About the Department
Lingua Italica
Lingua Italica
The Newsletter for Italian Studies at the University
of Notre Dame
Volume 9, Number 1: October, 2009
Faculty and student news
Sabrina Ferri (Laurea, U of Rome; PhD, Stanford), an expert in 18th century Italy, with an interdisciplinary interest in literature, the visual arts, sciences, and history, adds a major dimension to Italian as a new Assistant Professor. She is currently teaching courses on 18th century autobiography and on Imaginary Geographies.
Vittorio Montemaggi (MPhil in European Literature; PhD in Divinity, U of Cambridge) is the new Assistant Professor of Religion and Literature and of Italian. He works on the intersection of literature, theology, and philosophy. He is teaching courses Between Religion and Literature: Meaning, Vulnerability, and Human Existence and Passages to Italy.
Maurizio Albahari (Laurea, U of Florence; PhD, Irvine) has joined the Department of Anthropology. He is an expert in migration, religious pluralism, and politics of race and culture.
Zygmunt Barański, Serena Professor of Italian at the University of Cambridge, will be the Ravarino Family Distinguished Visiting Professor at Notre Dame in Fall 2010.
Theodore Cachey gave the address at the annual meeting of the Dante Society of America at the MLA, and is now Associate Editor of Dante Studies.
John Welle is giving lectures at Futurism conferences at the University of Wisconsin and at Utrecht.
Christian Moevs is giving lectures at University College Dublin, Leeds, and Oxford.
Demetrio Yocum (Laurea, Naples; PhD, U of Rome), Coordinator of the Opera del Vocabolario program (see below), Adjunct Assistant Professor and Research Assistant in Italian, coordinates Italian Studies initiatives, and continues active research on Petrarch, including papers at the last three MLA conventions.
Alessia Blad (SPF in Italian) is giving papers at AAIS (New York) and at ACTFL (San Diego).
Patrick Vivirito (SPF in Italian) presented a paper at Northwestern University.
Karolina Serafin (former SPF in Italian) is now coordinating Italian language instruction at Cornell.
Eleonora Buonocore (MA, ND ’09) won a prestigious Nanovic Research Fellowship in Romance Languages and Literatures last year. She has entered the PhD program in Italian at Yale.
Charles Leavitt IV (MA, PhD in Lit) won the Nanovic’s prestigious Annese Graduate Fellowship to work on his dissertation on neorealism.
Giulia Cardillo (MA, ND ’08) has entered the Italian PhD program at Yale.
Kristina Clement (MA, ND ’10) gave a paper in the Mediterranean Studies Association meeting in Sardegna.
Monica Garcia-Blizzard won Nanovic, UROP, and Ravarino research grants to study immigration and illicit vending in Italy. Monica also won the Endowment for Excellence Award for the best student with a major in Romance Languages and Literatures. She is doing a BA/MA in Italian at ND.
Michelle Garber won the Joseph Bosco Senior Award for Achievement in Italian. She is pursuing an MA in Italian at the University of Virginia.
Angelica Benavides (BA, ND) is in the MA program at the University of Pittsburgh.
Kathleen O’Connor (ND ’10) won a Nanovic European Parliament Internship, to work in the Italian Prime Minister’s office this past summer.
Heather Sottong (BA, ND ’08) has entered the PhD program in Italian at UCLA.
Daniel Tinozzi, (BA, ND) has received the PhD in Italian from Cornell.
Aileen Feng, (MA, ND; PhD Berkeley) is now Assistant Professor in Italian at the U of Arizona.
Emily Sposeto (MA, ND) now coordinates the Italian Language Program at Duke.
Thomas Krcmeric, Lauren Restivo, Sean Gibbons, Cheryl Zabrowski, Emma Zainey, Chuck Leavitt, Damiano Benvegnu, Gretchen Busl, Francis Hittinger, Kristina Clement, and Nicola Paxton all won CSLC or Ravarino or Nanovic grants for summer study or research in Italy in 2009.
Announcements
ITALIAN STUDIES AT NOTRE DAME
The University has committed significant new funding to coordinate and develop Italian Studies as an interdisciplinary program at Notre Dame. The initiative includes an annual interdisciplinary graduate seminar, an annual humanities summer seminar in Rome, faculty and student exchanges with the University of Rome, collaboration with Italian academies, graduate fellowships, faculty and post-doctoral research funding, and library resources. Further funding is being sought from a variety of sources to further develop and sustain the program for future generations at Notre Dame.
Notre Dame - Leeds Collaboration: The Italian program has entered into a collaboration with the Italian program at the University of Leeds, one of the two top-rated Italian programs in the United Kingdom, and a leading center for Dante Studies. The collaboration will include joint conferences on Dante and Theology, post-graduate exchanges, joint research sponsorships, videoconferenced seminars, and sharing initiatives in curriculum development and assessment.
The Devers Series in Dante Studies has published its tenth volume, Petrarch and Dante: Anti-Dantism, Metaphysics, Tradition, co-edited by Theodore Cachey and Zygmunt Barański. The volume grew from a major conference at Notre Dame in 2008. The 11th volume, Dante’s Commedia: Theology as Poetry, edited by Vittorio Montemaggi and Matthew Treherne, will appear this spring.
Il Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini is a historical dictionary of Italian before 1375, produced by the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, a branch of the famous Accademia della Crusca, founded in 1583. ND is the only university outside Italy to contribute to the dictionary, through an instructional program in philology involving faculty and graduate students, including this year Jacob Blakesley, Gretchen Busl, Charles Leavitt, Giovanna Lenzi-Sandusky, Laurence Hooper, and Chiara Sbordoni, under the direction of Demetrio Yocum.
Paul Bosco Italian Writing Awards: two new prizes, inaugurated in spring 2009 to honor Paul and Vittoria Bosco, legendary Italian teachers at Notre Dame, given annually for the best papers written in Italian in courses at the 30000 level and at the 40000 level. Submit your best Italian paper!
Piranesi at the Snite Giovanna Lenzi-Sandusky and her students, in collaboration with Diana Matthias at the Snite, are mounting an exhibit of Piranesi’s prints, to be accompanied by lectures and work by architecture students, Jan 17-Feb 28.
Peter Greenaway The great English filmmaker, author (with Tom Phillips) of the BBC’s stunning TV Dante, will be on campus Feb 25 to discuss his work (and Dante). Stay tuned!
CSLC Italian Movie Night for students and faculty, showing Mondonuovo (Crialese, 2006) Dec 7, 329 DeBartolo.
NEW COURSES!
LLRO 13186 Primo Levi: Literature, Ethics, and the Pursuit of Knowledge (Montemaggi); ROIT 40910 The Hero’s Journey: Adventure Narrative in Italian Lit and Cinema (Ferri); ROIT 40233 Machiavelli NOW (Cachey); ROIT 53000 Italian Seminar: Figures of Modernity (Welle); ROIT 63213 Religion and Literature: In the Light of Job (Montemaggi).
Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures: Stop by 329 DeBartolo for amazing resources, live Italian TV, newspapers, film, peer tutoring, etc.
Grants for summer study or research in Italy! There are many sources at ND: CSLC Summer Language Study Grants (up to $5,500, deadline March 6); Ravarino Scholarships (up to $3,000; deadline February 26); Nanovic Travel and Research Grants (undergrad up to $4,500, deadline February 12; grad up to $5,500, deadline March 5); Nanovic Graduate Language Training Grants (up to $4,500, deadline March 19); Nanovic Internship Grants (deadlines Feb 12 – April 15). Apply!
ROIT 10115 / 20215 Intensives: Take both, and reach 5th-semester courses after one year! Ideal for Bologna, or for full immersion.
Bologna Program: for complete fluency in Italian, spend a year at the world’s oldest university (founded 1080)! ND is an Associate Member of the Bologna Consortium. See www.bcsp.unibo.it
Italian Coffee Hour: two more this semester: Nov 2 and Dec 1, 4:30-5:30 in Decio Commons. All Italophiles welcome!
The Italian Club has a record number of members and is very active. Contact Kathleen O’Connor (koconn16@nd.edu).
Recent events of note
WHY ITALY? CONFERENCE:
A two-day Italian Studies symposium held at ND in April 2009, drawing together more than 20 Italianists from Notre Dame, from fields as diverse as Literature, History, Art History, Music, Architecture, Law, Classics, and Political Science, and 7 major scholars from Italy, including Roberto Antonelli, Dean of Humanities at the University of Rome La Sapienza, Maria Serena Sapegno (U of Rome), Piero Boitani (U of Rome), Claudia Cieri Via (U of Rome), Zygmunt Barański (U of Cambridge), Andrea Simoncini (U of Florence), and Ingrid Rowland (ND Rome). The symposium showcased Italian Studies at Notre Dame, strengthened collaboration with the University of Rome, and laid groundwork for ND’s imminent Rome Humanities Center.
Dante and the Italian Duecento: an international colloquium at ND in April, including lectures by Roberto Antonelli (U of Rome), Wayne Storey (Indiana U), Justin Steinberg (U of Chicago), and Theodore Cachey.
Leeds - Notre Dame Colloquium in Dante and Italian Studies took place September 8. Matthew Treherne and Claire Honess (Directors of the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies), Zygmunt Barański (Cambridge) participated, as well as seven faculty and graduate students from Notre Dame: Vittorio Montemaggi, Theodore Cachey, Chiara Sbordoni, Christian Moevs, Laurence Hooper, Patrick Gardner, and James Kriesel.
Italian Studies Honors Convocation: Andrea Simoncini (U of Florence), Visiting Professor of Law and Distinguished Fulbright Scholar in the Nanovic Insittute, spoke at this event, which conferred the Joseph Bosco Senior Award, inducted 13 new members into Gamma Kappa Alpha, the Italian National Honor Society, and announced the winners of Ravarino Scholarships.
The Italian Theatre Workshop, under the direction of ND grad Jenna Olson, produced a fully-staged production of Nobel Laureate Dario Fo’s La Marcolfa in April. Stay tuned for this year’s production of plays by Goldoni and Pirandello, directed by Laurence Hooper!
ENHANCE YOUR LIFE: CONSIDER A MAJOR OR MINOR IN ITALIAN!
There are now 126 Majors and Minors in Italian, including 13 Romance Languages Majors studying Italian.
9 OPTIONS!
Literature and Culture Concentration
Major: 8 lit/cult courses + 2 Ital studies courses
Supp. Maj.: 6 lit/cult + 2 Ital studies
Honors Major: 9 lit/cult + 2 Ital studies
Italian Studies Concentration
Major: 5 lit/cult courses + 5 Ital studies courses
Supp. Maj.: 4 lit/cult + 4 Ital studies
Hon. Maj.: Major + 1 lit/cult or Ital stud
Minor in Italian
3 lit/cult courses + 2 Ital studies courses
Combined BA/MA in Italian
10 lit/cult + 2 Ital studies + 5th year
Major in Romance Languages
6 Italian courses + 6 French or Spanish
Lit/Culture courses originate in the Dept. of Romance Languages and stress fluency in language, literature and culture; Italian Studies courses are listed or crosslisted in other depts. (History, Art History, Architecture, Classics, Music, etc....).
See the Overview of Undergraduate Majors in Italian sheet, the Majors Worksheets, and the Undergraduate Bulletin description for full details, all available on the Dept of Romance Languages webpage: http://romancelanguages.nd.edu
Italian was first taught at ND in 1847.
