About the Department
Lingua Italica
Lingua Italica
The Newsletter for Italian Studies at the University
of Notre Dame
Volume 9, Number 2: March, 2010
Faculty and student news
Chiara Sbordoni (PhD, U of Rome), will join the Italian Faculty as a new Professor of the Practice/Lecturer in Italian in Fall 2010.
Zygmunt Barański, Serena Professor of Italian at the U of Cambridge, will be the Albert J. and Helen M. Ravarino Distinguished Visiting Professor at ND in Fall ’10. He will also be at ND this coming April during the week of the 12th. Stay tuned!
Theodore Cachey Professor of Italian and Chair of the Dep. of Romance Languages & Literatures will present a paper on Dante at the forthcoming 2010 AAIS Conference at the U of Michigan.
John Welle Professor of Italian will give a lecture on Pirandello and the Print Media of Italian Silent Cinema at the U of Virginia on Apr 16.
Vittorio Montemaggi Asst Professor of Religion and Literature and of Italian will be presenting papers at several international conferences including “Desire in Dante and the Middle Ages” (Oxford).
Christian Moevs Associate Professor of Italian will also be a keynote speaker at the Desire in Dante and the Middle Ages conference at Oxford in April. In May he will be in Milan to give a lecture on Dante at the Università Statale.
Laurence Hooper Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian has won the three-year Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Chicago.
Filippo Gianferrari (MA, ND ’11) gave a paper at the 2010 Graduate Student Conference held at the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies. He will also be presenting at the forthcoming Yale Dante Graduate Symposium.
Francis Hittinger, (MA, ND ’10), will be entering the PhD program in Italian and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He was offered a Faculty Fellowship, Columbia’s highest honor for entering grad students.
Gretchen Busl (MA, PhD in Lit) will present a paper on Calvino at the NeMLA Convention in Montreal in April.
John Welsh (BA in Italian, ND ’05, MA ’07 at UVA) Lecturer in Italian at ND in AY ’08, is entering the PhD program in Italian at Harvard.
Paul Bosco Associate Professor Emeritus passed away on the evening of December 25th 2009 at age 95. Born in Vasto (CH), Italy, in 1920, Paul emigrated with his family to the United States. In 1942 he received a Ph.D. in Romance Philology from Harvard University. He began his career at ND in 1947. He loved teaching Italian, and continued teaching even past his official retirement in 1979, thus completing a 50-year career. He will be greatly missed by his family, friends and students.
Announcements
The Devers Series in Dante Studies has published its eleventh volume, Dante’s Commedia: Theology as Poetry, edited by Vittorio Montemaggi and Matthew Treherne.
Barry McCrea (Yale U) will give the next lecture of the series sponsored by ND Global Modernisms Initiative on Apr 20, 4:30 pm. in 119 O'Shaughnessy Hall.
The Devers Program in Dante Studies continues to sponsor the annual Newberry Library Dante Lecture at the Center for Renaissance Studies of the Newberry Library in Chicago. The 2010 Dante Lecture will be held Apr 22 and delivered by Rachel Jacoff, Wellesley College.
Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies: The Nanovic Institute for European Studies announced in Feb that Prof. Roberto M. Dainotto (Duke U) was awarded the inaugural prestigious award for his book Europe (In Theory). Prof. Dainotto will be at ND on Sept 23 to receive the award and deliver a lecture. A panel discussion of Professor Dainotto’s book is being organized by the Italian Studies Program on Friday Sept. 24. Stay tuned!
Italian Studies Colloquium: Coinciding with Prof. Barański’s visit, the Italian graduate students and faculty at ND will present their work in progress on April 14, 3-6 pm., in Special Collections, 102 Hesburgh Library. Stay tuned!
Honors Convocation: Thursday, April 29th at 5:15 in Special Collections, 102 Hesburgh Library. New members of Gamma Kappa Alpha, the Italian Studies Honors Society, will be inducted. Honors and awards to be announced include the Ravarino Summer Travel Grants, the Paul and Vittoria Bosco Writing Awards, and the Joseph Italo Bosco Award for Excellence in Italian Studies.
The Italian Theatre Workshop, Under the direction of Laurence Hooper, the group of students of Italian from the course ROIT 41590 will present a fully staged production of two short Italian plays on the theme of marriage: L'osteria della posta (1762) by Carlo Goldoni; and Luigi Pirandello’s Bellavita (1928). The plays will be presented in Italian, accompanied by a detailed synopsis in English. Apr 15 -16, 5pm. at Washington Hall Lab Theatre.
Italian Soccer Tournament: the Twelfth annual ND Campionato di Calcetto, played and discussed only in Italian, kicked off Mar 20 and will continue Mar 28, in Rolfs Sports Recreation Center.
Italian Coffee Hour: one more this semester: Apr 22, 4:30-5:30 in Decio Commons. All Italophiles welcome!
NEW COURSES!
ROIT 21205 Pre-Study Abroad Course for Rome and Bologna/Italy; 40548-01 Italian Cinema: Realities of History; ROIT 40750-01 Losers, Fools, and Borderliners in Italian Literature; ROIT 63155-01 Dante: Poet & Intellectual.
Rome and Bologna Program: To enrich your study of Italian plan to spend a semester in The Eternal City. 28 ND students have already been accepted to go to Rome in Fall ’10 and 40 in Spring ’11! 6 students will instead stay a year in Bologna studying at the world’s oldest university!
Recent events of note
Ron Herzman: Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at State University of New York, College at Geneseo, Prof. Herzman presented a Dante lecture and seminar on Mar 22-23, co‑sponsored by the Devers Program in Dante Studies, the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, and the Medieval Institute.
Piranesi at the Snite Museum: Giovanna Lenzi-Sandusky and her students, in collaboration with Diana Matthias at the Snite, have mounted a remarkable exhibit of G. B. Piranesi’s prints. The 10 prints were carefully selected by students of Italian and Architecture among the 30 owned by the Snite. The opening event coincided with the Italian Coffe Hour and three lectures by Billy Ray Sandusky, Pier Paolo Polzonetti, and Sabrina Ferri. The fruits of this innovative interdisciplinary project are still visible at http://piranesi.nd.edu/.
Tosca at the Lyric: 25 students from the course ROIT 30310 Passage to Italy went to see Puccini’s masterpiece Tosca at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The entire excursion was free for students thanks to the Demergasso Fund.
Learning from Rome: The Influence of the Eternal City: A two-day colloquium hosted by the ND School of Architecture. Scholars from the S of Architecture, Departments of Romance Languages and Literatures, English, Art, Art History and Design, and History gathered to discuss how Rome is at the crossroads of their disciplines. Scholars also examined ND’s past and future in Rome. Ingrid Rowland, (S of Architecture) delivered the keynote address. Presenters included Samir Younés (S of Architecture); Ted Cachey (Dep. of Romance Languages & Literatures); Joseph Buttigieg (Dep. of English); Robert Coleman (Dep. of Art, Art History & Design); and Robin Rhodes (Dep. of Art, Art History & Design and Classics).
Lecture by Prof. J. Schnapp: The ND Global Modernisms Initiative sponsored a lecture by Professor Jeffrey Schnapp (Stanford U).
Nanovic Film Series: As part of the Nanovic Institute’s Film Series, this year on European Shakespeare, one of the most renowned specialists of Italian Opera and Giuseppe Verdi, Philip Gossett, gave last Jan a musical introduction to the screening of F. Zeffirelli’s