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Conference 2025

Session Proposals


Contents


Visions and Dreams in Early Modern Italy
Kristen Keach, Giulia Cardillo

We welcome papers that explore the significance, representations, and interpretations of visions, dreams, and dreamscapes in the literature, art, and culture of Early Modern Italy (c. 1400-1800). Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Literary depictions of prophetic visions, mystical experiences, or altered states of consciousness
  • The role of dreams in early modern philosophy, medicine, science, socio-political ideologies, and theology
  • Visual representations of visionary or dreamlike imagery in early modern art
  • The intermedial dialogue between text, image, public pageantry, music, etc.
  • Methodological approaches to analyzing and interpreting visions and dreams in early modern primary sources
  • Comparative analyses of visions/dreams across different media or cultural contexts in early modern Italy

Abstracts of 250-300 words, along with a brief biographical note, should be submitted via email to the panel organizers Giulia Cardillo cardilgx@jmu.edu and Kristen Keach keachk@wfu.edu by March 20, 2025.

We welcome proposals from scholars at all career stages, including graduate students.

We look forward to your submissions and to an engaging conference exploring the rich and multifaceted role of visions and dreams in early modern Italian culture.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZERS
Kristen Keach
Wake Forest University
keachk@wfu.edu

Giulia Cardillo
James Madison University
cardilgx@jmu.edu


Fear of Being Forgotten: Silence and Oblivion in Pre-modern Italian Women Writers
Eleonora Buonocore, Giulia Cardillo

This panel seeks contributions that explore the fear of literary oblivion in women’s intellectual productions from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. How do they express the anxiety of being silenced or erased by a male-dominated canon? What strategies do they adopt to ensure the survival, recognition, and remembrance of their works and names? What citation, translation, publication strategies do they employ? How do they adapt or adopt other women’s models, and engage with each other’s works? The panel will discuss how women intellectuals want to be remembered and how they face issues of authority and anonymity through their agency and generative power.

We welcome contributions that take an interdisciplinary approach, examining these issues in women’s contributions in the fields of literature, the arts, and the sciences. Papers might investigate specific case studies, analyze themes or topoi and trace broader trends in women’s artistic and scientific creations. Proposals are welcome from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including Cultural and Literary Studies, History, Intellectual History, Gender Studies, Art History, and Music History.

We welcome proposals from scholars at all career stages, including graduate students. Please send your (250 words) abstracts and a short biographical note to:
Eleonora.buonocore@ucalgary.ca
cardilgx@jmu.edu

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March 2025

ORGANIZERS
Eleonora Buonocore
University of Calgary
Eleonora.buonocore@ucalgary.ca

Giulia Cardillo
James Madison University
cardilgx@jmu.edu


Increasing Learning Opportunities in Language and Culture Education: Blended and Online Approaches Revisited
Luisa Canuto

Submission Instructions:
  • Please send your proposals to Luisa Canuto, luisa.canuto@ubc.ca, by March 20, 2025
  • Notifications of acceptance will be sent by March 27, 2025

As the landscape of education continues to evolve, blended or hybrid, and online learning environments continue to present a number of different and unique opportunities and challenges for teaching language as well as culture courses. This panel seeks to explore innovative pedagogical strategies, research findings, and practical applications in the realm of language and cultural education within these formats. Sample themes and questions to explore may include, but are not limited to: integrating cultural competence into online settings; technology-enhanced language learning; community engagement in/through online learning; assessment strategies for blended and online learning; learner autonomy and motivation; challenges encountered in blended and online courses, and solutions implemented; strategies to design, develop, and offer online courses; Impact of online courses on curriculum and enrollment.

Please submit a 200-300 word abstract and include the following information:
  • Title of the presentation 
  • Description of the topic and its relevance to the theme (200 words maximum)
  • Brief biography of the presenter(s) which includes your full name, current affiliation and email address

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March 2025


ORGANIZER

Luisa Canuto
University of British Columbia
luisa.canuto@ubc.ca


Plurilingualism and Multimodality in Second Language Education: Experiences and Proposals
Giuliana Salvato

This session aims to create a space for critical reflection and exchange among scholars who would like to reformulate second language education through novel interpretations of theories that promote plurilingualism and multimodality in teaching and learning practices. This session offers the opportunity for participants to present and discuss their ideas and experiences in second language education, where Italian is the target language or is one of the languages being considered. The session hopes to be a venue where participants can learn from thinking beyond the traditional approaches to second language pedagogy, and from on-going and future research work. This session welcomes presentations whose theoretical framework endorses:

  • plurilingualism or multilingualism or translanguaging
  • multimodalities or multiliteracies


Please submit a 200-300 word abstract and include the following information:

  • Title of the presentation
  • Description of the topic and its relevance to the theme (200 words maximum)
  • Brief biography of the presenter(s) which includes your full name, current affiliation and email address


Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session:
Please send your proposals by March 20th 2025 to Dr. Giuliana Salvato, gsalvato@uwindsor.ca


ORGANIZER
Giuliana Salvato
University of Windsor, ON, Canada
gsalvato@uwindsor.ca


Representations of Motherhood and Mothering in Contemporary Italy
Veronica Frigeni

Building on Adrienne Rich's pioneering distinction between motherhood as an institution and mothering as lived experience, this panel invites contributions that explore and question representations of motherhood and mothering in response to the growing politicisation of the maternal role in contemporary Italy.  

This panel seeks to investigate how mothering and motherhood are depicted and enacted across diverse media—cinema, literature, graphic novels, visual arts, television, and social platforms—particularly in light of increasing public debates on reproductive rights, family policies, and gender roles. It encourages interdisciplinary approaches, drawing, for example, from feminist and queer theories, sociology, cultural studies, and political analysis. Contributors are invited to consider how traditional ideals of motherhood and mothering coexist or clash with more subversive or intersectional narratives.  

Key questions include: How do these representations reflect or resist the institutionalisation of motherhood within Italy's political and cultural discourse? In what ways do they engage with issues of class, race, and gender? How do new digital platforms contribute to amplifying or contesting these debates?

By addressing these questions, the panel aims to illuminate the dynamic and contested roles of motherhood and mothering within Italy’s contemporary cultural and political landscape.

Proposals are welcomed from scholars at all career stages, including graduate students.

Please send your (250 words) abstracts and a short biographical note (150 words) to: veronica.frigeni@gmail.com

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 28 February 2025

ORGANIZER
Veronica Frigeni
Centre for Feminist Research - York University
veronica.frigeni@gmail.com


Fascism and Italian Cinema
Carlo Testa

This panel welcomes proposals for contributions addressing any aspect of the intersection between “Fascism” and “Italian Cinema,” whether they be a critical re-visitation of Italian cinema during the Fascist regime, or an analysis of the ways in which post-1945 Italian cinema has re-visited the years of the regime, be it via fiction films or documentary films.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 15 March 2025

ORGANIZER
Carlo Testa
UBC Vancouver
ctesta.canada@gmail.com


Medi@evo. La rappresentazione della letteratura italiana medievale nei media e nei contesti digitali.
Matteo Maselli, Teresa Agovino

Nel corso dei secoli XX e XXI, ampio spazio è stato dato a livello mediatico (filmico, televisivo, …) alle rappresentazioni di un Medioevo dapprima filtrato nel tempo da una cupa, tenebrosa e, pertanto, distorsiva lente che si può far risalire indietro sino all’epoca umanistico-rinascimentale, poi rivisitato in una chiave certamente più realistica e storicamente obbiettiva. Con l’avvento del digitale nuove forme di espressività sono state sondate, restituendo un mondo ancora più variegato, ricco e per certi versi imprevedibile di quello offerto fino ad allora dagli approdi esegetici più tradizionali.

Questo panel – che si terrà in presenza – vuol, dunque, indagare a tutto tondo tanto le (re)visioni contemporanee della nostra letteratura medievale – quali, ad esempio, il Decameron di Pasolini (1971) o il videogioco Dante’s Inferno (2010) – quanto le forme inventive medievaleggianti dell’era contemporanea, come la ripresa filmica (1986) e la serie televisiva (2019) de Il nome della rosa di Umberto Eco (1980).

Ampio spazio verrà, poi, riservato ai contributi incentrati sul panorama digitale quale nuovo approccio all’analisi testuale di opere di epoca medievale, come l’applicazione di ontologie e web semantico ai testi del canone letterario, la digitalizzazione dei manoscritti, le potenzialità fornite da portali, piattaforme e archivi informatizzati.

Alla luce di tali premesse, si invitano gli studiosi interessati a presentare una proposta di intervento (max 250 parole, in italiano o in inglese) e un breve profilo biobibliografico a m.maselli2@unimc.it e teresa.agovino@unimercatorum.it entro e non oltre il 20 marzo 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session:  20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZERS
Matteo Maselli
Università di Macerata
m.maselli2@unimc.it

Teresa Agovino
Universitas Mercatorum, Rome
teresa.agovino@unimercatorum.it


Crowds in Italian painting between the Quattrocento and the Ottocento
Mathilde Legeay, Franziska Kleine

As a manifestation of the nameless and the innumerable, the crowd plays a secondary role in the narrative picture, which was primarily codified in modern Italian painting. Peripheral, ephemeral and informal groups oppose the clearly contoured hero at the center, the individual who acts willfully. Nevertheless, as its counterpart, the crowd can both demonstrate the protagonist’s power and question it. If we consider the crowd as a minimal form of community, often uniting the most marginalized of society, the position it takes in narrative paintings becomes a political issue.

During this session, we want to explore representations of the crowd in Italian narrative painting between 1400 to 1900 through a few suggested topics, to which you will be able to add some if needed:

  • The making of the crowd: How did painters proceed to give shape to the crowd as an under-determined, maximally variable and expandable entity?
  • The reception of the crowd: What connection does the picture of a crowd entertain with its location and its viewer?
  • The sociology of the crowd: Which stereotypes of social groups do the different representations of the crowd maintain or break?
  • The politics of the crowd: Which agency or agenda can be ascribed to a represented crowd?

Abstracts of 250-300 words, along with a brief biographical note, should be submitted via email to the panel organizers Franziska Kleine (f.kleine@fu-berlin.de) and Mathilde Legeay (Mathilde.Legeay1@univ-nantes.fr) by March 20, 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March, 2025

ORGANIZERS
Mathilde Legeay
Nantes Université
Mathilde.Legeay1@univ-nantes.fr

Franziska Kleine
Freie Universität Berlin
f.kleine@fu-berlin.de


“A questo punto guarda con i tuoi occhi e anche senz’occhi”. Culture visuali della letteratura italiana del Novecento e oltre: tra teoria e analisi.
Michele Bordoni, Emma Pavan

La cultura visuale occupa un ruolo centrale negli studi umanistici. Il Pictorial turn (Mitchell, 1992) e lo sviluppo trentennale di questa “indisciplina” (Cometa, 2020) hanno influito notevolmente non solo sull’autorappresentazione degli studi letterari, ma anche sull’idea di letteratura in generale: non più ambito disciplinare autosufficiente, ma pratica necessariamente inserita nel contesto delle relazioni tra immagini e parole (cf. gli studi di fotoletteratura di Montier, 2018, e quelli sugli iconotesti di Louvel, 2011), narrazione e descrizione (Wolf, 2007), sguardo e dispositivo. In ambito italiano abbiamo assistito a un importante sviluppo degli studi di cultura visuale (Pinotti-Somaini, 2009; 2016 – Cammarata, Cometa, Coglitore, 2022), tuttavia, le potenzialità di questo approccio non sono ancora state del tutto esplorate nel campo della letteratura italiana. Domande come “che ruolo ricoprono le immagini nella cultura contemporanea?”, “Qual è la loro agency?”, “Come si relazionano con i media e i dispositivi che le veicolano?” rappresentano oggi un punto di partenza per interrogare molti testi e opere in maniera inedita. Questo panel vuole essere l’occasione per riflettere sugli aspetti visuali della letteratura italiana dal primo Novecento ad oggi. Lo scopo è quello di analizzare, da un lato, la cultura visuale degli scrittori e la presenza di elementi visuali nelle loro opere e, dall’altro, le riflessioni teoriche su temi visuali (immagini, sguardi, dispositivi) degli autori stessi. Saranno benvenute le proposte che mirino all’integrazione del lato teorico con quello analitico, e che si propongano di mostrare come l’ibridazione di pratiche differenti permetta di illuminare aspetti inattesi della letteratura italiana.

‘A questo punto guarda con i tuoi occhi e anche senza occhi’. Visual cultures in twentieth-century Italian literature and beyond: between theory and analysis.

Visual culture plays a pivotal role in the field of humanities studies. The Pictorial Turn (Mitchell, 1992) and the thirty-year development of this ‘indiscipline’ (Cometa, 2020) have had a significant impact on not only the self-representation of literary studies, but also the concept of literature in general. The notion of literature as a self-sufficient disciplinary field has been challenged, and this practice is necessarily situated within the context of the relations between images and words (cf. the studies on photoliterature by Montier, 2018, and the ones on iconotexts by Louvel, 2011), narration and description (Wolf, 2007), gazes and devices. In the Italian context, there has been a notable advancement in the field of visual culture studies (Pinotti-Somaini, 2009; 2016 – Cammarata, Cometa, Coglitore, 2022). However, the full potential of this approach remains to be seen in the domain of Italian literature. The questions of what role images play in contemporary culture, what their agency is, and how they relate to the media and the devices that convey them represent a starting point for interrogating many texts and works in a new way. This panel has been convened with the intention of facilitating reflection on the visual aspects of Italian literature from the early twentieth century to the present day. The objective of this panel is to analyse, on the one hand, the visual culture of the writers and the presence of visual elements in their works, and on the other, the theoretical reflections on visual themes (images, gazes, devices) of the authors themselves. We welcome proposals that integrate the theoretical and the analytical sides, and that demonstrate how the combination of different practices allows us to shed light on hitherto unanticipated aspects of Italian literature.

« A questo punto guarda con i tuoi occhi e anche senza occhi ». Les cultures visuelles dans la littérature italienne du XXe siècle et au-delà: entre théorie et analyse.

La culture visuelle occupe une place centrale dans les études en sciences humaines. Le Pictorial turn (Mitchell, 1992) et le développement trentenaire de cette « indiscipline » (Cometa, 2020) ont considérablement influencé non seulement l’autoreprésentation des études littéraires, mais aussi l’idée de littérature en général : non plus un champ disciplinaire autosuffisant, mais une pratique nécessairement insérée dans le contexte des relations entre images et mots (cf. : les études de photolittérature de Montier, 2018, et celles sur les iconotextes de Louvel, 2011), de la narration et de la description (Wolf, 2007), du regard et du dispositif. Dans le contexte italien, on a assisté à un développement important des études sur la culture visuelle (Pinotti-Somaini, 2009 ; 2016 - Cammarata, Cometa, Coglitore, 2022), mais le potentiel de cette approche n’a pas encore été pleinement exploré dans le domaine de la littérature italienne. Des questions telles que « Quel rôle les images jouent-elles dans la culture contemporaine ? », « quelle est leur agency ? », « quelle est leur relation avec les médias et les dispositifs qui les véhiculent ? » représentent désormais un point de départ pour interroger de nombreux textes et oeuvres d’une manière nouvelle. Ce panel vise à réfléchir sur les aspects visuels de la littérature italienne du début du XXe siècle jusqu’à nos jours. L’objectif est d'analyser, d’une part, la culture visuelle des écrivains et la présence d’éléments visuels dans leurs oeuvres et, d’autre part, les réflexions théoriques sur les thèmes visuels (images, regards, dispositifs) des auteurs eux-mêmes. Toute proposition visant à intégrer l’aspect théorique à l’aspect analytique et à montrer comment l’hybridation de différentes pratiques nous permet d'éclairer des aspects inattendus de la littérature italienne sera accueillie favorablement.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20th March 2025

Bibliografia
Cammarata, Valeria and Cometa, Michele and Coglitore, Roberta, Cultura visuale in Italia. Sguardi, immagini, dispositivi, Meltemi, 2022
Cometa, Michele, Cultura visuale. Una genealogia, Raffaello Cortina, 2020
Mitchell, William John Thomas, Picture Theory, University of Chicago Press, 1992
Montier, Jean-Pierre, Photoliterature: trading gazes, Image & narrative, 2018, 19 (2), pp.77-90 Louvel, Liliane, Poetic of the Iconotext, Ashgate, 2011
Pinotti, Andrea and Somaini, Antonio, Cultura visuale. Immagini, sguardi, media, dispositivi, Einaudi, 2016
Pinotti, Andrea and Somaini, Antonio, edited by, Teorie dell’immagine, Raffaello Cortina, 2009
Wolf, Werner and Bernhard, Walter, edited by, Description in Literature and Other Media, Rodopi, 2007

ORGANIZERS
Michele Bordoni
Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
michele.bordoni@uclouvain.be

Emma Pavan
Università di Cagliari
emmapav95@gmail.com


Page by Page: Mastering Italian Language and Culture Through Reading"
Morena Svaldi

Recent studies and scholarly articles indicate that young adults in North America predominantly rely on electronic media, particularly video content, resulting in a significant decline in the time allocated to reading in their first, second, or third languages. This trend raises considerable concerns, as it jeopardizes literature and may contribute to cultural impoverishment. Furthermore, limited engagement with literary reading adversely affects cognitive skills, particularly in areas such as memory and attention. As educators of Italian culture, language, and literature, it is essential for us to reflect on our role in addressing this issue and to explore effective teaching methodologies for integrating the study of the Italian language and culture through original texts and literature. This session aims to foster reflection and dialogue regarding the development of new course materials and teaching strategies, ranging from elementary-level courses to advanced Italian studies in higher education. We are particularly interested in investigating how the incorporation of reading, especially literature, can enhance comprehension of the Italian lexicon and grammatical structures while also enriching cultural knowledge and promoting cognitive development.


Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20th March 2025

ORGANIZER
Morena Svaldi
Mount Holyoke College & New England AATI Representative U.S.
msvaldi@mtholyoke.edu


Echoes of Tradition: Myths and Fairy Tales in a Multimedia World
Edmondo Grassi, Elena Sottilotta

Myths and fairy tales have travelled through time, transforming from oral traditions into digital narratives that populate the metaverse. These stories evolve alongside the media that convey them, shaping collective imaginations and fostering new modes of cultural interaction. This panel seeks to explore how myths and fairy tales are adapted, represented, and reinterpreted through various media, from traditional storytelling to virtual and augmented realities. Contributions that focus on tales rooted in the Italian tradition or transnational tales woven into Italian culture are especially welcome. Potential topics include:

  • The Evolution of Narrative Forms rooted in Oral Traditions
  • Technological Mediations of Myth and Folklore
  • Mythical and Fairy-Tale Narratives in Gaming and Immersive Experiences
  • Digital Storytelling and Collective Memory

By exploring how the mediation of myths and fairy tales reflects shifting technological and artistic innovations, this panel aims to highlight their influence on Italian culture. We invite papers that examine how artists and storytellers reimagine these narrative forms to explore themes of identity, tradition, and innovation in a multimedia world.

Please submit your abstract proposals (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note (max. 200 words) to the panel organizers Edmondo Grassi (edmondo.grassi@uniroma5.it) and Elena Sottilotta (ees45@cam.ac.uk) by 20 March 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March 2025

ORGANIZERS
Edmondo Grassi
San Raffaele University of Rome
edmondo.grassi@uniroma5.it

Elena Sottilotta
University of Cambridge
ees45@cam.ac.uk


Una pratica di traduzione etica - An Ethical Translation Practice
Gabriele Belletti, Silvia Valisa

Che cosa vuole dire tradurre eticamente? Che cos’è una traduzione tematicamente o formalmente etica? Prendendo spunto dallo sviluppo degli studi di teoria e storia della traduzione negli ultimi decenni, e dalle conversazioni transnazionali attualmente in corso (Venuti, Choi, Liu, e Cronin tra gli altri) in questo panel ci proponiamo di interrogare l’etica della traduzione a livello di gerarchie e rapporti di potere — in dinamiche di genere, in tensioni linguistiche o geopolitiche, in ambito ecopoetico, e di intelligenza post-umana (tra le molte possibilità). Lo scopo è di mettere in dialogo voci e riflessioni sull’etica della traduzione in tutte le sue forme e da parte di studiose e studiosi a tutti i livelli. Accettiamo proposte (in italiano e in inglese) che riflettano su metodologie di ricerca ma anche su specifiche esperienze didattiche e di pratica di traduzione.

Inviare un abstract di 250 parole ed una breve biografia entro il 28 febbraio a Silvia Valisa (Florida State University, svalisa@fsu.edu) e Gabriele Belletti (University of Florida, g.belletti@ufl.edu)

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 28 February 2025

ORGANIZERS
Gabriele Belletti
University of Florida (UF)
g.belletti@ufl.edu

Silvia Valisa
Florida State University
svalisa@fsu.edu


Contemporary Writing by Italian-Canadian Women
Licia Canton

This session invites proposals for academic papers on recent works by Italian-Canadian women. Academics, scholars, researchers and graduate students from all disciplines are encouraged to submit proposals in Italian, English or French. Papers from multidisciplinary perspectives (migration studies, literary studies, film studies, queer studies, women and gender studies, history, sociology, art history…) are welcome. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Translation and self-translation
  • Roots and traditions in contemporary works
  • The creative process
  • Cultural memory
  • Reception and media attention
  • Adaptations (from novel to film, story to play…)

Please send a 200-word abstract and short biographical note (50 words) to lcanton@accenti.ca. Preference will be given to researched papers that discuss new works.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: February 28, 2025

ORGANIZER
Licia Canton
Accenti Magazine, Association of Italian-Canadian Writers, University of Toronto’s Iacobucci Centre
lcanton@accenti.ca


AI-Generated Texts: Issues, Challenges, and Operational Proposals
Paolo Nitti

The generation of texts through artificial intelligence raises significant issues and challenges related to the accuracy of information and the structure of the texts.
This session, part of the online panel series, invites contributions addressing the following topics:

  • AI and textuality
  • Perception of AI-generated texts
  • Structure of AI-generated texts
  • AI-generated texts in language teaching

Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary proposals exploring these themes from diverse research perspectives are particularly encouraged.
The publication of the proceedings is planned.

We welcome proposals in Italian, English, Spanish, and French from scholars at all career stages, including graduate students.
Please submit your abstracts (250 words) along with a short biographical note (150 words) to paolo.nitti@uninsubria.it

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20th March 2025

ORGANIZER
Paolo Nitti
Università degli Studi dell’Insubria
paolo.nitti@uninsubria.it


Sanremo 2025 lyrics: language, culture and use in Italian language teaching
Lorenzo Coveri, Pierangela Diadori, Donatella Troncarelli

Sanremo Song Festival is internationally known, since 1951, as the main event of Italian pop music. The 2025 edition (11-15 February 2025) offers the opportunity to analyze the lyrics of the competing songs from a linguistic, cultural and didactic point of view.
This session, part of the online panel series, invites contributions addressing the following topics:

  • New linguistic trends in Sanremo 2025 lyrics
  • Standard and non-standard Italian and other languages in Sanremo 2025 lyrics
  • Themes and cultural references in Sanremo 2025 lyrics
  • Sanremo 2025 lyrics: possible exploitations for Italian language teaching

Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary proposals exploring these subjects from diverse research perspectives are particularly encouraged.
The publication of the proceedings is planned.

We welcome proposals in Italian and English from scholars at all career stages, including graduate students.
Please submit your abstracts (250 words) along with a short biographical note (150 words) to diadori@unistrasi.it

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20th March 2025

ORGANIZER
Pierangela Diadori
Full Professor of Italian Linguistics
Università per Stranieri di Siena
diadori@unistrasi.it


Riflessioni sulle rappresentazioni del Regno d’Italia nella letteratura del primo ventennio postunitario
Marco Borrelli

All’indomani dell’Unità, una parte cospicua dei letterati e dei critici letterari italiani comincia a riflettere sulle modalità con cui si è concluso il sogno unitario. Divisi tra l’esaltazione di un passato eroico, in continuità con la letteratura preunitaria, e l’idea di un Risorgimento tradito, scrittori e intellettuali non godono ancora di una retrospettiva sufficiente per formulare un bilancio definitivo del processo di unificazione nazionale. Tuttavia, già nel primo ventennio postunitario, sono tante le voci del panorama letterario del neonato Regno ad avvertire che l’entusiasmo sta cedendo progressivamente il passo a un’amarezza derivante, soprattutto, dalla scoperta di difficoltà ‘geopolitiche’ insospettate e dall’avvento di un’era industriale alla quale la nazione non arriva preparata. In questo contesto, la letteratura e la critica letteraria imbastiscono una vera e propria riflessione sul ruolo civile dell’arte. In particolare, dalla prosecuzione della produzione dei memorialisti ai contributi di Luigi Capuana e Cletto Arrighi intorno allo sviluppo di un teatro nazionale, passando per la transizione dalla formazione «in positivo» del romanzo preunitario a una «formazione in negativo» (Baldi 2007), percepibile nella narrativa degli autori scapigliati e nei primi romanzi parlamentari, emerge con forza la volontà di prendere in considerazione nuove realtà della Penisola. L’attenzione riservata alla marginalità sociale determina quel cambio del paradigma culturale che è l’oggetto del presente panel. Pertanto, saranno particolarmente graditi interventi che esaminino l’interazione tra il «campo letterario» e quello «politico» nel contesto dell’Italia postunitaria, analizzando la funzione essenziale svolta dalla produzione letteraria nel lungo processo di nation building.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20th March 2025

ORGANIZER
Marco Borrelli
Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”
marco.borrelli@unior.it


Trap songs’ languages. Multilingual models and motivational strategies for teaching Italian L2
Borbala Samu, Yahis Martari

Once uniquely American phenomenon, trap music has now grown into an international force, being one of the most popular forms of music in Italy as well. It represents a prism through which to critically read contemporary dynamics linked to questions of identity, language, culture and society. Due to its popularity with younger generations a question worth pursuing is to investigate the viability of incorporating trap music into the classroom, especially as an approach in language education.

This session invites contributions addressing the following topics:

  • Trap and issues of identity;
  • Languages and language varieties in the songs and their contextual uses;
  • Trap songs’ languages and contents to promote critical reflection in school and university classrooms;
  • Educational potential of the songs for the promotion of multilingualism and integration;
  • Use of the songs to present a current image of Italian culture and society.

We welcome proposals in Italian and English from scholars at all career stages, including graduate students. Please submit your abstracts (250 words) along with a short biographical note (150 words) to yahis.martari@unibo.it / borbala.samu@unistrapg.it

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20th March 2025

ORGANIZERS
Borbala Samu
Associate Professor of Educational Linguistics, University for Foreigners of Perugia
borbala.samu@unistrapg.it

Yahis Martari
Associate Professor of Educational Linguistics, University of Bologna
yahis.martari@unibo.it


Feminine Soundscapes
Daniela Bombara, Pamela Parenti, Ellen Patat

This panel seeks to explore feminine soundscapes crafted by women writers, as well as those associated with female characters in works by authors of any gender. The aim is to investigate the meanings and mechanisms through which the acoustic sphere of modernity infiltrates expressive media—whether narrative, poetry, or any other form of art—encompassing sonic and/or musical elements that shape distinctive soundscapes. While the primary focus is on Italian literature and culture, comparisons with other literatures and cultures are welcome.

The panel encourages contributions addressing, but are not limited to, the following questions:
  • Can we identify a gendered poetics of soundscapes or of “music on paper”?
  • How do soundscapes contribute to (trans)gender identity and identity (trans)formation?
  • Are the literary and extraliterary soundscapes created by women writers and artists distinct, and what sets them apart from those crafted by their male counterparts? What meanings do they convey?
  • How do the sounds associated with female characters contribute to shaping their roles within the story-telling and the narrative space?
  • How do feminine soundscapes challenge or enrich cultural, historical, or artistic frameworks?
Particularly welcome are multimedia contributions that adopt a comparative perspective, exploring intersections between literature and other arts, such as music, visual arts, theater, or digital media.

The chronological scope spans from the late nineteenth century, when the consubstantiality of the arts intertwined music with poetry and narrative, through the early twentieth century, where sound and music gained hermeneutic relevance, to the late twentieth century, marked by multimedia literary communication. Contributions that explore other historical periods or interdisciplinary approaches could be accepted upon request.

The working languages are Italian and English. Contributions that align with the specific editorial project will be considered for publication.

Please send your (250 words) abstracts and a short biographical note (150 words) to: caisoundscapes@gmail.com.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March 2025

Paesaggi sonori al femminile
Daniela Bombara, Pamela Parenti, Ellen Patat

Questo panel mira a esplorare i paesaggi sonori al femminile delineati da scrittrici e artiste, come anche quelli associati a personaggi femminili in opere di autori di qualsiasi genere. L’obiettivo è indagare i significati e i meccanismi attraverso cui la sfera acustica della modernità si infiltra nei media espressivi — che si tratti di narrativa, di poesia, o di qualsiasi altra forma d’arte — comprendendo elementi sonori e/o musicali che modellano peculiari paesaggi sonori. Pur concentrandosi principalmente sulla letteratura e sulla cultura italiane, sono ben accetti confronti con altre letterature e altre culture.

Il panel incoraggia contributi che affrontino, ma non si limitino, alle seguenti domande:
  • Possiamo identificare una poetica di genere dei paesaggi sonori o delle forme musicoletterarie?
  • In che modo i paesaggi sonori contribuiscono all’identità (trans)genere e alla trasformazione dell’identità (trans)genere?
  • I paesaggi sonori letterari ed extraletterari creati da scrittrici e artiste sono distinti, e cosa li differenzia da quelli creati dai loro colleghi maschi? Quali significati trasmettono?
  • In che modo i suoni associati ai personaggi femminili contribuiscono a definire i loro ruoli all’interno della narrazione e dello spazio narrativo?
  • In che modo i paesaggi sonori femminili mettono in discussione, o arricchiscono,  quadri culturali, storici o artistici?
Sono particolarmente benvenuti contributi multimediali che adottino una prospettiva comparativa, esplorando intersezioni tra letteratura e altre arti, come musica, arti visive, teatro o media digitali.

L’arco cronologico si avvia dalla fine del diciannovesimo secolo, quando la consustanzialità delle arti intreccia musica con poesia e narrativa, abbraccia l’inizio del ventesimo secolo, dove il suono e la musica acquisiscono rilevanza ermeneutica, e approda alla fine del ventesimo secolo, caratterizzata dalla comunicazione letteraria multimediale. Contributi che esplorano altri periodi storici o approcci interdisciplinari potrebbero essere accettati su richiesta.

Le lingue di lavoro sono l’italiano e l’inglese. I contributi che si allineano al progetto editoriale specifico saranno considerati per la pubblicazione.

Si prega di inviare un abstract di 250 parole e una breve nota biografica di 150 parole a caisoundscapes@gmail.com.

Data di chiusura per la ricezione delle proposte per questa sessione: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZERS
Daniela Bombara
Independent Researcher
daniela.bombara63@gmail.com

Pamela Parenti
Università Niccolò Cusano (Roma)
pamela.parenti@unicusano.it

Ellen Patat
Università di Istanbul
ellenpatat@gmail.com


FAIR Periodicals: What Does It Really Mean to 'Digitize' a periodical?
Nike Francesca Del Quercio, Costanza Paolillo

Periodical studies, an inherently interdisciplinary field spanning linguistics, literature, history, and cultural studies, offers a strong framework for engaging with digital humanities. Yet, as more humanities projects focus on digitization and the development of databases, digital archives, and open-access infrastructures, the challenges and opportunities of digitizing periodicals are often overlooked by scholars from non-digital humanities disciplines.

Drawing on case studies of 19th- and 20th-century Italian periodicals, this panel seeks to explore the tools and methodologies used in digitization projects, as well as the development of digital infrastructures that comply with the FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). Specifically, we are interested in projects that not only facilitate access to these materials but also contribute to transforming them into digital heritage.

We welcome proposals on:

  • Digital approaches to material challenges (e.g., access limitations, inaccessibility, and material deterioration, etc.);
  • Platform and data extraction design issues;
  • Challenges encountered by non-DH scholars in applying digital techniques (e.g., OCR, scanning, metadata creation, etc.);
  • Sharing protocols and good practices;
  • Presenting platforms inspired by FAIR principles;
  • Innovative strategies for content dissemination.

Please submit an abstract (max. 250 words) and a short biography (150 words) to Nike Francesca Del Quercio (University of Bologna) and Costanza Paolillo (IULM University/New York University).

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20th March 2025

Session Title: FAIR Periodicals: cosa vuol dire davvero “digitalizzare” una rivista?
Nike Francesca Del Quercio, Costanza Paolillo

I periodical studies sono un ambito di studio che offre per la sua multidisciplinarità – dallalinguistica alla letteratura, dalla storia agli studi culturali, di genere e postcoloniali – un terreno fertile su cui sondare le opportunità di applicazione delle digital humanities. Tuttavia, in un’epoca in cui sempre più progetti di ricerca in campo umanistico ruotano intorno alle digitalizzazioni e anzi incentivano la creazione di database, archivi o infrastrutture digitali che rispondano ai principi dell’open access, è spesso poco chiaro quali siano le reali sfide e opportunitàche la trasposizione in digitale dei periodici offre.

Partendo da case studies sui periodici italiani tra Otto e Novecento, ci interessa esplorare gli strumenti e le metodologie che hanno riguardato e riguardano progetti di digitalizzazione e costruzione di infrastrutture digitali conformi ai principi dei FAIR open data (findable, accessible, interoperable e re-usable), che siano volti non solo a facilitare la consultazione dei materiali, quanto piuttosto a trasformarli in digital heritage.

In particolare siamo interessate a riflessioni su:

  • soluzioni digitali a problemi materiali (limitazioni alla consultazione, inaccessibilità e deterioramento materiale, ecc.);
  • difficoltà per gli umanisti nell’applicazione di tecniche digitali (ocr, scansione, metadazione, ecc.);
  • strategie innovative per la valorizzazione dei contenuti;
  • condivisione di protocolli metodologici e good practice,
  • presentazione di piattaforme ispirati ai principi FAIR;

Si prega di inviare un abstract (max 250 parole) e una breve biografia (150 parole) a Nike Francesca Del Quercio (Università di Bologna) e Costanza Paolillo (Università IULM/New York University).

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20th March 2025

ORGANIZERS
Nike Francesca Del Quercio
Università di Bologna
nike.delquercio2@unibo.it

Costanza Paolillo
Università IULM – New York University
cp3014@nyu.edu


Retoriche della misoginia: strategie, circolazione e trasformazioni del discorso antifemminile tra XVI e XVII secolo
Clara Stella, Fabio Boni

L’immaginario misogino rappresenta un elemento centrale del dibattito culturale tra il XVI e il XVII secolo, articolandosi attraverso strategie retoriche che spaziano dalla satira all’invettiva, dalla polemica accademica alla produzione letteraria, filosofica e giuridica. La presente tavola tematica si propone di analizzare le diverse manifestazioni del discorso misogino in ambito italiano, al fine di approfondirne le trasformazioni e le stratificazioni nel corso del tempo.

Si accolgono contributi che intendano esaminare i seguenti aspetti del dibattito misogino tra il Cinquecento e il Seicento:

  • Le strategie retoriche e stilistiche della misoginia all’interno di testi di diversa tipologia, forma e genere, quali ad es. trattati, manuali di comportamento, testi giuridici, opere poetiche e teatrali;
  • L’influenza della produzione classica, incluso il teatro umanistico, e la rilettura di testi antichi nello sviluppo del pensiero misogino e dei suoi topoi;
  • La convergenza tra la scrittura manieristica e barocca e le modalità espressive dell’invettiva misogina;
  • Il ruolo delle accademie nel promuovere le istanze misogine;
  • La diffusione e la circolazione delle idee misogine attraverso la stampa e la trasmissione manoscritta, con particolare attenzione a testi inediti in contesti provinciali o, al contrario, alla loro diffusione su scala europea in una prospettiva comparata;
  • I temi fondamentali del dibattito sulla figura femminile, la sua natura, il suo ruolo sociale e intellettuale, soprattutto in relazione all’esercizio del potere politico;
  • La rappresentazione del corpo femminile come corrotto, malato e ingannevole, in particolare da una prospettiva politologica.

Si invitano studiose e studiosi a proporre contributi che approfondiscano il tema con un approccio interdisciplinare e un’attenzione alle dinamiche storico-culturali del periodo. Le proposte (massimo 300 parole), accompagnate da un breve profilo biografico del/della proponente, dovranno essere inviate entro il 20 marzo all’indirizzo clara.stella@unipd.it.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZERS
Clara Stella
Università degli Studi di Padova
clara.stella@unipd.it

Fabio Boni
University of the National Education Commission, Krakow
fabio.boni@uken.krakow.pl


Voci femminili nella nuova letteratura italiana della migrazione
Nunzia Soglia

La produzione di testi letterari scritti in lingua italiana da autori e da autrici di origini straniere ha conosciuto, a partire dagli anni Novanta del Novecento, un notevole aumento. L’obiettivo del panel Voci femminili nella nuova letteratura italiana della migrazione è stimolare una discussione sulle tematiche affrontate in particolare dalle scrittrici di origine straniera in racconti, testimonianze, diari e romanzi. Se i primi scritti sono di impianto autobiografico e raccontano il dolore dell’immigrazione e della separazione dalla propria terra, le opere più recenti evidenziano l’urgenza di costruire una nuova realtà offrendo nuove visioni sul mondo che nascono dall’incontro fra persone, religioni, culture e civiltà differenti in una prospettiva multiculturale e naturalmente inclusiva. Si invitano gli studiosi interessati a presentare una proposta di intervento (max 250 parole, in italiano o in inglese) e un breve profilo biobibliografico a nsoglia@unisa.it entro il 20 marzo 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZER
Nunzia Soglia
Università degli Studi di Salerno
nsoglia@unisa.it


From Hearts to Plagues: Lovesickness and Other Diseases in Italian Cultural Narratives
Giovanni Spani

From love sickness to the plague, from cholera to consumption, humanity has faced a vast array of diseases that have profoundly shaped our understanding of the human condition. This panel aims to analyze the diverse representations of illnesses across the centuries in Italy, exploring how different periods in Italian society have documented, interpreted, described, narrated and represented both individual suffering and collective health crises. We welcome explorations of various conditions - from the deeply personal experience of love sickness to the sweeping devastation of plagues, from life-threatening infectious diseases to debilitating chronic conditions. From medieval plague chronicles to contemporary narratives of disease, this panel intends to examine how Italian perspectives have shaped our understanding of illness and its impact on human consciousness. Papers investigating any historical period are welcome, as we aim to trace the evolution and continuity of how disease and suffering have been understood, represented, and confronted within Italy's distinctive historical and cultural landscape.

Abstracts of 200 words, along with a title of the presentation and a brief biographical note, should be submitted via email to gspani@holycross.edu by March 20, 2025

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session:  March 20, 2025

ORGANIZER
Giovanni Spani
College of the Holy Cross
gspani@holycross.edu


The Long Gaze of History: Antonio Scurati and Italian Fascism #2
Sandra Parmegiani

This session is a follow up to a session that took place at CAIS in 2023. In Il tempo migliore della nostra vita (2015), in Fascismo e populismo. Mussolini oggi (2023), and in his tetralogy M (2018-2024), Antonio Scurati offers a memorialization of Italy’s past through historical fiction that closely adheres to and draws from original documents, personal memoirs, and archival sources. Scurati’s narrative portrayal of Italian Fascism has been hailed as a masterpiece and, occasionally, criticized as not sufficiently anti-fascist or factually inaccurate, challenging the very notion of his fictional enterprise. The TV series Mussolini: Son of the Century (Dir. Joe Wright, 2025) is currently being broadcasted in Italy. Scurati worked closely with Wright on this adaptation, whose comedic tone, historical accuracy, and focus have already been the subject of dozens of reviews. Scurati’s books and adaptation provide an overall narrative appraisal of Fascist Italy amid what the author defines as an unprecedented cultural disengagement with history. In his response to Ernesto Galli Della Loggia in Corriere della Sera (17 ottobre 2018), Scurati wished for a “new alliance between historians and novelists,” informed by the conviction that “to prepare the world to come, we will necessarily have to rediscover the profound sense of our history.”

This panel invites contributions on Scurati’s narrative representation of Fascist Italy, and on Wright’s adaptation of M. Il figlio del secolo, which might include - but are not limited to - Scurati’s narrative strategies, the use of archival sources and historical documents; narrativizing the colonial other; female representation; Jewish identity and Fascism; Wright’s adaptation strategies, and more.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20

ORGANIZER
Sandra Parmegiani
University of Guelph
sparmegi@uoguelph.ca


Gioventù a fumetti: rappresentazioni dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza nei fumetti italiani
Simona Di Martino, Alessio Aletta

L’infanzia e l’adolescenza hanno assunto fin dalle origini un ruolo centrale nel panorama del fumetto italiano, raccontando le storie di giovani protagonisti, i loro drammi e le loro realtà, e rivolgendosi in modo privilegiato a bambini e adolescenti. Dalle pagine del Giornalino della domenica a quelle del Corriere dei piccoli, dai fumetti educativi e didattici del secondo dopoguerra alle narrazioni più complesse e stratificate della contemporaneità, le rappresentazioni della gioventù riflettono i mutamenti culturali, sociali e politici della società italiana. Questo panel si propone di esplorare come il medium fumettistico abbia costruito e trasformato l’immaginario legato all’infanzia e all’adolescenza, analizzando personaggi, temi e strategie narrative attraverso diverse epoche e generi.

Possibili filoni tematici da esplorare sono i seguenti:

  1. Ragazze e fumetti – L’evoluzione delle protagoniste nei fumetti per adolescenti e l’inclusione di protagoniste adolescenti nelle trame dei fumetti per ogni età, dai lavori di Grazia Nidasio alla scuola di Disney Italia.
  2. Modelli di mascolinità – Eroi, antieroi e adolescenti nei fumetti italiani: da Antonio Rubino al “fumetto d’autore” e lo shonen all’italiana.
  3. Fumetto e transmedialità – Dal fumetto ai social media e all’animazione: come il fumetto per giovani si adatta ai nuovi media.
  4. Storia e politica nei fumetti per ragazzi – Rappresentazioni del passato e del presente nei fumetti italiani per il pubblico giovane.
  5. Ricezione, fandom e partecipazione giovanile – Il ruolo dei lettori e delle lettrici nel plasmare le narrazioni dei fumetti per giovani in Italia.

Si invitano gli studiosi interessati a presentare una proposta di intervento (max 250 parole, in italiano o in inglese) e un breve profilo biobibliografico a simona.dimartino@utoronto.ca e alessio.aletta@mail.utoronto.ca entro il 20 marzo 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZERS
Simona Di Martino
University of Toronto
simona.dimartino@utoronto.ca

Alessio Aletta
University of Toronto
alessio.aletta@mail.utoronto.ca


La coscienza politico-letteraria del Trecento toscano - The Political-Literary Consciousness of 14th-Century Tuscany.
Nicola Esposito, Tommaso Lombardi

«A Firenze più che altrove la politica ispirava la poesia.» With this remark, Marco Villoresi highlights a central aspect of the literary culture that developed around Florence and the other Tuscan cities from the second half of the thirteenth century onward. Poetic compositions, narrative works, and treatises often maintained a complex and multifaceted relationship with the events and issues that shaped the political life of this specific territorial reality.

This panel aims to reflects on the relationship between politics and literary activity among Tuscan territorial entities during the 14th century. We seek to encourage an analysis that not only explores the internal dynamics of this specific geographical context but also considers the interactions between intellectuals and the socio-political challenges of their time. A broader perspective is encouraged, one that accounts for the critical issues connecting Florence or other Tuscan cities with the wider geopolitical landscape of late medieval Europe.

We welcome contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • The transmission of political messages through literary fiction;
  • The representation of the intellectual in relation to the political sphere;
  • Direct dialogue between intellectuals and political actors (e.g., the direct engagement of writers in politics, the establishment of epistolary exchanges);
  • Political issues of the time as discussed within intellectual networks, in chronicles, and/or in family memoirs (ricordanze);
  • Political treatises and discourse;
  • The courtly and chivalric ideal as a socio-political model.

Interested scholars are invited to submit an abstract (300 words) to Tommaso Lombardi (tommaso.lombardi2@unisi.it) and Nicola Esposito (nicoespo1701@gmail.com) by March 20, 2025, along with a brief Curriculum Studiorum (one page).

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March, 20th

ORGANIZERS
Nicola Esposito
Palacký University Olomouc
nicoespo1701@gmail.com

Tommaso Lombardi
Università degli Studi di Siena–Ente Nazionale Giovanni Boccaccio
tommaso.lombardi2@unisi.it


Paesaggi siciliani in letteratura
Chiel Monzone

Il paesaggio è un elemento ricorrente nei testi letterari: posto in primo piano o sullo sfondo, esso appare come fonte di ispirazione, ‘scrigno’ di simboli e di significati, sorgente ed espressione di emozioni. Esso ne è ‘personaggio’ e al contempo co-protagonista a tutti gli effetti.

La presente sessione, che si svolgerà on line, intende evidenziare il paesaggio siciliano così come appare in Prosa e in Poesia. Decisamente divenuto patrimonio dell’immaginario collettivo non solo siciliano grazie al Cinema e alla Fiction – si vedano, ad esempio, gli episodi de Il Commissario Montalbano –, esso si configura molto variegato: la costa, il vulcano, il monte, i faraglioni, la salina, il mare, il fiume, il lago, la solfatara, la tonnara, il mandorleto, il vigneto, l’aranceto, lo spazio rurale e quello urbano, le vestigia, le bellezze architettoniche, ecc.

Quant* fossero interessat* a partecipare sono invitat* a proporre contributi che analizzino da qualunque angolazione la scrittura di Autori/Autrici sicilian* e non. In quest’ultimo caso, il rimando è a scrittori/scrittrici italian* e stranier* purché abbiano o abbiano avuto dimestichezza con l’isola mediterranea. Non ci sono limiti temporali, potendosi liberamente scegliere tra letterat* di ogni epoca, dalla più antica ai giorni nostri.

Le proposte (massimo 300 parole), accompagnate da un breve profilo biografico del/della proponente, dovranno pervenire entro il 20 marzo all’indirizzo chiel.monzone@uniroma3.it.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZER
Chiel Monzone
Università Roma Tre
chiel.monzone@uniroma3.it


«Is there a theory in this class?». Indagare il testo letterario attraverso la teoria
Alessia Giordano, Letizia Chiale

Se una teoria è quell’insieme ordinato di asserzioni relative a un fenomeno (sia esso un fatto, un oggetto, un comportamento) e sulle relazioni possibili e regolate che intrattiene con elementi all’interno di un contesto specifico, allora può essere definita un’ipotesi in risposta ad una domanda. E, come scrive Popper, è valida solo se falsificabile, dunque se superabile da altre teorie, e da altre ipotesi. Questo panel ha come obiettivo quello di raggruppare interventi in grado di ricucire il rapporto tra la teoria e l’analisi letteraria, mostrando in quali termini sia possibile avvicinarsi deduttivamente al testo. Si prediligeranno le proposte che, partendo dall’esposizione dell’approccio teorico scelto, sia questo di stampo narratologico, psicanalitico o generativista, siano vicine ai Visual Studies o ai Gender Studies, all’Ecocriticism o all’Ethnopoetics – ed i suoi presupposti e strumenti, si dedichino alla sua applicazione ad una forma letteraria. La condizione fondamentale è che l’intervento segua un solido impianto teorico, mostrando come applicare gli strumenti e i metodi proposti dalla teoria al testo. Anziché partire dal particolare e dai singoli dati empirici, la sfida è creare un’ipotesi su uno o più oggetti letterari, un’ipotesi chiara e potenzialmente assurda («All swans are white», per citare ancora Popper), difendendola prima con la teoria scelta, per falsificarla poi con quell’unico cigno nero.

«Is there a theory in this class?». Investigate literary text through theory


If a theory can be defined as an organized set of assertions regarding a phenomenon – whether that be a fact, an object, or a behaviour – and the possible relationships it has with elements in a specific context;  then it can be perceived as a hypothesis that respond to a particular question. As Popper wrote, a theory is scientific if it can be falsified, and if it can be challenged by new theories and hypotheses. This panel aims to connect theory and literary analysis by demonstrating how to study literary form using a deductive approach. Proposals will be favoured if they begin with a chosen theoretical approach, of a narratological, psychoanalytic, or generativist nature or closely related to Visual Studies, Gender Studies, Ecocriticism, or Ethnopoetics. The proposals should emphasize the application of these theories and tools to a specific literary form. The essential requirement is to follow a robust theoretical framework that explains how to apply the proposed tools and methods to the literary text. Rather than beginning with specific empirical data, the challenge is to present a hypothesis about one or more literary works, a hypothesis clear and seemingly absurd («All swans are white», as Popper said). The objective is to primarily support this hypothesis through theoretical arguments, and subsequently challenge it by introducing a single black swan.

«Is there a theory in this class?». Enquêter sur le texte littéraire à travers la théorie


Si une théorie est l’ensemble ordonné d’affirmations relatives à une phénomène (ce soit un fait, un objet, un comportement) et sur les relations possibles et réglées qu’il entretient avec des éléments dans un contexte spécifique, elle peut alors être définie une hypothèse en réponse à une question. Et, comme l’écrit Popper, n’est valable que si elle peut être falsifiée, donc supplantée par d’autres théories et d’autres hypothèses. Cette séance a pour objectif de regrouper des interventions en mesure de réparer le rapport entre la théorie et l’analyse littéraire, en montrant en quels termes une approche déductive du texte est possible. Les propositions qui, à partir de l’explosion de l'approche théorique choisie, – qu’elle soit narratologique, psychanalytique ou générativiste –, s’inscrivent dans les domaines des Visual Studies, des Gender Studies, de l'Ecocriticism ou de l'Ethnopoetics, ainsi que leurs présupposés et outils, et se consacrent à l'application de cette approche à une forme littéraire, seront privilégiées. La condition essentielle est que l’intervention repose sur une solide base théorique, démontrant comment appliquer les outils et les méthodes proposés par la théorie au texte. Au lieu de partir du particulier et des données empiriques, le défi consiste à formuler une hypothèse sur un ou plusieurs objets littéraires, une hypothèse claire et potentiellement absurde («All swans are white», pour citer à nouveau Popper), de la défendre d’abord à l’aide de la théorie choisie, pour ensuite de la falsifier avec cet unique cygne noir.

Inviare un abstract di circa 250 parole e un breve profilo bio-bibliografico entro il 20 marzo a Alessia Giordano (Università per Stranieri di Siena a.giordano2@dottorandi.unistrasi.it) o a Letizia Chiale (Università di Bologna, letizia.chiale@studio.unibo.it).

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZERS
Alessia Giordano
Università per Stranieri di Siena
a.giordano2@dottorandi.unistrasi.it

Letizia Chiale
Università di Bologna
letizia.chiale@studio.unibo.it


Representations of Work in the Italian Renaissance
Alessandro Ceteroni

This panel examines literary and visual representations of work from the Middle Ages to the end of the 17th century. The modern concept of work, based on the law of supply and demand and regulated by employment contracts, emerged in European cultures through long historical processes. The panel explores the diverse meanings and experiences associated with work as depicted by writers and artists, recognizing that no single definition of work exists. The meanings of work must be reconstructed by examining sometimes conflicting notions, such as the stereotypes that depict work as a curse upon humanity (Genesis 3:17-19), the persistence of class distinctions based on social background, the positive value of human agency and creativity, and the representation of the arts and guilds. The panel welcomes contributions that explore representations of work in all their forms, as well as their circulation within a broader European and Mediterranean context. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Images of peasants in literature and art
  • Representations of slaves and captives
  • Narratives about servants
  • Depictions of urban workers and professions
  • Work and technique in religious texts and treatises
  • The labor of poets, artists, and copyists

Please send your proposal to Alessandro Ceteroni, alessandro.ceteroni@uconn.edu, including:
- paper title (15-word maximum)
- paper abstract (250-word maximum)
- full name, current affiliation, and email address

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZER
Alessandro Ceteroni
University of Connecticut
alessandro.ceteroni@uconn.edu


L’arte della beffa: Boccaccio e i suoi epigoni
Tra ironia, ingegno e trasgressione
Marco Verde

Il seguente panel del convegno CAIS 2025 si propone di esplorare il ruolo della beffa nell’opera di Giovanni Boccaccio e la sua fortuna nella letteratura europea. La beffa, intesa come gioco di intelligenza, strumento di critica sociale o semplice espressione di leggerezza, è un elemento cardine del Decameron che contribuisce alla definizione di un immaginario narrativo in cui astuzia e ironia si intrecciano con la riflessione sul potere, la morale e le dinamiche sociali.

Attraverso personaggi che si muovono con ingegno tra vincoli e opportunità, Boccaccio eleva la beffa a meccanismo narrativo di straordinaria efficacia, capace di sovvertire ruoli e gerarchie, di mettere alla prova l’arguzia dell’individuo e di offrire, talvolta, una prospettiva disincantata sulla natura umana. Questo panel intende analizzare non solo le molteplici funzioni della beffa all’interno della produzione dell’autore, ma anche le sue riprese e trasformazioni in epoche e contesti diversi, evidenziando come il modello boccacciano sia stato adattato e reinterpretato in tradizioni letterarie differenti.

Si cercherà dunque di indagare come l’eredità di Boccaccio abbia influenzato gli scrittori successivi, dagli epigoni italiani del Quattrocento e del Cinquecento (come Masuccio Salernitano, Bandello, Straparola) fino agli autori europei che ne hanno raccolto e reinventato l’insegnamento (da Chaucer a Rabelais, da Marguerite de Navarre a Juan de Timoneda). Particolare attenzione sarà dedicata anche alle riscritture e ai rifacimenti della novella beffarda nel teatro, nel romanzo e nelle arti performative dell’età moderna.

Attraverso un approccio multidisciplinare, il panel intende stimolare una riflessione sulle molteplici declinazioni della beffa nel tempo e nello spazio, mettendo in luce la vitalità di un espediente narrativo che, partendo dal Decameron, ha saputo attraversare i secoli e i generi, adattandosi ai diversi contesti culturali e continuando a suscitare fascino e divertimento.

Possibili linee di ricerca:

  • La struttura e le funzioni della beffa nel Decameron
  • Beffa e ingegno: il trick boccacciano tra tradizione e innovazione
  • La beffa come forma di critica sociale e sovversione delle gerarchie
  • L’eredità boccacciana nella novella rinascimentale (Masuccio, Bandello, Straparola…)
  • Beffa e comicità nella narrativa europea (Rabelais, Chaucer, Marguerite de Navarre…)
  • La fortuna della beffa boccacciana nel teatro del Rinascimento (dalla commedia umanistica alla commedia dell’arte)
  • Beffa e censura: fortuna e limiti della narrazione boccacciana nella società rinascimentale
  • La trattazione teorica della beffa come genere letterario e qualità individuale: da Boccaccio alle riflessioni rinascimentali sulla sua funzione sociale e retorica, con particolare attenzione a Il libro del Cortegiano di Baldassarre Castiglione

Modalità di partecipazione:
Inviare un abstract (max 300 parole) e una breve biobibliografia (max 150 parole) entro il 20 marzo 2025 all’indirizzo email marco.verde@uzh.ch . La notifica di accettazione sarà inviata entro le due settimane seguenti.

Per maggiori informazioni consultare il sito web del CAIS o inviare una mail al proponente del panel.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZER
Marco Verde
Università di Zurigo
marco.verde@uzh.ch


Transgenerational Trauma in Italian and Transnational Women’s Writing
Noreen Kane

Psychoanalyst Jill Salberg states: “Multi-generational trauma transmissions are not always simply coded in language. They are found in bodily experiences, fragments, recurring as parts of dreams, and projected into other people” (“When Wounds Touch” 62). Literature can be an ideal medium for exploring the transmission and expression of transgenerational trauma. In a recent article, Katrin Wehling-Giorgi writes that trauma symptoms in literature can be perceived as “alternative, nondiscursive semiotic codes that challenge the relevant master discourse” (249). Whether interpreted as nonverbal expressions of the pain of ancestors, or as a language that disrupts hegemonic discourse, the rendering of trauma into words brings denied or obfuscated collective memories into awareness and constructs a particular relationship between the reader and the text.

In the last two decades, scholars working on psychoanalytic theories of trauma have attempted to address the field’s blind-spots in relation to race and racism (Gobodo-Madikizela 121). Approaches that focus on the transmission of colonial and racial trauma are necessary in the context of transnational Italy, as are perspectives on trauma and recovery from beyond a “Western” framework.

This panel invites papers that investigate the representation of transgenerational trauma in Italian and transnational women’s writing, which explore – but are not limited to – the following questions:

  1. What literary tropes and techniques are employed by writers to express transgenerational trauma?
  2. How is transgenerational trauma expressed across diverse literary genres?
  3. What formal techniques are used to implicate the reader in these narratives of trauma?
  4. What insights do non-“Western” trauma theories offer to literary analysis?

Proposals are welcomed from scholars at all career stages.

Please send an abstract (250 words) and a short biographical note (150 words) to Noreen Kane: 120228167@umail.ucc.ie


Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March 2025


Works Cited:

Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla. ‘Interrupting Cycles of Repetition: Creating Spaces for Dialogue, Facing and Mourning the Past’. Breaking Intergenerational Cycles of Repetition: A Global Dialogue on Historical Trauma and Memory, Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2016, pp. 113–34.

Salberg, Jill. ‘When Wounds Touch: Witnessing and Enacting as Embodied Healing Processes’. Transgenerational Trauma: A Contemporary Introduction, edited by Jill Salberg and Sue Grand, Routledge, 2024, pp. 60–75.

Wehling-Giorgi, Katrin. ‘Unspeakable Things Spoken: Transgenerational Trauma, Fractured Bodies and Visual Tropes in Toni Morrison, Elsa Morante and Elena Ferrante’s Works’. Romance Studies, vol. 41, no. 4, 2024, pp. 248–66, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/02639904.2024.2311516.

ORGANIZER
Noreen Kane
PhD candidate, University College Cork
120228167@umail.ucc.ie


F-to-M Cross-Dressing in Italian Children’s Literature
Anna Finozzi, Dalila Forni

Given the scarcity of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s literature in Italy (Forni, Venzo, Biemmi), we propose examining established literary topoi that, when read through a queer, feminist, and intersectional lens, challenge traditional gender binaries. One of them is the female-to-male (F-to-M) cross-dressing, a recurring motif in children’s fiction across cultural and historical contexts that “has […] never been questioned or censured” but rather “simply been accepted” (Flanagan). Narratives displaying girls adopting male disguises (e.g., Mulan) hold subversive potential, complicating gender norms, and reimagining alternative modes of girlhood.

This panel seeks to explore how temporary metamorphoses through F-to-M cross-dressing manifest in Italian children’s literature, considering their narrative functions, cultural significance, and implications for expanding gender representation, with the aim of interrogating whether these portrayals reinforce or dismantle binary constructs.

Key areas of exploration:

  • Adaptation, rewriting, and censorship of traditional F-to-M cross-dressing narratives in Italian children’s literature;
  • Biographical accounts of Italian historical or fictional persons engaging in F-to-M cross-dressing for young audiences;
  • F-to-M cross-dressing in any Italian artistic production for children;
  • Pedagogical value of narratives featuring F-to-M cross-dressing in Italian children’s literature;
  • The intersection of queer identities and F-to-M cross-dressing in Italian children’s literature.
  • Negotiations of identity, agency, and societal norms in Italian children’s literature representing F-to-M cross-dressing.

Scholars can submit their abstract (250 words, in English or Italian) and short bio to Anna Finozzi (anna.finozzi@su.se) and Dalila Forni (d.forni@unilink.it) by March 20, 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZERS
Anna Finozzi
Stockholm University
anna.finozzi@su.se

Dalila Forni
Università degli Sudi dell’Aquila
d.forni@unilink.it


From Student Curiosity to Scholarly Inquiry: Research from our Students’ Questions
Mary-Michelle DeCoste

Some of the most interesting and thought-provoking moments in our teaching lives occur when our students ask unexpected questions or offer fresh insights about texts we think we know intimately. These questions and observations have the power to challenge what we believed we fully understood, often shaking up our assumptions and prompting us to think in new ways. Speakers on this panel will present research (on any topic within the field of Italian literature and/or cinema) that was sparked by these kinds of student interactions. Proposals should focus on describing the question or observation made by the student(s), explain why it was particularly thought-provoking or significant, and outline the scholarly work or new avenue of research that came about as a result of that thought-provoking exchange.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZER
Mary-Michelle DeCoste
University of Guelph
mdecoste@uoguelph.ca


Colori, odori, suoni della città moderna
Maria Chiara Tarsi

Nel corso del Novecento si è assistito a un notevole incremento di interesse per la dimensione della corporeità e quindi per le esperienze percettive e sensoriali, che ha coinvolto numerose discipline. Si tratta di una prospettiva feconda anche per gli studi letterari: a partire dalla metà del XIX secolo e poi nel corso del Novecento, infatti, mentre il corpo assumeva un posto sempre più centrale, poeti e scrittori hanno riservato uno spazio crescente nelle loro opere all’espressione delle percezioni uditive, gustative, tattili, olfattive, oltre naturalmente a quelle visive.

Scopo del panel (che si terrà in presenza) è riflettere, in particolare, sul ruolo che tale apertura polisensoriale ha avuto nella creazione di un ‘immaginario’ spaziale della città moderna e sulle modalità della sua rappresentazione: l’espressione dei meccanismi percettivi non si esaurisce mai, infatti, in una passiva registrazione di dati, ma agisce come filtro interpretativo. Saranno accolti interventi che riguardino opere, in prosa o in poesia, pubblicate dall’inizio del Novecento a oggi.

Gli studiosi interessati a partecipare possono inviare un abstract (max 250 parole) e una breve nota biografica a mariachiara.tarsi@unicatt.it entro il 20 marzo 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZER
Maria Chiara Tarsi
Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, Milano
mariachiara.tarsi@unicatt.it


Periodicals as Cultural Spaces
Marco De Cristofaro, Guylian Nemegeer


Modernity is frequently characterized as the era of nations and nationalism (Hobsbawm 1992). However, this view neglects the importance of local, (meso-)regional, and transnational identities shaped by the cross-border exchange of cultural products and intellectual ideas. While methodological nationalism remains central in scholarship, literature, culture, and politics are increasingly studied as outcomes of dynamic cultural exchange.

Literary and cultural magazines have provided a crucial space for intellectuals to engage in border-crossing dialogues and assert their positions in public debates. In the twentieth century, these periodicals increasingly evolved into “institutions” (Guerriero 2023), not only facilitating access to cultural production but also offering a fluid and participatory space for engagement (Baldini 2023). As platforms for border-crossing discourse, periodicals highlight the intersection of local concerns and global movements and function as “cultural spaces” (Ther 2009), defined by processes of communication and interaction rather than territorial borders.

This panel welcomes papers in English, Italian or French that examine periodicals as cultural spaces. We are particularly interested in periodicals published from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards that challenge methodological nationalism and illuminate the intersections between local and transnational concerns. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Networks of periodicals and their role in fostering cross-border exchange
  • Periodicals as mediators between local and global literary, cultural, or political traditions
  • The impact of exile and diaspora on periodical cultures
  • Translation, multilingualism, and world literature in periodical culture
  • Periodicals as sites of border-crossing memory and historical reflection
  • Multilingual periodicals as spaces of linguistic, cultural, and political negotiation


Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 18 March 2025

ORGANIZER
Marco De Cristofaro
Université de Mons & Université de Namur
Marco.DECRISTOFARO@umons.ac.be

Guylian Nemegeer
Ghent University
guylian.nemegeer@ugent.be


Ciak! S’insegna! Il cinema nelle classi di italiano L2/LS
Laura Nieddu

Il presente panel è dedicato all'esplorazione del ruolo del cinema nell'insegnamento dell'italiano come lingua seconda e lingua straniera. L’obiettivo è quello di esaminare l’impatto della settima arte sull'acquisizione linguistica e culturale, nonché di discutere le sfide e le opportunità nell’utilizzo del cinema come strumento didattico.

Invitiamo gli interessati a sottoporre proposte di intervento nelle seguenti aree:

Pratiche Concrete

  • Attività didattiche basate su film o cortometraggi
  • Strategie per l'utilizzo di materiali audiovisivi in classe
  • Progetti innovativi che integrano il cinema nell'insegnamento linguistico

Studi Teorici

  • Ricerche sull'efficacia del cinema nell'apprendimento linguistico
  • Analisi delle competenze linguistiche e interculturali sviluppate attraverso l'uso del cinema
  • Studi comparativi sull'utilizzo del cinema in contesti L2 vs LS

Si prega di inviare un abstract di 250 parole, indicando l’area in cui questo s’iscrive, e una breve nota biografica di 150 parole a laura.nieddu@univ-lyon2.fr. La data limite per l’invio delle proposte è il 20 marzo 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZER
Laura Nieddu
Université Lumière Lyon 2
laura.nieddu@univ-lyon2.fr


Tra Storia e Narrazione: la cronaca nei secoli XVI-XVIII
Rodney John Lokaj, Iris Filippone

Il panel si propone di esplorare le modalità di narrazione e le finalità compositive delle cronache redatte tra il XVI e il XVIII secolo, concentrandosi principalmente – ma non soltanto – su come la componente storica intrecci e si intersechi con quella narrativa.

Pertanto, sarà analizzato il modo in cui queste opere strutturano i fatti, come la documentazione storica vi viene inserita e come l’elemento narrativo possa influenzare la percezione degli eventi.

Sebbene attenzione particolare sarà riservata all’ibridazione tra soggetto storico e narrativo, cercando di comprendere come tale fusione abbia contribuito a formare la memoria storica e a dare forma a un racconto più ampio della realtà, si cercherà di indagare anche le peculiarità testuali e linguistiche dei testi in questione, nonché le forme in cui oggi ci sono pervenuti.

Sono ben accetti studi focalizzati su cronache, resoconti annalistici e opere che uniscono racconto e storia in modi innovativo e ancora sorprendente in opere a stampa ma anche manoscritte.

Alla luce di tali premesse, si invitano gli studiosi interessati a presentare una proposta di intervento (max 500 parole, in italiano) e un breve profilo biobibliografico a rodney.lokaj@unikore.it e i.filippone@unior.it entro e non oltre il 20 marzo 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZERS
Rodney John Lokaj
Università degli Studi di Enna, “Kore”
rodney.lokaj@unikore.it

Iris Filippone
Università degli Studi di Napoli, “L’orientale”
i.filippone@unior.it


Italian Anti-Heroes: Exploring New Perspectives
Lisa Viviani

Too good to be a villain but too flawed to be a hero, the anti-hero occupies a liminal space, challenging moral conventions, authority, and societal norms. In Italian literature, this figure has proliferated across different periods and genres —from the quintessential Italian anti-hero Zeno Cosini to the ironic desecration of the Latin Lover in Giovanni Percolla, from the “doomed detective” Guglielmo da Baskerville, to the fooled puppet in the original Pinocchio.

This panel seeks to explore the evolution, function, and implications of the Italian anti-hero, considering how this figure reflects Italy’s cultural, political, and philosophical landscapes.

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • The anti-hero as a distinctly Italian viewpoint
  • The anti-hero as a figure of cultural and political resistance
  • The role of moral ambiguity in anti-heroic figures
  • Between comic and tragic: the role of irony and umorismo in shaping the anti-hero
  • Anti-heroism and commedia all’italiana
  • Reinterpretations of the anti-hero across different periods, genres, and media

The invitation for contributions is extended also to scholars with interdisciplinary approaches and a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Film and Media Studies.

Proposals from scholars at all career stages, including graduate students, are welcome. Please send your abstracts (250 words max.) and a short biographical note (150 words) to Lisa Viviani: lviviani@uwo.ca

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZER
Lisa Viviani
The University of Western Ontario
lviviani@uwo.ca


Narrating and Fashioning the Italian Diaspora in the Americas (1890–1960)
Martina Di Florio

In the first half of the 20th century, Italian-language newspapers and periodicals served as one of the most critical vehicles of cultural aggregation and community-building among first- and second-generation Italian North and South Americans. While they contributed to the assimilation process of the immigrant populations they addressed, such publications also played a central role in fashioning ethnic subjectivities amidst a rapidly changing social, political, and economic landscape. In so doing, the Italian-language press also mediated between the global and the local as they forged linguistic and cultural communities with diverging sensibilities.

Through contributions from across the disciplines, this panel aims to explore the role of the Italian press in negotiating new and pre-received notions of modernity in the Americas. How did Italian-language periodicals in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and beyond construct narratives that addressed class issues, labor movements, assimilation, resistance, and ideas around national identity? In what ways did editorials, advertisements, reader responses, visual culture, and the arts represent or shape class consciousness, mobility, and personal and collective selves? We are especially interested in contributions that examine convergences and tensions across ethnic groups and racial lines, as well as the interplay between home- and host-countries’ cultural identities.

Abstracts of 250 words, along with a brief biographical note, should be submitted via email to the panel chai rMartina Di Florio at martina.diflorio@trincoll.edu by March 20, 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZER
Martina Di Florio
martina.diflorio@trincoll.edu


Parole d’autrici: teatro e lirica dal Rinascimento all'Ottocento.
Stella Castellaneta, Milagro Martín Clavijo

Recenti contributi internazionali di studiose e studiosi hanno permesso di valorizzare percorsi e scritture d’autrici tradizionalmente non presenti nel canone della storiografia letteraria (F. Contu - M. Galletti, 2016; J. Gutierrez Carou, 2020; A. Valerio, 2021; S. Tatti - Ch. Licameli, 2023; D. De Liso, 2023; G. Tellini, 2024; A. Cagnolati – M. Martín Clavijo, 2025; S. Castellaneta, 2025). E tuttavia le ricerche sulla lirica e il teatro delle scrittrici italiane indicano che c’è ancora un vasto campo d’indagine. Il panel intende, dunque, promuovere la ricerca e la conoscenza di testi lirici e drammaturgie d’autrici dal Cinquecento all’Ottocento, non solo in chiave filologico-letteraria ma in prospettiva culturale. Le parole delle donne, poetesse e drammaturghe, restituiscono sguardi diversi? Il proposito è anche riflettere sulla condizione femminile attraverso più fuochi tematici/topics tra i quali si suggeriscono i seguenti:

  • Monacazione forzata e violenza sulle donne nelle scritture liriche e nella drammaturgia pastorale e claustrale
  • Drammaturgia femminile pregoldoniana
  • Identità femminile e istanze risorgimentali
  • Difesa dei diritti delle donne nell’Ottocento

Si invitano gli studiosi interessati a presentare, entro il 20 marzo 2025, una proposta di intervento (max 250 parole) e un breve profile biobibliografico a stellamaria.castellaneta@uniba.it e mclavijo@usal.es.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 marzo 2025

ORGANIZERS
Stella Castellaneta
Università degli Studi di Bari ‘Aldo Moro’
stellamaria.castellaneta@uniba.it

Milagro Martín Clavijo
Universidad de Salamanca (Spagna)
mclavijo@usal.es


Women’s Poetry in Italy (1945-2000)
Elena Porciani, Teresa Spignoli, Caterina Verbaro

A partire dalla metodologia interdisciplinare del PRIN 2022 DiVerse. A Digital Archive of Women’s Poetry in Italy (1945-2000), la sessione si focalizzerà sulla produzione poetica delle donne in Italia nella seconda metà del Novecento. Gli anni fra il 1945 e il 2000, in virtù anche della progressiva emancipazione femminile e dei movimenti femministi, sono stati segnati da un crescente numero di pubblicazioni e traduzione di poetesse; tuttavia, l’attenzione critica su questo fenomeno visto nel suo insieme è stata scarsa e solo poche autrici sono state inserite nel canone. In questa prospettiva si accetteranno proposte su:

  • costanti tematiche e stilistiche della poesia femminile italiana
  • archivi della poesia femminile italiana
  • traduzione realizzate dalle poetesse
  • la poesia femminile italiana e le antologie
  • i dibattiti letterari sulla poesia femminile italiana
  • la militanza letteraria delle poetesse
  • la relazione tra le poetesse e il femminismo

Inviare un abstract di 250 parole e una breve bibliografia (50 parole) a elena.porciani@unicampania.it

Inspired by the interdisciplinary methodology of the 2022 PRIN DiVerse. A Digital Archive of Women’s Poetry in Italy (1945-2000), this session is intended to bring attention to women’s poetic production in Italy in the second half of the 20th Century. The years between 1945 and 2000, together with a progressive female emancipation and the development of the feminist movements, were marked by a growing number of publications and translations of women poets; however, the critical attention to this phenomenon as a whole has been scant, and only a few authors were admitted into the canon. In this perspective we welcome proposals on:

  • women poets’ thematic and stylistic constants
  • women poets’ archives
  • women poets’ translations
  • women’s poetry and the anthologies
  • literary debates on women’s poetry
  • women poets’ literary activism
  • the relationship between women’s poetry and feminism

Please send a 250-word abstract and short biographical note (50 words) to elena.porciani@unicampania.it

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20.03.2025

ORGANIZERS
Elena Porciani
Università degli Studi della Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’
elena.porciani@unicampania.it

Teresa Spignoli
Università degli Studi di Firenze
teresa.spignoli@unifi.it

Caterina Verbaro
LUMSA
c.verbaro@lumsa.it


Italian Performance Poetry of the 20th and 21st Centuries
Alessandro Ludovico Minnucci

Since the end of the 19th century, the traditional relationship between poetry and the written page has been increasingly challenged in a broad variety of forms. Poets have explored multiple, often overlapping approaches: incorporating elements of orality within the text, experimenting with new media emerging from contemporary electric and digital revolutions, and using their own bodies and voices to push the boundaries of the written page.


This session welcomes presentations on performance poetry in its various forms, with a historical focus ranging from the early 20th century to the contemporary landscape, enclosing artists and movements such as Futurism, Concrete Poetry, Emilio Villa, Sound Poetry, Gruppo 63, Amelia Rosselli, Mulino di Bazzano, Gruppo 93, Slam Poetry, and Spoken Word.
Possible topics include:

  • Case studies of performance poetry
  • The historical development of Italian performance poetry
  • Theoretical perspectives on performance poetry as a discipline
  • Experimental forms of publication
  • The relationship between performance poetry and electronic/digital media
  • Audience engagement in performance poetry
  • Research methodologies for analyzing performance poetry
  • Creative performance practices as research
  • Performance poetry and marginalized communities

This final point opens a broader discussion on the political significance of performance poetry. What does it mean to challenge the traditional notion of the text as the sole site of poetry and instead embrace also non-written forms? How might this shift allow us to rethink “literature” itself and envision a more inclusive canon? Is there an inherent link between the written page and power? Is there a correlation between performance poetry and queerness?

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20/03/25

ORGANIZER
Alessandro Ludovico Minnucci
University of Chicago
minnucci@uchicago.edu


Resonant Landscapes: Poetic and Sonorous Places I
Mauro Distefano

Poetry has always been a privileged space for literary experimentation, where tradition and innovation converge. From the Renaissance to the twentieth century, poetic forms have undergone significant transformations, reflecting changes in philosophical, political, and cultural thought. This panel invites scholars to explore the evolution of poetic forms, themes, and linguistic strategies from early modernity to contemporary poetry. Possible areas of investigation include (but are not limited to):

  • The persistence and reconfiguration of classical and medieval models in early modern poetry;
  • The representation of poetic spaces—real, imagined, and metaphorical—and their cultural significance;
  • The relationship between poetry and other arts (music, visual arts, theater, new media);
  • The transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism and the emergence of avant-garde movements;
  • The impact of literary movements (Futurism, Surrealism, Hermeticism, Neo-Avant-garde, etc.);
  • The interaction between poetry and urban, rural, and mythological landscapes as sites of artistic expression;
  • The transformation of poetic language and structure over time;
  • The role of poetry as a medium of interartistic dialogue and its interactions with other forms of creative expression.

Scholars are invited to submit proposals – in ITA and ENG - with a title (maximum 250 words), along with a short biography (100 words), to mauro.distefano@cassinisanremo.net by March 20, 2025.

The conference will take place in person at the CAIS Annual Conference at the University of Bologna on June 9-10, 2025.

For any further information or clarifications regarding the proposal and participation in the panel, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March 2025

ORGANIZER
Mauro Distefano
Università degli studi di Catania/Liceo Classico G. D. Cassini Sanremo
mauro.distefano@cassinisanremo.net


Resonant Landscapes: Poetic and Sonorous Places II. Soundscapes in the Poetry of Emilio Villa
Mauro Distefano

The figure of Emilio Villa (1914-2003) represents one of the most radical and visionary experiences in 20th-century poetry. A polyglot, translator, critic, artist, and experimental poet, Villa redefined poetic language with extraordinary expressive freedom, working between ancient and modern languages, archaic cultures, and artistic avant-gardes. His writing, constantly balancing tradition and innovation, anticipated many later poetic developments and deeply influenced the contemporary literary landscape.

This panel aims to explore the value and legacy of Villa’s poetry, examining its multiple dimensions: from linguistic experimentation to interactions with visual arts, from his engagement with myth and archaic cultures to his critical reception and influence on later authors and movements. Particular attention will be given to the theme of the places of poetry, understood both as physical and cultural spaces traversed by the author (Rome, Milan, Brazil) and as symbolic territories that emerge in his work through imagery, linguistic stratifications, and intertextual references.

We welcome proposals addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Linguistic experimentation and the polyphonic dimension of Villa’s poetry.
  • Emilio Villa and visual arts: interactions and cross-contaminations.
  • Translation, rewriting, and the relationship with archaic languages.
  • The places of poetry: physical and symbolic geographies in Villa’s works.
  • Emilio Villa’s influence on contemporary poetry and criticism.
  • Villa between myth and modernity: reinterpretations and re-readings.

Scholars are invited to submit proposals – in ITA and ENG - with a title (maximum 250 words), along with a short biography (100 words), to mauro.distefano@cassinisanremo.net by March 20, 2025.

The conference will take place in person at the CAIS Annual Conference at the University of Bologna on June 9-10, 2025.

For any further information or clarifications regarding the proposal and participation in the panel, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March 2025

ORGANIZER
Mauro Distefano
Università degli studi di Catania/Liceo Classico G. D. Cassini Sanremo
mauro.distefano@cassinisanremo.net


Resonant Landscapes: Poetic and Sonorous Places III (Italian American Poetry)
Alessio Giovene, Mauro Distefano

Italian American poetry increasingly evolves as an experience linked to real and symbolic places where it takes shape. From urban landscapes to inner geographies, poetry serves as a tool for exploring and redefining our relationship with space. The Italian American experience particularly reflects the redefinition of identity in relation to spaces, as migration compels poets to question their roots and adapt to different environments. As the Laureate poet Joseph Tusiani pondered, does having two lands mean possessing two souls? And how is this reflected in poems? This panel examines the relationship between poetry and place in the Italian American context, considering the roles that physical, cultural, and imagined spaces play in poetic creation and their impact on society.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Poetry and urban landscapes: cities, metropolises, and suburbs in the Italian American experience.
  • Spaces of memory and history: how poetry constructs and interprets the past.
  • The bond between poetry and nature across continents OR when navigating two cultural identities: ecopoetry, environmentalism, and new literary geographies.
  • Poetry of migration: how migration and the change of space impacted poems.
  • The importance of poetry in the definition of the Italian American identity: the social, political, and aesthetic function of poetic writing.


We welcome interdisciplinary approaches, including contributions from literary studies, sound studies, linguistics, and performance theory.

The presentation can be in English or Italian.

Abstracts (max 250 words) along with a short bio (max 150 words) should be sent to agiovene2022@fau.edu by March 15th.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 15 March, 2025

ORGANIZERS
Alessio Giovene
Florida Atlantic University
agiovene2022@fau.edu

Mauro Distefano
Università di Catania
mauro.distefano@cassinisanremo.net


Italian democracy between utopia and dystopia
Cristina Perissinotto

This round table wishes to discuss the destiny of democracy in view of the recent political changes, both in Italy and worldwide. The focus of the discussion should be the dialectic between utopia an dystopia in view of the recent world changes.

Possible topics might include:

  • Italy as utopia
  • Italy as dystopia
  • Italy and Europe
  • Utopian representations of geographical, imaginary or spiritual places in Italy
  • Ideal representations of Italian communal life
  • The Internet between dystopia an utopia
  • Utopia and dystopia in Italian culture and society

If you need audiovisual equipment, please indicate your requirements in your submission.

Please submit a 100-word abstract for a 5-10 minute statement, plus a one-page CV. Submissions will only be accepted if pasted in the body of an email message (regretfully, no attachment will be opened). Please don’t forget to include your email address and institutional contact information. Submissions expected no later than March 20th.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20th, 2025

ORGANIZER
Cristina Perissinotto
University of Ottawa
cperissi@uottawa.ca


On the Road: Natural Environment and the Challenge of Travel and Circulation of Goods and Ideas in Central and Southern Italy. 16th-18th Century.
Isabel Harvey

The Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples are generally considered separately by the historiography of the early modern period. The political division between the two states thus becomes, from a simple disciplinary boundary, a frontier that divides spaces whose social, intellectual, and religious history is represented as two different entities. While recent works inspired by global and connected history propose to revisit the construction and representation of spaces, as with Atlantic or Mediterranean history, this panel aims to explore the communication routes and points of exchange and the impact of natural environment in the effective circulation of people, goods, and ideas between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples during the early modern period. The objective is to rethink this central Mediterranean territory both in relation to its local environmental particularities, detailing the multiple and polysemic spaces it contains, and in relation to its global context, the Italian peninsula, Europe, and the World.

Possible topics include:

  • Environmental history of roads and ways of communication
  • Network analyses
  • How to define an historical space: theory and methods
  • Case studies about travels, pilgrimages, immigration
  • Circulation of ideas and religious movements in relation to the territory
  • Mapping and digital reconstruction
  • Historiography and historiographical issues
  • Papal States and Kingdom of Naples: frontiers and connections
  • Circulation of books and writings
  • Circulation of goods
  • Roles of women in networks
  • Dialogues and exchanges between religions: Hebraism and Islam

We are particularly interested in papers addressing issues of theory and methodology working with the concept of space, in papers that analyze an unedited, newly founded, or little-known source, or in papers that present an analysis of the environment as an historical protagonist.

Please email your abstract (max 300 words) and a short CV (max 1 page) in English, French, or Italian to Isabel Harvey (isabel.harvey@uclouvain.be) by the deadline of March 20, 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20th 2025

ORGANIZER
Isabel Harvey
Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgique)
isabel.harvey@uclouvain.be


Food, Conflict, Memories
Patrizia Sambuco

This in-person panel considers the topic of conflict at the intersection of the analysis of food and gender. While food insecurity may be the cause of conflicts, food concerns are always central to conflicts either for the governmental organization of resources and often the associated and gendered rhetoric of duty or for the rationing and hunger suffered by most. Moreover, food, with its sensorial power and its ability to trigger memories, becomes also a metaphor for the experience of conflicts and is a recurrent topos in the literature of war. In the intersection of food and conflict, thanks to its sensorial power, food imagery often exceeds the dichotomy of abundance and scarcity.  With a particular focus on the Second World War, this panel will discuss how war and its memory are narrated through food, either in literature, diaries, memoirs, or education. Scholars working in cultural and literary studies, history, gender studies, and cinema are warmly invited to submit a proposal.

Please send an abstract of about 250 words and a short bio to Dr Patrizia Sambuco, email: psambuco001@dundee.ac.uk

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 20 March, 2025

ORGANIZER
Patrizia Sambuco
University of Dundee
psambuco001@dundee.ac.uk


Research on the Italian Language Outside of Italy / Ricerche sulla lingua italiana fuori d’Italia
Isabella Matticchio

This session welcomes recent studies – in Italian or English - on the Italian language outside of Italy.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Terminology  (e.g., Italian terminology in Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, ecc.)
  • Dynamics of intergenerational transmission (in Italian communities abroad)
  • Blingualism (including case studies)
  • Language policies and the promotion of the Italian language


Si accettano contributi – in italiano o inglese – sull’italiano fuori d’Italia.
Tra i possibili campi di indagine: 

  • terminologia (per es. terminologia italiana in Croazia, Slovenia, Svizzera, ecc.)
  • dinamiche di trasmissione intergenerazionale (nelle comunità italiane all’estero)
  • bilinguismo (anche singoli casi di studio)
  • politiche linguistiche e promozione della lingua italiana


Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20, 2025

ORGANIZER
Isabella Matticchio
Academic Affiliation: The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University / University of Rijeka (Croatia, EU)
im2733@columbia.edu / isabella.matticchio@uniri.hr


Life in Venice, then and now.
Cristina Perissinotto, Julie Fox-Horton

The organizers welcome proposals on any aspects of life in Venice, both in the Renaissance and in other eras, including contemporary times.

This session welcomes papers employing inter-disciplinary approaches to understanding everyday life in the Serenissima and in contemporary Venice.

Possible topics include:

  • Women (elite or ordinary)
  • Citizens and foreigners
  • Trading objects and foreign goods
  • The physical environment
  • Domestic space
  • Fashion and fabric
  • Objects of significance (sacred or profane)
  • Places of significance (bridges, canals, cemeteries, churches, etc.)
  • Art and artists
  • Architecture and culture
  • Culture and controversy
  • Cultural transitions
  • Experiencing and participating in culture

Papers should be 15-20 minutes in duration.

Please submit a 150-word abstract, biographical information or brief CV, and audiovisual requirements to Cristina Perissinotto (cperissi@uottawa.ca) and Julie Fox-Horton (foxhorton@etsu.edu). Please do not forget to include your email address, academic affiliation, and institutional contact information with your abstract. Submission deadline is March 20th, 2025.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 20th, 2025

ORGANIZERS
Cristina Perissinotto
University of Ottawa
cperissi@uottawa.ca

Julie Fox-Horton
East Tennessee State University
FOXHORTON@mail.etsu.edu


Memory and the Representation of Italian Fascism in Media and Literature (1970s–Present)
Manuela Di Franco, Sandra Parmegiani

The legacy of Italian Fascism has been a persistent and evolving subject in historical, cultural and media representations in the postwar Italy. The mid-1970s marked a turning point in the historical assessment of Fascism with Renzo De Felice’s works, which sparked a debate that has evolved and morphed ever since, as Italy underwent political, cultural, and media transformations that reshaped its collective memory. The rise of private television networks, the increasing influence of global historical narratives, and the shifting political landscape contributed to a renewed engagement with Fascist history in public discourse.

This panel seeks to explore how different media—film, television, literature, comics, journalism, and other forms of mass communication—have shaped, contested, or perpetuated collective memory of Fascism in Italy and beyond during this period.

We invite proposals that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • The portrayal of Fascist figures and ideology in Italian cinema, television, and literature from the mid-1970s onward
  • The role of historical fiction and documentary in shaping public perceptions of Fascism
  • Representations of Fascism in Italian and international comics and graphic novels
  • Journalism and political discourse on Fascism from the mid-1970s to today
  • The reception and adaptation of Fascist narratives in popular culture
  • The intersections of memory, trauma, and national identity in cultural productions
  • Transnational perspectives on Italian Fascism in media
  • The evolution of censorship and historiography in media portrayals of Fascism

We encourage interdisciplinary approaches and welcome contributions from scholars in media studies, history, political science, literature, cultural studies, and related disciplines.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: March 31, 2025

ORGANIZERS
Manuela Di Franco
Ghent University
Manuela.DiFranco@UGent.be

Sandra Parmegiani
University of Guelph
sparmegi@uoguelph.ca


Advocacy in Italian Studies: Increasing the relevance of language education
Luisa Canuto

This round table seeks to provide a clear understanding of the current situation of our Italian language programs, identify possible systemic obstacles, discuss effective actions, and present examples of innovations in curricula and programs across different institutions and countries.

While alternating enrollment and competition from STEM disciplines have been representing a threat to language programs across North America and beyond, they have also encouraged a shift from reactive to proactive advocacy with the integration of interesting initiatives and promotion of connections and experiential opportunities for our Italian language students outside the university classroom. The discussion at the round table will range from analyzing enrollment trends and data from a sample of university language programs to better understand demographic characteristics and, possibly, students’ reasons to enroll in our courses, to looking at how some institutions have been able to increase the visibility and the interest in their language programs and finally to considering the impact of the integration of innovative strategies.

Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: 31 marzo

ORGANIZER
Luisa Canuto
University of British Columbia
luisa.canuto@ubc.ca


Contact Us

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