Students receive outstanding Italian Studies Award

Posted on May 6, 2022 by Federico Pacchioni

Every spring the Italian Studies Program selects outstanding graduating minors. The award stands for consistency and quality of academic achievements, intellectual curiosity, engagement in the Italian experience as well as contribution to the university’s Italian Studies community. The Italian Studies faculty is delighted to announce that this year the recipients of the award are Grace Montgomery and Ayuj Consul.

“My name is Grace Montgomery, and I will be graduating in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with an Emphasis in Finance, and two minors in Business Analytics and Italian Studies. Studying Italian at Chapman was my home away from home. In the Italian classes, I was able to make lasting connections and friendships: not only with other students but with the faculty as well. There were two experiences during my four years that stood out. The first was my journey to Sicily as a rising sophomore. I had only taken one year of Italian and barely knew the language; however, I was able to attend a three-week study abroad program that summer. I had a wonderful time, and I have wanted to go back ever since. The other notable experience during my studies was serving as the Italian Club President. As president, my most rewarding experience was successfully transitioning the club to an online format. Our first online event had more participants than ever! It was encouraging to see the Italian community come together during those tough times. I wanted to convey that same enthusiasm for language and culture to other students that I had experienced when I started at Chapman. Today, I am excited when I see fresh faces in the upper-division courses. The club still has a large membership, and the Italian Studies department continues to flourish. After graduation, I will be starting a full-time position with Henkel, a German-based manufacturing company. While this position is not related to my Italian studies, the Italian minor has already helped me in my career. The international cultural analysis of my education has given me an appreciation for other cultures. The awareness of differing cultural practices has helped me adjust to a global corporation and improve my ability to interact with diverse cultures.”

“To receive this award from a program that has become my family at Chapman is an immense honor. When I came here to study Television four years ago, I could never have imagined that I would graduate being able to speak Italian, especially not after my first two semesters where Italian had proven to be my most challenging course. I found that language studies taught something much more fundamental yet often lacking in our society: communication between people and cultures. Instead of trying to learn Italian, I then tried to start communicating with Italy, learning about her arts and poetry, cooking and cinema, history and industry. At every stage, I was guided and encouraged by my professors, especially Dr. Paduano and Dr. Pacchioni who represent a treasure trove of knowledge and energy that is both neverending and contagious. I would like to thank the Italian Studies program for bringing to us a piece of their beautiful country. As a writer, filmmaker, and artist interested in language, history, and cultural exchanges, I am sure that my connection to Italy will continue to give me great wisdom and inspiration in the years to come. In the future, I hope to travel to Italy and further develop this fruitful connection that I have been fortunate to form at Chapman.”

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The Extraordinary Life of Foreign Language Learners. A New Guidebook by Dr. Pacchioni

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Federico Pacchioni

The Extraordinary Life of Foreign Language Learners: Harnessing the Rewards of the Multilingual Experience and Becoming Intercultural Mediators is Dr. Pacchioni’s latest contribution to foreign language and culture education. The guidebook, written with the linguistic Gian Marco Farese from the Università Statale of Milan, conducts a long-overdue discussion of the more abstract and complex issues surrounding the foreign language learning experience, its deeper rewards, and its important implications for intercultural communication and mediation.

Through an accessible writing style, a sequential chapter structure addressing specific learning areas, the book counteracts a widespread lack of intellectual, theoretical, and motivational reach in current language education, and highlights vital issues of diversity and inclusion. The book illustrates theoretical notions through a wide range of examples from multiple languages, viewed comparatively, as well as vivid life accounts of individuals successfully working and living across different languages and cultures. The Extraordinary Life of Foreign Language Learners provides answers to doubts and concerns that usually impede foreign language learners and offers inspirational points to advance along the demanding path of foreign language learning with a fresh and motivating perspective.

The book is currently available via several online stores, including Amazon.it, IBS.it, Hoepli.it 

The Extraordinary Life of Foreign Language Learners resolves one of the great puzzles of academic writing: how to convey first-rate scholarship with heartfelt affection for the subject. The authors, declaring their affection in the introduction and maintaining high scholarly standards throughout, may have done more than they intended. They have written a book about the particulars of language learning that can equally be read as a love letter for the life of the mind.
– M. Andrew Moshier, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Communication, Chapman University

This innovative and remarkably interdisciplinary work extols the unmatched richness of being able to think, act, and exist “between” human cultures that comes from sustained foreign language study. The Extraordinary Life of Foreign Language Learners urges us to reflect on the vital importance of communication —with one’s self, the Other, and the world as we know it—with openness, curiosity, and a deep appreciation for difference.
– Colleen Ryan, Ph.D., Director of Italian Undergraduate Studies, Indiana University Bloomington

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Dr. Pacchioni Speaks at Pasolini Centennial Symposium at The Graziadio Center for Italian Studies

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Federico Pacchioni

Dr. Pacchioni was invited to speak at the first Graziadio Center in-person symposium in two years, One Hundred Years of Pasolini: A Transnational Gathering of Critical Voices. This one-day symposium, focusing on the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini, was organized in collaboration with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow Dr. Francesco Chianese. The event opened with Keynote speaker Dr. Fabio Vighi and included talks by Drs. Federico Pacchioni, Gian Maria Annovi, Antonio Iannotta, Francesco Chianese, and Enrico Vettore.

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Join Us at Design and Culture: An Italian Perspective!

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Federico Pacchioni

The Italian Studies Program at Chapman University is presenting Design & Culture: An Italian Perspective, which will be held in person at the Musco Center for the Arts at 1 University Drive, Orange, California, on Saturday, April 23 at 10:30 am.

This year’s event will include plenary lectures and an innovation panel focusing on different intersections between Italian culture, arts, sustainability, and design. Presentations will reveal the interlaced development of the historical genesis and significance of iconic Italian objects and brands and explore Italian industrial and fashion culture. The event promises to be a journey through the beauty and complexity of Italy’s intellectual and aesthetic import, celebrating the innovative genius behind the pursuit of style, yesterday and today.

This event will be the sixth edition of the Italian Perspective series, following Business and Culture (2016), Music and Culture (2017), Cinema and Culture (2018), Science and Culture (2019), and Food and Culture (2021). Once again, the presentation strives to be intellectually and aesthetically stimulating to both an academic and non-academic audience. The event is part of a broader vision to position the study of Italian culture as a productive and innovative interface with other academic disciplines and today’s industry.

Tickets are in support of Italian language and culture undergraduate education. For details and tickets visit: https://muscocenter.org/Online/article/italian-perspective-2022

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Dr. Pacchioni invited to Open Intermediality and Poetry Series by Trinity College Dublin

Posted on February 14, 2022 by Federico Pacchioni

Weaving Media in Modern and Contemporary Italian Poetry is a new seminar series organized by the Department of Italian at Trinity College Dublin in collaboration with Interdisciplinary Italy, featuring scholars from all around Europe. The first talk will be delivered jointly by Professors John P, Welle (University of Notre Dame) and Federico Pacchioni on the collaboration between the filmmaker Federico Fellini and the poet Andrea Zanzotto.

From the online brochure: “Intermediality becomes one of the dominant strains in Italian poetry from the 1960s onward. Andrea Zanzotto’s contributions to this trend are paramount. An analysis of the presence of other forms of art and media in his verse, which is the definition of ‘intermediality,’ sheds new light on this tendency in general, and on his work in particular.  For his part, Federico Fellini, who was dubbed ‘il magico Federico,’ by Zanzotto, has created a distinctive body of films that are characterized by his collaborations with writers and poets, including his longtime friend, Andrea Zanzotto. Within this framework, John P. Welle and Federico Pacchioni will discuss intermediality as it pertains to these two magisterial figures in modern Italian culture. Specific references to Fellini’s cinema in Zanzotto’s poetry and the incorporation of the latter’s verses and songs in the director’s films will be highlighted.”

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The Fruits of Professor Pacchioni’s Garden, A New Book of Poetry

Posted on February 14, 2022 by Federico Pacchioni

I frutti del mio giardino (The Fruits of My Garden) is Dr. Pacchioni’s newest collection of poetry, published by Manni Editore in Lecce, Italy.

The book, organized in interconnected sections, is the discovery of an inner story and a personal map to the world, a lyrical journey that, as reflects Domenico Napolitani in the Afterward “rebuilds the threads” of one’s own “interiority and identity, letting the memory, personal as well as collective, of an Italian in America become the substrate on which action can unceasingly renew itself.”

The book is available via Italian bookstores such as Hoepli and Manni Editori.

 

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Leading Italian Cinema Scholarship

Posted on November 24, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

Chapman’s Italian Studies program continues to be associated with innovative scholarship in Italian film culture thanks to the research activity of Dr. Pacchioni. This fall he was active in presenting his research at local, regional and national levels.

Dr. Pacchioni was invited to deliver the 2021 Michele Serra Lecture in Italian Cinema at Florida Atlantic University, where film students and Italian Studies students utilize the textbook that he co-authored with Peter Bondanella, A History of Italian Cinema (Bloomsbury Press 2017). The lecture was well received and opened a new area of research intersecting the fields of Creative Studies and Italian Film History, a direction that Dr. Pacchioni intends to pursue in future publications.

At the annual conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association in Las Vegas, Dr. Pacchioni chaired the annual panel on Italian Cinema, bringing established and up-and-coming scholars from Italy and the US to the West Coast to discuss recent disciplinary developments.

Florida Atlantic University Poster

Within the walls of Chapman University, the topic of Italian film enters the discourse within and without the Italian Studies curriculum, such as in the course Italian American Cinema, joining Italian Studies and Dodge’s Film Studies and in the Freshman Foundation Program, where Dr. Pacchioni was invited to deliver a presentation on the connection between Antonio Gramsci and Pier Paolo Pasolini by President Daniele Struppa and Marco Panza. Furthermore, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s cinema will also be at the center of the talk that Dr. Pacchioni has been invited to deliver at the upcoming symposium organized by The George L. Graziadio Center for Italian Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

And lastly, Dr. Pacchioni was recently interviewed by acclaimed scholar Frank Burke about the work of the screenwriter and poet Tonino Guerra, especially regarding his work on the films of Federico Fellini, for the the Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies. The full conversation will be published in early 2022.

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Italy in Transit at Chapman: Diaspora, Translation, and Tourism

Posted on November 24, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

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.

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Sustainable Tourism in Italy – A Talk with Federico M. Ceschin, President of SIMTUR – September 23, 2pm

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

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Chapman University President Endows Bernardino Telesio Professorship in Italian Studies

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

The $1 million legacy gift will ensure a strong future for the study of Italian language and culture at Chapman.

Daniele C. Struppa, Ph.D., 13th president of Chapman University, has created a $1 million legacy gift for Chapman. He has designated the Italian Studies program of the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy that, upon his passing, will endow the Bernardino Telesio Professorship in Italian Studies.

Following the creation of the Sebastian P. (Paul) and Marybelle Musco Chair in Italian Studies, and the recent Musco Endowment for Travel Courses in Italian Studies, this new gift ensures an even stronger future for the study of Italian language and culture at Chapman University.

In making his gift, Struppa thanked Paul Musco, who first invested in the Italian Studies program almost 15 years ago and has supported the program continuously since then. Struppa also expressed his admiration and support for Professor Federico Pacchioni, who leads the program with “enthusiasm, intelligence and a great sense of vision.”

Continuing the Legacy of the Italian Renaissance

Above all, Struppa wants to share his love for Italian culture.

“I still believe that everything I have achieved in my life has been due to my parents and to the kind of education that I received in Italy – an education based on hard, consistent work, and that even hundreds of years later, still displays its connection with the great Italian humanists of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It is this legacy that I intend to honor with my gift,” he stated.

This fellowship is named after Bernardino Telesio, a 16th century philosopher from Cosenza, in Calabria. While he was a professor of geometry at the University of Calabria, Struppa co-founded the International Association Bernardino Telesio, which was devoted to the internationalization of research carried out at the University of Calabria.

“Now, after so much time, I still remain indebted to Calabria for giving me the happiest of my years, and for allowing me to learn from its great minds,” Struppa said. “Among those minds Telesio has remained an inspiration that still guides me in my scholarly reflections.”

Expanding Opportunities for Italian Studies

In response to this news, Professor Pacchioni, Ph.D., stated: “This is a truly wonderful gift that will allow us to keep building upon the exceptional foundation already in existence and enable us to open even more doors to Italy for Chapman students. Given President Struppa’s deep personal and professional connection with Italian humanistic and scientific heritage and with Telesio’s thought in particular, his legacy gift carries a profound meaningfulness that will serve our program as an intellectual compass in future years”

“President Struppa’s extraordinary gift to the Italian Studies program ensures a robust future for one of the college’s signature programs and for the liberal arts overall at Chapman.” said Jennifer D. Keene, Ph.D., dean of Wilkinson College.

Sheryl Bourgeois, Ph.D., the university’s executive vice president and chief advancement officer, shared her gratitude for the gift, but was not surprised about its focus. “President Struppa has shared his love of Italian culture with the Chapman Family since he first came to the university in 2006,” she said. “The significance of including Chapman University in his legacy plans is a true indicator of his esteem for and commitment to Chapman.”

Photo: Bernardino Telesio, a 16th century philosopher from Cosenza, Italy, is the inspiration behind a new professorship in Italian Studies. Shown is Telesio’s statue in front of Teatro Comunale Rendelli in the center of old town Cosenza.

 

 

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Vicky Carabini knighted Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

The Honorable Silvia Chiave, Consul General of Italy in Los Angeles, Knighted Vicky Carabini, Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy) on behalf of Sergio Mattarella, President of Italy. This distinction is one of Italy’s highest honors for Italians abroad and is bestowed upon individuals who have distinguished themselves in philanthropy, community activism, research, and promoting relations between Italy and other countries.

‘As an Italian American, I have great pride in my heritage and am committed to working to promote Italian culture whenever and where ever I can.  I am honored to have received this prestigious title.  I know that my grandparents, who left the land they loved for a new life in America, would be extremely proud of this acheivement.’

Vicky was knighted along side of Clorinda Donato, Director of the Clorinda Donato Center for Global Romance Languages and Translation Studies, Marianna Gatto, Director of the Italian American Museum Los Angeles and Hilary Stern Executive Director, Fondazione Italia. Vicky is Chair of the Italian Studies Council at Chapman University, Ambassador to San Juan Capistrano’s Sister City; Capestrano, Italy, Board Member of the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano, Board Member of Mission Hospital, past Area Coordinator for National Italian American Foundation, and past president of the Italian Arts Council.

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Student Receives Outstanding Italian Studies Award

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

Every spring the Department of World Languages and Cultures selects outstanding graduating majors in each language. The award stands for consistency and quality of academic achievements, intellectual curiosity, engagement in the Italian experience as well as contribution to the university’s Italian Studies community. The Italian Studies faculty is delighted to announce that this year the recipient of the award is Drew Murphy.

Drew Murphy completed two B.A.s, a self-designed major in Italian Studies and a major in Literature, Rhetoric and Cultural Studies. He is now working toward an integrated M.A. in English. During his studies, Drew consistently pushed himself outside of his confort zone and demonstrated a rare passion for the study of Italy, its society, literature, and cinema. He worked diligently and with maturity in all of his projects, bringing added intellectual vitality to all of his courses. Drew’s coursework in Italian Studies culminated in a capstone thesis focusing on contemporary media representation of the Medici family, which effectively identified several historical gaps and cultural inaccuracies in popular films and television series on the Italian Renaissance.

Drew is also the Director of the Florentines of San Lorenzo, at the Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire, a connoisseur of Italian Renaissance fashion and a talent tailor in his own right. Recently, Drew was invited to deliver a virtual demonstration about Renaissance fashion to the students of Dr. Pacchioni’s course Imagination and Power in the Italian Renaissance.

Below a photograph of Drew wearing one of his costumes.

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The annual appointment with the Italian Perspective is coming up!

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

Musco Center for the Arts, WIlkinson College, and the Italian Studies Program Present:

Food and Culture: An Italian Perspective
VIRTUAL EVENT – Ticket Complimentary, to register click here:
Saturday, May 1, 2021 | 11:00 a.m. PDT

“Today, at least in the more prosperous countries where variety is available to the masses, the label ‘Italian food’ is a means of marking one’s identity within an increasingly global and technological context in connection with ideas of quality, tradition, genuineness, nature, and community. The very notion of Italian food, now more than ever, entails a stance by which the creation of a new culture is at stake, no matter how apparently traditional it might seem. One of the aims of today’s event is that of understanding Italian cultural roots more lucidly by discovering how they make us what we are today.” —Federico Pacchioni, Sebastian P., and Marybelle Musco, chair of Italian Studies

“Italy is a tapestry, and its history is what makes it one of the most fascinating places in the world. Its spectacular cuisine is only an expression of this tapestry, one that—while sprouting from culture—does not require a degree in classical letters to be appreciated. I hope today you will enjoy a new way to read the evolution of Italian culture through its most exquisite aspect.” —Daniele Struppa, president of Chapman University 

Program Lineup
Opening Remarks:
Dr. Federico Pacchioni, Sebastian P., and Marybelle Musco, chair in Italian Studies;
Silvia Chiave, consul general of Italy in Los Angeles

“The Soul of Italian Food,”
a conversation between Daniele Struppa, Chapman University president, and Chef Sir Bruno Serato, owner of Anaheim White House Restaurant and founder of Caterina’s Club

“America, Italy’s Twenty-First Region: Italian Cuisine from Los Angeles to La Spezia,” a talk by Dr. Zachary Nowak, college fellow at Harvard University

“Poetry and Meat: Tuscan Traditions,”
a conversation with Dario Cecchini, traditional butcher from Panzano, Italy, featured in the Netflix series Chef’s Table

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Dr. Pacchioni speaks at the annual conference of the California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

This year’s conference of California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies was hosted by University of California Davis and dedicated to the theme of Italian Experiments.

“Italian experiments have produced countless innovations in art, literature, design, architecture, science, politics, and more. The very nation/notion of Italy has constituted a kind of experiment at various points throughout history. In 2021, we are 100 years removed from the raucous premiere of Luigi Pirandello’s infamously experimental Sei personaggi, and we commemorate 700 years since the death of Dante, an author whose experiment in terza rimalikewise became a staple of the Italian canon. Drawing inspiration from these bold experimenters, we aim to look at Italian experimentation in its many disciplines, media, genres, and forms. Not only within Italy but also across the Mediterranean and world, Italian innovation has made for an experiment with global impact” (homepage).

Dr. Federico Pacchioni gave a talk entitled: “An Unbearable Guest: The Italian Puppet on the International Silver Screen” focusing on the experiments that Italian puppeteers attempted during the first part of the twentieth century, and the challenges they encountered in integrating their techniques and traditions within the body of the new medium of cinema, both nationally and internationally. The talk elaborated research  published in Dr. Pacchioni’s recent book The Image of the Puppet. Essays across Theater, Film and Literature.

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Article on a New Approach to Humanistic Education by President Struppa and Professor Napoletani appears on Il Corriere della Sera

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Federico Pacchioni

President Daniele Struppa and Professor Domenico Napoletani published an innovative take on humanistic education in one of Italy’s most respected newspapers, Il corriere della sera. 

Big data and machine learning have become pervasive in our day-to-day activities, starting with the way we search for information on the web. The authors explore how big data is changing our relation to knowledge and the radical implications for our educational system. In their article, they suggest that we need to rediscover the significance of our senses for analogical knowledge, if we want a humanistic approach to education to thrive on our reliance on data and machines.

For an English translation of the article click here.

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