AIHA 44th Annual Conference

Italian American
Body Politics
Private Lives and the Public Sphere
44th Annual Conference
of the
American Italian Historical Association
Tampa, Florida
October 20th-22nd, 2011
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
The Italian Club of Tampa (L’Unione Italiana)
The The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
The National Italian American Foundation
The University of South Florida
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Rita Ciresi
Michael Eula
George Guida
Patrizia La Trecchia
JoAnne Ruvoli
Denise Scannell-Guida
Anthony J. Tamburri
Program
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
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),
Rebecca Rey (University of Western Australia)
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: Valerio Bartolucci, Author
Joanne Detore-Nakamura(Embry Riddle Aeronautical University)
George Guida
Joey Nicoletti, Niagara University
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 Italian American Institute
Participants: Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum (California Institute of Integral Studies),
Louisa Calio (Author), Chickie Farella, Fred Gardaphé (Queens College/
The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute)
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 Mazzucchelli, University of Central Florida
Chiara Mazzucchelli
‚Vig|ta-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
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‛
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 Italian American
Institute/Universitá degli Studi di Napoli
Participants: Ottorino Cappelli, Fred Gardaphé (Queens College/The John D. Calandra Italian
American Institute), Anthony J. Tamburri (The John D. Calandra Italian American 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"
7:00-8:00 p. m.
TOUR OF TAMPA ITALIAN CLUB
1731 East Seventh Avenue
Ybor City
Tour conducted by Joseph Caltagirone
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
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
PUBLIC SCULPTORS: MICHELANGELO AND BUFANO
Arthur Cola, Italian Community Center, Milwaukee Wisconsin
‚Michelangelo, The Legend of the Magi Ring, and the Making of a Novel‛
Maria Protti, Independent Scholar
‚Benny Bufano’s Quest to Sculpt Mass Opinion: Peace Art in the Public Square‛
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
Others TBA
SESSION D
Meeting Room 12
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”
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, New York University, 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 Italianit| in the 1950s‛
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 Italian American 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, Buffalo State College
and Michael Buonanno, State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota
‚Italian-American Political Leadership in the Tea Party Era:
Conservative, Progressive, Reactionary?‛
Tommaso Caiazza, Univerisit{ degli Studi Venezia ‚Ca' Foscari‛
‚The Impact of World War II on the Italian American Community of San Francisco‛
SESSION C
Meeting Room 11
PERSONAS AND PRAYERS—A READING
Organizer and Chair: JoAnne Ruvoli, University of California, Los Angeles
Marisa Labozzetta, Author, from Thieves Never Steal in the Rain
Roxanne Christofano Pilat, University of Illinois at Chicago, ‚Kitchen Girl, Cowgirl‛
JoAnne Ruvoli, ‚Prayers for the Body: Ex Voto Short Shorts‛
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 Italian American 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 Italian American 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 Italian American Institute
‚‘What’ya mean I’m funny?’: Ball-busting Humor and Italian-American Masculinities‛
Joseph Sciorra, The John D. Calandra Italian American 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
TRAGEDY AND COMEDY IN ITALIAN FILM
Chair: Patrizia La Trecchia, University of South Florida
JoNette LaGamba, 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 C
Meeting Room 11
ITALIAN AMERICAN CREATIVE WRITERS 2—A READING
Organizer and Chair: Joseph Ricapito, Louisiana State University
Readers: Rachel Guido DeVries, Independent Scholar
Jean Feraca, National Public Radio
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—
PRESENTATION OF AN ANTHOLOGY DEDICATED TO RUDOLPH VECOLI
Organizer and Chair: Dominic Candeloro, Editor
Respondent: Salvatore J. LaGumina, Nassau Community College
Participants: Dominic Candeloro, Frank Cicero (Author, Relative Strangers,
www.relativestrangersbook.com), Chickie Farella (Performance Artist), 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 de Luise, Queens College—CUNY
I’ve Got the World on a String…the 1950s, the Italian Immigrant and Print Media
Danielle Battisti, Kalamazoo College/Colby College
‚Becoming Americans: Postwar Italian American Consumer Culture, Anti-Communism, and
Immigration Reform‛
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)
2011 AIHA Conference Participants
Bartolucci, Valerio
Battisti, Danielle
Bencivenni, Marcella
Bengiveno, Teri Ann
Bessette, Judith Pistachio
Biocca, Dario
Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola
Buonanno, Laurie
Buonanno, Michael
Caiazza, Tommaso
Calio, Louisa
Caltagirone, Joseph
Canali, Mauro
Candeloro, Dominic
Cappelli, Ottorino
Carnevale, Nancy
Cavallero, Jonathan
Cavaluzzi, Anthony
Christodoulou, Stelios
Cicero, Frank
Ciresi, Rita
Coate, Patricia M.
Cola, Arthur
de Luise, Alexandra
Del Giudice, Luisa
Del Negro, Giovanna P.
Detore-Nakamura, Joanne
DeVries, Rachel Guido
Di Pietro, Antonietta
Diraviam, Domenica
Eula, Michael
Farella, Chickie
Feraca, Jean
Gardaphe, Fred
Giaimo, Paul
Gillan, Maria Mazziotti
Giovanucci, Perri
Giura, Maria
Gravano, Alan
Guglielmo, Jennifer
Guida, George
Hendin, Josephine Gattuso
Herman, Joanna Clapps
La Trecchia, Patrizia
Labozzetta, Marisa
LaGamba, Jonette
LaGumina, Salvatore J.
LaRosa, Melanie
Luconi, Stefano
Maruggi, Edward A.
Mazzucchelli, Chiara
Milani, Ernesto
Misurella, Fred
Mitrano, John
Mormino, Gary
Nicoletti, Joey
Oberdan, Angelina
Ottanelli, Fraser
Pardini, Samuele F. S
Patel, Erin Elio
Pilat, Roxanne Christofano
Plasse, Marie
Protti, Maria
Ramazzini, Jonathan Daniel O’Neill
Ricapito, Joseph
Romano, Vincent
Ruberto, Laura
Ruffner Grieneisen, Courtney
Russo, John Paul
Ruvoli, JoAnne
Salamone, Frank A.
Scannell-Guida, Denise
Sciorra, Joseph
Serra, Illaria
Sipiora, Phillip
Spiering, Victoria
Sturm, Circe
Tamburri, Anthony J.
Tintori, Karen
The Italian Club of Tampa
Welcomes
Members and Guests of
The American Italian Historical Association
L'Unione Italiana
1731 East Seventh Avenue
Ybor City
Tampa, Florida 33605
(813) 248-3316 | (813) 247-4387 Fax
[email protected]
SCANNELL PRODUCTIONS
The founder of Scannell Productions, Nicole Scannell, has extensive
experience in the Hospitality/Promotion Industry. This experience has
provided
an
in-depth
understanding
of
staffing
events
promotional teams, and the professionalism needed to succeed.
Scannell Productions
216 South Edison Avenue
Tampa, Florida 33606
Office: 813-251-4805
Fax: 813-254-3444
[email protected]
with
ANTHONY F. TASSO, PH.D., ABP
Board Certified Clinical Psychologist
4 Maple Avenue
Morristown, NJ 07960
NJ license #4427
(973) 986-3764
NY license #017024
[email protected]
www.DrAnthonyTasso.com
1802 Seventh Avenue, Ybor City, Florida 33605
(813) 248-3834
Since 1974
www.aiha-wrc.org
In 1974, a group of historians in San Francisco formed the first regional chapter of the AIHA; the new Western
Regional Chapter devoted itself to the study of a complex understanding of the Italian experience in the western
states. Today its members encourage Italian American Studies programs at universities; collect, preserve, study
and popularize materials that illuminate the Italian American experience in the West.
AIHA would like to thank
Paulette and Robert Peters
and
Joseph Ricapito
for their generous support of this year’s conference.