This fall, Chapman Italian Studies students combined their linguistic training with a transcultural investigation in a wide range of disciplinary contexts: Italian immigration to North America, Anglo-American expatriate experiences in Italy, the history and future of tourism on the peninsula, and Italian language as the embodiment and expression of specific cultural mindset.
Guest speaker Federico Massimo Ceschin, national president of SIMTUR.
To explore such topics, our students connected with special guest speakers such as Federico Massimo Ceschin, the national president of SIMTUR (the Italian Society of Sustainable Tourism and Transportation) on the potential for developing new tourist destination in Italy’s smaller town (“Piccole Patrie”) and the role that students of Italian from the US can play in terms of global ambassadors and marketing; Francesco Chianese, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at Cardiff University and California State University Long Beach, who spoke about the subtle mechanisms of Italian-American identity formation around the theme of homecomings in films such as The Godfather and The Sopranos tv series; and Gian Marco Farese, linguistics professor at the University of Milan “La Statale”, who demonstrated the importance of certain Italian vocabulary in accessing the core cultural norms, values and assumptions of the Italian community.
Students collaborating during Dr. Pacchioni’s course on translation.
These interactive presentations exposed students to the innovative work and ideas advanced by internationally renowned scholars and professional leaders, enriching their study of Italian at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. The experiences were especially rewarding for the students attending Dr. Pacchioni’s seminar on Italian American Cinema and his newly offered course on Italian Translation for Tourism and Cultural Promotion, the first of such courses being taught in higher education.
