Chapman Italian Studies News

Final Ferrucci Events of the Semester

Posted on March 19, 2026 by pacchioni

Windows to Italy Lecture Series. “Quieting the Human in Premodern Italy” by Dr. Arielle Saiber (Johns Hopkins University). Wednesday, April 1, 7:00 – 8:30 pm. Argyros Forum 201.
We can barely imagine what it is really like to be another person, much less a beloved pet. How can we even begin to know what it is like to be a coastline, a tree, or a chair? How did thinkers in Renaissance Italy, famed for celebrating the dignity of the human, and even Dante before them, imagine the essence of the nonhuman? How did they write about nonhuman entities from flora to fauna, architecture to automata, demons to angels? It turns out that many Renaissance luminaries, such as Leon Battista Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci, along with Dante, had a great deal more empathy and love for the nonhuman than has been attributed to them. This talk looks at how “textual nonhumans”—the ones written onto a page—are fascinating expressions of hybridity and compassion and make us rethink our definitions of both Renaissance humanism and a canonical author of the late Middle Ages.

Screening of the documentary Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence with director Valerio Ciriaci and producer Antonella Di Nocera in attendance. Friday, April 17, 1-3 pm. Digital Media Arts College (DMAC), room 123.
Elvira Notari, Italy’s first woman film director, left behind only a few surviving films and fragments, and little is known about her life. In the golden age of Neapolitan silent cinema, she created around sixty films blending melodrama with realistic urban life, reaching audiences in Italy and abroad. Forced to stop filmmaking in 1930 due to Fascist censorship and personal struggles, her work largely disappeared. Now, 150 years after her birth, renewed scholarly and artistic interest is restoring her legacy, as Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence highlights her lasting impact as a pioneering filmmaker.

The Italian Research Day in the World. Monday, April 20, 12:45-2:30 pm. Beckman 401. This year’s program explores how Italy remembers and re-imagines its cultural identity. Dr. Pacchioni will discuss Federico Fellini’s evocative “creative saint” figure and its role in shaping modern artistic legacy. Advanced Italian Studies students from “ITAL 375 Masterpieces of Italian Literature” will present posters on Italian statues and symbolic heritage figures, offering fresh perspectives on how monuments preserve and transform collective memory. The event is open to the public.

“Italian Cinema, Environmental Imaginaries: Ecocritical Video Essays,” a presentation by visiting Italian graduate students, May 8, 1-3 pm. Beckman 104. A selection of video essays created by students in the Critical Writing for Cinema and Performing Arts Lab (MA in Television, Cinema and Media from Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione, IULM, Milan), explores ecocritical themes through the reuse and reinterpretation of existing film images, contributing to an evolving A–Z ecocritical dictionary, with a focus on Italian cinema past and present.

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Where Language, Culture, and Community Flourished: Highlights from Italian Perspective

Posted on February 26, 2026 by pacchioni

Language and Culture: An Italian Perspective brought the Musco Center to life with an extraordinary energy. The tenth edition of the Ferrucci Institute’s signature series drew a large and engaged audience, filling the venue with conversation, curiosity, and heartfelt connection. The program’s blend of keynote scholarship, poetic performance, musical interpretation, and cultural reflection offered a vivid exploration of Italy’s linguistic diversity and humanistic legacy. It was inspiring to witness such a dynamic convergence of community members, students, scholars, artists, and partners—each sharing a passion for Italian language, culture, and identity. The atmosphere in the room captured exactly what the series strives to achieve: a seamless balance between education and entertainment, intellect and emotion.

We were also delighted to present the inaugural Ferrucci Community Award to Valentina Martelli as well as by the presence and enthusiasm of this year’s exhibitors, whose participation added an important dimension to the experience. The engagement underscored the expanding reach of the Institute’s mission and the growing network of organizations committed to celebrating and promoting Italian culture in Southern California and beyond. We extend our warmest thanks to all who attended, contributed, and helped make this edition of Italian Perspective a truly memorable success.

Ferrucci Institute Director, Federico Pacchioni

Photography by Ann Hoang, Writing for Film & TV, Strategic & Corporate Communication, Class of 2027.

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Student Spotlight. Arianna Struppa: Finding Purpose and Possibility in Italy

Posted on February 24, 2026 by pacchioni

Studying Italian can shape a student’s path in ways that go far beyond the classroom, as is evident in the story of Italian student Arianna Struppa. For her, learning Italian at Chapman was not simply an academic choice; it was a way of returning to a part of herself. “Being half Italian, with my dad from Milano, and spending my summers in Calabria, the language has always been part of my identity,” she reflects, “but studying it at Chapman deepened that connection in such a meaningful way.”

Arianna credits her professors with shaping her growth, especially Professor Mattavelli, who “taught me discipline and showed me the importance of working hard even if something doesn’t come so easy!” That blend of rigor and encouragement gave her the confidence to imagine her future abroad — and now she is preparing to move to Milan to pursue a master’s degree at Università IULM in Fashion Communication and Luxury Studies. It’s a direction that allows her to bring together her Strategic Corporate Communication major with her bicultural identity: “I hope to build a career that connects my major and my Italian identity, which will help bridge both my American and Italian backgrounds!”

To current Italian students at Chapman, her advice is: “Soak up the language and culture like a sponge. Take advantage of study abroad programs and travel courses!”

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Join us for Language and Culture: An Italian Perspective

Posted on February 2, 2026 by pacchioni

The tenth edition of the Italian Perspective Series explores the intersections of language, identity, and belonging

Saturday, February 21, 2026
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Musco Center for the Arts, Chapman University
For details and tickets: [link]

The Ferrucci Institute for Italian Experience and Research invites the Chapman community and the public to the tenth anniversary edition of the Italian Perspective Series. This year’s program examines the relationship between language and culture, bringing together scholarly inquiry and artistic performance in an exploration of Italian linguistic diversity and identity. As Director Dr. Federico Pacchioni notes, “In Italy, the reality of language as a living, organic, and layered phenomenon is amplified by its extraordinary diversity of dialects and idioms. These are not curiosities of the past, but vibrant carriers of memory, identity, and creativity.”

Program Highlights

“Where Words Become Music: Italian Dialects in Song”
Internationally acclaimed Sicilian-American singer Michela Musolino, accompanied by Phil Passantino on guitar and accordion, performs folk songs in regional dialects—living testaments to identity expressed through word and sound. Founder of Rosa’s Drum and member of the celebrated trio Terra Sangue Mare, Musolino has served as cultural consultant for Pixar Studios and performs globally.

“The Dialects of Italy and the Wonders of Linguistic Diversity”
Dr. Adam Ledgeway, Professor of Italian Linguistics at the University of Bergamo and Fellow of the British Academy, examines how the linguistic fragmentation following the fall of the Roman Empire created extraordinary diversity—where the divergence between Venetian and Sicilian can exceed that between modern French and Italian. Author of five monographs and over 150 scholarly publications, Dr. Ledgeway explores what this variation reveals about identity and community.

“Dante and Francis, Holy Jesters”
Actor and playwright Matthias Martelli, accompanied by Lucia Sacerdoni on cello, intertwines the worlds of Dante Alighieri and Saint Francis of Assisi through the lens of Dario Fo’s celebrated work. Martelli, one of Italy’s leading interpreters of popular and physical theatre, has performed Fo’s Mistero Buffo more than 270 times internationally. The performance highlights the importance of popular culture in Italian language and tradition.

Ferrucci Community Service Award
Valentina Martelli, Founder and CEO of ITTV International Forum, will receive the award in recognition of her work connecting filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and students across Italy and the United States. A former war correspondent and national news anchor for RAI and Mediaset, she currently serves as Board Advisor to Ecoflix.

Presented under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Los Angeles. Open to all.

For details and tickets: [link]

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Cultural Immersion and Research: The Ferrucci Institute’s Impact on Experiential Learning in Rome

Posted on January 21, 2026 by pacchioni

This January, a group of ten Chapman students, from a variety of majors, participated in the intensive University Honors Program travel course “Interpreting the Past: An Experience of Rome.” Through the mentorship of Dr. Pacchioni, the director of the Ferrucci Institute for Italian Experience and Research, and the engagement of an interdisciplinary team and the partnership of Rome’s Borromini Institute, the course enabled students to explore personalized scholarly and creative projects through the unique cultural resources of the Eternal City. This critical field study guided students to an understanding of the cultural identity of several historic neighborhoods in the Italian capital city. Through visits to deeply layered urban and archeological sites and museums, students also developed an appreciation of the complexity and significance of watershed moments in the history of Western civilization.

In the words of some of the students:

“This travel course not only opened my eyes to the spirit of Rome, but also to a greater understanding of the human experience. I could not be more appreciative of the people I met and places we explored.” – Keira Ryan

“This course allowed me to feel intertwined with the city of Rome. I was able to experience the normalcies of daily life in the city along with discovering the incredible history and landmarks it has to offer. I also felt that the small group dynamic allowed me to make lifelong connections through the memories we experienced together!” – Sofia Robe

“This travel course was undeniably essential for my educational experience, as for once I felt treated as a full, autonomous adult in an academic setting. By the end of the trip, I was so comfortable with getting around with public transport, I had tourists mistaking me for a local and asking me for directions. It felt great being given freedom and responsibility, and I learned a lot of important life skills like timeliness and being artistically curious.” – Brook Wellington

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Italian Language Day: Celebrating Italian Beyond Borders

Posted on December 14, 2025 by mattavelli

On Wednesday, October 15, 2025, students, faculty, and community members came together to celebrate Italian Language Day, an event organized by the Italian Program with support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles and the Ferrucci Institute. This celebration was part of the annual Settimana della Lingua Italiana nel Mondo (SLIM), or Week of the Italian Language in the World, promoted by the Italian government. This year marked the 25th edition of SLIM, dedicated to the theme Italofonia: la lingua oltre i confini—Italian Beyond Borders.

To celebrate the linguistic, social, and cultural space of Italian across borders, the event featured a keynote address by Dr. Luciana Fellin (Duke University) and poster presentations by students from Dr. Mattavelli’s upper-division class ITAL 202/344.

Dr. Fellin’s talk, “Transnational Italian: Language Across Borders,” examined how Italian has evolved through migration, from regional language patterns in Latin America, Canada, Australia, and Europe to major contact phenomena – hybridization, bilingualism, and translanguaging -highlighting the deep connection between language and identity. A special focus was placed on Italian in the U. S., tracing its journey from early immigrant communities to today’s third-generation speakers. Drawing from her field research, Dr. Fellin offered fascinating examples of creative language use by the third generation.

Students contributed with research projects exploring the presence of Italian language worldwide, with a focus on migrant communities and “Little Italies” in the U.S. Their posters highlighted the global reach of Italian, with topics ranging from Italian enclaves in Los Angeles, New Jersey, Argentina, and Switzerland, as well as broader cultural themes like Italian cuisine, music, and cinema.

Dr. Mattavelli emphasized the educational value of the event: “I wanted students to be involved in SLIM because it’s a great educational and professional opportunity. Presenting research to an audience of 80–100 people is no small feat, and they did brilliantly. They inspired other students by showing that what we do in class connects to the world outside. Learning about other cultures by immersing in them is what being a global citizen is about.”

Sophia Zonni, Italian Studies minor, said: “I loved answering questions about the Los Angeles Italian community because it’s where I come from. Researching its history strengthened my connection to my heritage and deepened my appreciation for the diversity and resilience of Italian communities worldwide.”

Abby Lofrano, Italian Studies minor and program assistant, added: “It was amazing to see the audience so engaged with the speaker and the student projects. Everyone was curious and appreciative of the work.”

The Italian Studies Program extends heartfelt thanks to Dr. Emanuele Amendola, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, for his support and to Dr. Luciana Fellin for sharing her insightful research and engaging with our students. Grazie mille!

(from the left) Italian Studies Faculty Sara Mattavelli and Federico Pacchioni, Keynote speaker Luciana Fellin, Italian Studies Faculty Luisa Spanu and Corrado Confalonieri, and the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute Emanuele Amendola

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Dr. Pacchioni to speak at the Italian Cultural Institute of LA

Posted on October 9, 2025 by pacchioni

Hosted by the future California Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Italian and the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, in collaboration with Fondazione Italia, this event brings together educators and cultural leaders to discuss new directions for Italian language and culture in the state.

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Applications Now Open for the Ferrucci Institute Community Service Award

Posted on October 1, 2025 by pacchioni

We’re excited to announce that the application period for the 2025-2026 Ferrucci Institute Community Service Award is now open!

This award honors individuals who have made a meaningful and lasting impact by promoting Italian language, culture, heritage, and community engagement outside of Italy. Whether through organizing cultural events, developing language programs, producing scholarship or creative works, or fostering cross-cultural understanding, this award celebrates leadership, innovation, and long-term commitment.

For application details, click here.

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Join us for the 13th Annual Paul’s Pasta Piazza Party!

Posted on September 24, 2025 by pacchioni

An evening of Italian flavor, music, and community spirit at Chapman University. Buon appetito! 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹