XX AISLLI Conference

Languages, Cultures, Identities of Italy in the World.

December 3-6, 2009.

University of Pennsylvania-Center for Italian Studies

The theme of Change and Cross-cultural Relations provided the theoretical framework for the XX AISLLI Conference hosted by the Center for Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Is the Italian identity singular or plural both in and outside of Italy? How has it been transformed at different times and within different spaces and how has it altered other cultures? How was it able to reinvent itself as a myth in the culture of emigrants? How is it affecting social change in the age of globalization?

The conference explored language, politics, the media, the arts, the economy, and material culture in order to examine Italian identity/ies as a world-wide phenomenon. In particular, the conference will focus on what we should call “the Italies outside of Italy”: the large or “little Italies” which embodied and embody a regional identity more than a national one. These Italies are now part of a “glocal  (global+local) world” in which cultural and ethnic identities are less linked to their territory than they were in the past. The notion of this new “glocal” reality will open political questions, regarding the limits of the idea of nation and the national conception of democracy.

General speakers included:

Teodolinda Barolini; Piero Bassetti; Daniela Bini; Kevin Brownlee; Nancy Carnevale; Hermann Haller; Fred Gardaphè; Giulio Lepschy; Millicent Marcus; Francesco Nonino; Remigio Ratti; Sanja Roic; Joseph Sciorra; Barbara Spackman; Jonathan Steinberg; H. Wayne Storey; Anthony Tamburri; Maddalena Tirabassi; Vincenzo Todisco; Lorenzo Tomasin; Robert Viscusi; Rebecca West.

Participants came from Italy, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Malta, Mexico, Argentina . . .

The conference was co-organized by the Center for Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and AISLLI (International Association for Italian Language and Literature).


 

Click on the parallel sessions for a full program

XX AISLLI Conference

LANGUAGES, CULTURES, IDENTITIES OF ITALY IN THE WORLD

3-5 December 2009

Center for Italian Studies-School of Arts and Sciences,University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia - USA 

Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia

Italian Cultural Institute in Washington

Logo Cassa Risparmio Padova Rovigo

DECEMBER 3, 2009. University of Pennsylvania

08:00-19:00 Conference Registration - Claudia Cohen Hall Schneiderman Lobby

Rm Claudia Cohen Hall Terrace- 249 South 36th Street

15:00-15:30 Opening Ceremony - Welcoming remarks by Fabio Finotti, Director of the Center for Italian Studies, AISLLI "Presidente Vicario"

Kevin  Brownlee, Presider – University of Pennsylvania

15:30-16:15 Plenary Session. Keynote Address 1: Giulio Lepschy, "Ethnicity and Language in Italy"

16:15-16:45 Coffee Break - Claudia Cohen Hall Schneiderman Lobby

16:45-17:30 Plenary Session. Keynote Address 2: Teodolinda Barolini, “Identity / Alterity / Dante”

17:30-18:15 Parallel Sessions

 

DECEMBER 4, 2009. University of Pennsylvania

08:00-19:00 Conference Registration - Claudia Cohen Hall Schneiderman Lobby

09:00-09:30 Continental Breakfast - Claudia Cohen Hall Schneiderman Lobby

Rm Claudia Cohen Hall Terrace - 249 South 36th Street

Cristina Gragnani, Presider – Temple University

09:30-10:15 Plenary Session: Daniela Bini, "Pulcinella: un pensiero meridiano"

10:15-11:00 Plenary Session: Millicent Marcus, “Italian National Identity on International Screen: Cannes 2008”

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break - Claudia Cohen Hall Schneiderman Lobby

11:15-12:00 Parallel Sessions

12:00-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:15 Parallel Sessions

Rm Claudia Cohen Hall Terrace - 249 South 36th Street

Anna Laura Lepschy, Presider - University College, London

14:15-15:00 Plenary Session: Lorenzo Tomasin, “A Short History of a Word: Italian”

15:00-15:45 Plenary Session: Sanja Roic, "An italian Island in the slavonic Sea: the case of Istria and Quarnero"

15:45-16:00 Coffee Break - Claudia Cohen Hall Schneiderman Lobby

Rm Claudia Cohen Hall G17 - 249 South 36th Street

Gaetana Marrone-Puglia, Presider - Princeton University

16:00-16:45 Plenary Session: Rebecca West, “From Italian ‘Vitellone’ to International ‘Mito:’ Rodolfo Valentino’s Vicissitudes of Identity”

16:45-17:30 Plenary Session: Vincenzo Todisco, "L'italiano ai margini: rischi e opportunità di una dimensione minoritaria"

17:30-18:15 Presentazione della mostra fotografica e del libro "Americhe" di Francesco Nonino, a cura del CRAF, Centro Ricerche e Archiviazione della Fotografia del Friuli Venezia Giulia

20:00-21:30 Gala Reception - by invitation or registration only

 

DECEMBER 5, 2009. University of Pennsylvania

08:00-09:30 Conference Registration - Claudia Cohen Hall Schneiderman Lobby

08:30-09:00 Continental Breakfast - Claudia Cohen Hall Schneiderman Lobby

09:00-09:45 Parallel Sessions

09:45-19:00 Conference Registration - Meyerson Hall Lobby - 210 South 34th Street

B1 Meyerson Hall - 210 South 34th Street

Marina Brownlee, Presider - Princeton University

09:45-10:30 Plenary Session: Barbara Spackman, "Muslim in Milan: The Orientalism of Leda Rafanelli"

10:30-10:45 Coffee Break - Meyerson

10:45-11:30 Plenary Session: Wayne Storey, “Textus receptus and crises of cultural identity”

11:30-12:15 Plenary Session: Hermann Haller, “L’italiano fuori d’Italia: la sua identità multipla negli Stati Uniti”

12:15-13:30 Lunch

B1 Meyerson Hall - 210 South 34th Street

Fabio Finotti, Presider - University of Pennsylvania

13:30-14:15 Plenary Session: Kevin Brownlee, "Dante's France: Vernacular Poetics, Imperial Politics, and Salvation History in the Commedia"

14:15-15:00 Plenary Session: Jonathan Steinberg, “Why Italian Switzerland?  In Search of an Identity”

15:00-15:15 Coffee Break - Meyerson

B1 Meyerson Hall - 210 South 34th Street

Jonathan Steinberg, Presider - University of Pennsylvania

15:15-16:00 Plenary Session: Piero Bassetti and Maddalena Tirabassi, "Glocalismo e identità: i linguaggi dell'italicità"

16:00-17:15 Plenary session - Round Table: "Interstitial Placing[s]: Negotiating Identities in the United States," Anthony Tamburri, Moderator - Fred Gardaphè,,Nancy Carnevale, Joseph Sciorra, Robert Viscusi

17:15-18:00 Plenary Session: Remigio Ratti, "La triade Lingue/ Economia/ Società nella globalità: spunti per un approccio strategico"

18:00-19:00 Assemblea AISLLI