s Executive Council, led by President Josephine Gattuso Hendin, once again broached the topic and considered alternatives. The consensus choice of Council members was “the Italian American Studies Association.” This year the Council approved a proposal for changing our association’s name to the Italian American Studies Association, and I am now encouraging all AIHA members to vote for the this change, which will make the nature of our work a little clearer to the world. That vote will be conducted electronically. All current members of AIHA will receive an email including a link to the an electronic ballot site. E-balloting will close July 15th. If you are unable to successfully complete the e-ballot, please contact Nancy Carnevale (carnevalen@mail.montclair.edu) or me (gguida@citytech.cuny.edu) for a paper ballot.

            In the meantime our work continues this year with our forty-forth annual conference to be held in Tampa, Florida, from October 20th to October 22nd. Please plan to take part in what promises to be a lively gathering of minds and spirits, by submitting an individual presentation, panel or roundtable proposal by the June 29th deadline. And please remember that participants need to become members of AIHA, which they can do by visiting our Web site, www.aihaweb.org. The sites  of the conference, the Tampa Waterside Marriott and Tampa Convention Center, overlooking Tampa Bay and the Hillsborough River, are both beautiful and connected by trolley to Tampa’s unique Italian American enclave of Ybor City.  And the sun and nearby beaches complement, even if peripherally, this year’s theme, “Italian American Body Politics: Private Lives and Public Sphere.” The call for presentations proposals has been posted to our Web site, to our Facebook page, and blog, italianamericanstudies.blogspot.com/. It  has also been sent  for listing to scholascholarly associations across the scholarly associations across the  disciplines, and will soon be sent to a few key journals and to colleges and  universities near the conference city.

            For conference work done and work to come, thanks to the members of the Conference Committee, Anthony Tamburri, Michael Eula, and Denise Scannell-Guida, Nancy Carnevale and Joe Sciorra, and thanks to Florida-based consulting members Rita Ciresi, John Paul Russo and Chiara Mazzuchelli.

            As in the past, this year our the Executive Council will continue to focus on attracting new members, by publicizing the conference, by promoting the scholarship and other work we have produced, and by reaching out directly to scholars, artists and intellectuals working in other fields. Of course the best word of AIHA is word of mouth. If you have had the many wonderful experiences I’ve been fortunate enough to have as a member

            In the meantime vi auguro buon lavoro e belle cose.  Ci vediamo a Tampa.

George Guida