The Italian family has been a quintessential subject for scholarly research and creative work in Italy and among various diasporic communities, with matters relating to children and youth receiving significant exploration. In the United States, notable inquiries concerning youth issues include sociologist William Foote Whyte's urban ethnography Street Corner Society (1943) and educator Leonard Covello's The Social Background of the Italo-American School Child (1967). The twenty-first century brings new lines of inquiry as well as previously unexplored issues, such as changing family structures, Internet culture, and increased migratory movement.
Novels like Edmondo De Amicis's Sull'oceano (1889) and Melania Mazzucco's Vita (2003) examine the lives of children immigrating to the Americas, while the memoirs Nero di Puglia (1980) by Antonio Campobasso, and The Skin Between Us (2006) by Kym Ragusa, movingly discuss the childhoods of their biracial authors. Although scholars have discussed youth culture and its media depictions, e.g., Guidos and Jersey Shore, little work has been done on topics like consumer culture that targets children-from picture books to Disney films to video games-that use Italian-American and Italian ethnic characters.
Working from interdisciplinary and transnational and perspectives, this conference seeks to expand and update knowledge concerning historical and contemporary childhood and youth in Italy and among the diaspora and former colonial sites.
The conference will be streamed online at:
http://new.livestream.com/ItalicsTV/BambiniRagazziGiovani [2]
PROGRAM
Friday, April 24, 2015
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9:30-10:45 am
Psychological and Sociological Approaches Conference Room
Chair: ANGELYN BALODIMAS-BARTOLOMEI, North Park University
Career Counseling with Italian-American College Students Using a Cultural Formulation Approach, DOMINICK CARIELLI, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY
Italian-American Fathers and Daughters: A Psychological Narrative of Childhood and Adolescence, LORRAINE MANGIONE, Antioch University New England and DONNA DICELLO, Yale Medical School
Italian-American Identity: Results from a Study of New York's Italian-American Youth Population, ROSEMARY SERRA, University of Trieste
11am-12:15 pm
Little Gendered Bodies Conference Room
Chair: TERESA FIORE, Montclair State University
Conflicting Portrayals of Growing Up Female in Nineteenth-Century Italy: The Case of Anna Zuccari, in arte Neera, LISA DOWNWARD, Marist College
From Wise Children to Wise Italian/American Men: Children in the Narratives of Tony Ardizzone, Fred Gardaphé, and Mary Caponegro, CARLA FRANCELLINI, University of Siena
Bodies in Trans(l/n)ation: Mapping Children's Desire and Pain in Melania Mazzucco's Vita, EVA P. SAÑUDO, University of Oviedo
1:30-2:45 pm
Keynote Conference Room
Imagining and Designing the Future in Italy, 1977-2014: Children's Participation in Urban Planning, RAYMOND LORENZO, The Umbra Institute Perugia
3-4:15 pm
Literary Representations Conference Room
Chair: FRED GARDAPHÈ, Queens College, CUNY
Escape from Modernity: Frances Hodgson Burnett's Italian Children, LEONARDO BUONOMO, University of Trieste
La Merica for Children: Luigi Capuana and Gli Americani di Rabbato, CHIARA MAZZUCCHELLI, University of Central Florida
Searching for the Culturally Conscious in Children's Fiction with Italian-American Characters, LISA PAOLUCCI, Columbia University
4:30-5:45 pm
Film and Literature in Italy Conference Room
Chair: PETER VELLON, Queens College, CUNY
The Children Are Watching Us: Youngsters and Parents in Italian Neorealist Cinema, FRANK P. TOMASULO, Pace University
Internal Journeys from Childhood to Adulthood in Elena Ferrante's Novels, FRED MISURELLA, East Stroudsburgh University
Chinese Youth in Contemporary Italian Cinema, MARY ANN MCDONALD CAROLAN, Fairfield University
Saturday, April 25, 2015
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9:30-10:45 am
Children in Italy and Beyond Conference Room
Chair: ROBERT OPPEDISANO, Editor
Suffer the Children: The Mafia's "Code of Honor" and the Murder of Italian Youth, LION CALANDRA, Journalist
Fitting In and Acceptance: Challenges Faced and Strategies Adopted with Peers from Childhood through Early Adulthood in Italy, the United States, and Abroad, JANE MCCALL POLITI, Independent Scholar
The Dilemmas of Second-Generation Immigrants in Italy, ROBERT GAROT, John Jay College, CUNY
11 am-12:15 pm
Colonial Pursuits and Racial Paradigms Conference Room
Chair: NANCY CARNEVALE, Montclair State University
Youth, Racism, and Violence Onscreen in Fascist Italy, ANNEMARIE TAMIS-NASELLO, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY
Testimonial Literature: Grazia Arnese Grimaldi and 13,000 Italian-Libyan Children and Youth Forgotten by History, ROSARIO POLLICINO, University of Western Ontario
Antonio Campobasso and His "Brothers" and "Sisters": The Plight of Black Soldiers' Biracial Children in Postwar Italy, STEFANO LUCONI, University of Padua
Italian-American Memoirs La Galleria
Chair: FRED GARDAPHÈ, Queens College, CUNY
Running from Ozone: How the Mafia Drove Me to Grad School, CAROLINE PARI-PFISTERER, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
It's a Free Country, but the Freedom Wasn't Free, JOSEPH COSCO, Old Dominion University
The Iron Shoes, PHYLLIS CAPELLO, Author
1:30-2:45 pm
Italian Lessons: Three Cases of Assimilation Efforts Conference Room
Chair: ERICA MORETTI, Mount Holyoke College
Molding Italy's Newest Children: Language Education in Alto Adige, 1919-1929, EDEN K. MCLEAN, Auburn University
Students of Empire: Naturalization and Education of Italian Youth in Tunisia, SARAH DEMOTT, New York University
Growing Up "Fascist," MARISA GIORGI, The Ohio State University
3-4:15 pm
History's Children: Exploited, Abandoned, Saved Conference Room
Chair: CHIARA MAZZUCCHELLI, University of Central Florida
Little Aliens of a Beaten Race: Immigrant Newsboys and Newsgirls in the United States, 1880s-1920s, VINCENT DIGIROLAMO, Baruch College, CUNY
Talking with Spartaco "Bob" Schirru in Milan, Illinois, LUC NEMETH, Independent Scholar
A Haven in East Harlem: Home Garden Settlement/Haarlem House/LaGuardia Memorial House, LULU LOLO PASCALE, Playwright
Pedagogical Case Studies La Galleria
Chair: TBD
Rev. Pasquale Codella and La Scuola Dante in Waterbury, Connecticut, MICHAEL S. GENOVESE, Italian Genealogical Group
The Italianization of John Cabot as a Paradoxical Source of Pride for Italian-Canadian Youth, KRYSTA PANDOLFI, York University
The Depiction of Italian Youth and Culture in Foreign-Language Textbooks, ANGELYN BALODIMAS-BARTOLOMEI, North Park University
4:30-5:45 pm
The Influence of Grandparenting on Personal Development Conference Room
Chair: DONNA CHIRICO, York College, CUNY
Family Memory and Its Thrust toward the Future, ROSSANA DEL ZIO, Journalist
Caring for the Caregiver, CARMEN MORANO, Hunter College, CUNY
The Role of Grandparents in Developing and Maintaining an Ethnic Identity in Post-Immigrant Generations, KATHRYN ALESSANDRIA, West Chester University
Free, open to the public, and held at the Calandra Institute.
John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
Queens College, CUNY
25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor
New York, NY 10036
