Webinar
Friday, April 30 2021, 3:00 pm EST (9:00 pm, Roma)
Registration required
Please note that the event will be in English.
The link to connect will be emailed after registration,
The waiting room will be opened 20 minutes earlier.
Introduction
Francesco D’Arelli, Director, Italian Cultural Institute, Montreal;
Moderator
Prof. Margherita Ganeri, Director of the Italian Diaspora Studies Seminar, Università della Calabria;
Speakers
Dr. Daniele Fioretti, University of Miami, Ohio;
Prof. Elisabetta Marino, Università di “Tor Vergata”, Roma;
Prof. Gabriel Niccoli, Emeritus, University of Waterloo, Ontario;
Authors
Mark Hillringhouse, poet, essayist, photographer, and documentary filmmaker;
Connie Guzzo McParland, writer and President of Guernica editions
Closing remarks and poetry reading
Maria Mazziotti Gillan is an accomplished poet, painter, and Founder/Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, Paterson, New Jersey.
This book is the result of the first “Italian Diaspora Studies Writing Seminar” dedicated to the topic of “Heritage and Memory”. The program was launched by the Italian Diaspora Studies Association, in conjunction with the Department of Humanities at the University of Calabria, and with the support of the U.S. Consulate General of Naples and of the Foundation for “Italian Diaspora Studies” (Pittsburgh, PA, USA). With the patronages of the Canadian Embassy of Rome, the Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal (CA), the Italian American Studies Association (IASA), and in association with the Paul and Ann Rubino Endowed Professorship in Italian American Studies at Loyola University, Chicago (ILL, USA).
The program took place from May 15th to May 29th, 2019. The first week was held in Morano Calabro (CS), in the National Park of Mount Pollino; the second one in Albidona (CS), on the northern Ionian Coast of Calabria, with several planned field trips in the surrounding areas of Calabria and Basilicata, including a day-trip to Matera, European Capital of Culture 2019. The program was aimed at establishing a broad transnational perspective on the Italian diaspora through a community-based program, characterized by the mission of focusing on the South of Italy and on the importance of material culture and of historical heritage that can be experienced only by visiting specific locales of the diaspora.
Margherita Ganeri is a Full Professor of Contemporary Italian Literature at the University of Calabria, where she founded and directs the Seminar “Italian Diaspora Studies” and the course CLIA (Italian American Culture and Literature), operated through an annual Fulbright Lectureship. She has a wide record of publications, with 10 authored books and more than 50 essays in recognized national and international academic journals. She is on the Board of Directors of the journal Moderna and on the editorial board of Allegoria. She directs the “Italian Diaspora Studies” series for Rubbettino.
Maria Mazziotti Gillan is one of the most accomplished Italian American poets in the US. She is the Founder/Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, editor of the Paterson Literary Review, a Bartle Professor at Binghamton University SUNY and Professor Emerita of English and creative writing. She has published 23 books. She led the Master workshop in the “Italian Diaspora Studies Writing Seminar 2019”, entitled “The Power of the Past: Writing Poetry to Save Your Life”. She is also a painter.
Mark Hillringhouse is a published poet, essayist, photographer and documentary filmmaker whose works have been widely exhibited in museums and galleries and shown on television and at film festivals across the United States. He was the founding editor of The American Book Review, and a contributing editor for The New York Arts Journal and his work includes many fine art photographs, books, articles, and interviews. He is the recipient of several national and state fellowships, grants and awards.
Connie Guzzo holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Upon graduation from the Master’s program, she received the David McKeen Award for creative writing for her thesis/novel, Girotondo. In 2005, an excerpt from this novel, "Verso Halifax," won second prize at the ninth edition of the Premio Letterario Cosseria, in Italy. Her novel The Girls of Piazza d’Amore was published by Linda Leith Publishing in 2013 and shortlisted for the Concordia First Novel Award by the Quebec Writer’s Federation. Her second novel, The Women of Saturn, was published in 2017 by Inanna Publications. She co-directed the “Italian Diaspora Studies Writing Seminar 2019” and led a workshop in fiction and creative non-fiction, entitled: “Unleashing Your Stories”.
