Italian Calendar - Past Events for this Academic Year

The California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies (CICIS) was established in 2001 to bring together faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars from around the state who are interested in Italy. The organization maintains a list-serve and holds meetings to discuss shared concerns and to organize an annual interdisciplinary conference.

The topic for the fifth annual conference, scheduled for February 24-25, 2006 on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, is "Italy and the Mediterranean." Please see the attached call for papers for details.

Please sign up below to be included on the CICIS mailing list if you are not already a member.

Click here to subscribe to the CICIS mailing list: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/cicis-p

For further information regarding CICIS, contact Prof. Jon Snyder snyder@french-ital.ucsb.edu or Prof. John Marino jmarino@ucsd.edu

CICIS 2006 Call for Papers:

Italy and the Mediterranean

The 2006 conference of the California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies (CICIS) at UCLA on February 24-25 will examine aspects of the relationship of the Italian peninsula and Italy with the Mediterranean from antiquity to the present in a transnational and transcultural perspective. Paper proposals are welcome on topics pertaining to Italy and the Mediterranean in discourses and practices ranging from history, geography, politics, literature and the arts (including film), to travel and trade networks, migrations, urban cultures, colonial and postcolonial relations, gender and racial relations, religion, media images and communication, food, popular culture and folklore.

Please send a paragraph describing your proposed paper by Monday, December 19th to the organizing committee at UCLA: Massimo Ciavolella ( ciavolel@humnet.ucla.edu) and Lucia Re, (re@humnet.ucla.edu) (The proposals will be evaluated by an Advisory Committee).

Major funding from a number of donors will allow us to pay for transportation and one- or two-night hotel accommodations for graduate students who wish to attend the conference (whether or not they are presenting papers). UC faculty and those whose departments and universities support inter-campus travel are asked to solicit local funds to pay for their own travel. (Lodging will be covered by CICIS upon request). We do have funds to provide travel for those faculty who may not be able to secure travel funding from their own campus. Please make sure you apply for inter-campus travel funds in a timely fashion. Deadlines may vary from campus to campus.

-- submitted by Danielle Cooper (webcalendar@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact snyder@french-ital.ucsb.edu

-- submitted by Karen Burgess (cmrs@humnet.ucla.edu)

The Viterbi Program in Italian Jewish Studies and The UCLA Center for Jewish Studies present

"AZARIAH DE' ROSSI (1511-1577): AN EXCEPTIONAL ITALIAN JEW OF THE RENAISSANCE"

By: JOANNA WEINBERG (Oxford)

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2005 • Fowler Auditorium • 7:30 PM

ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE EMAIL CJS@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU TO RSVP.

This new program has been made possible by the generous support of the Viterbi Family Foundation.

******************************************* ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Joanna Weinberg is the James Mew Lecturer in Rabbinical Hebrew and Catherine Fellow in Rabbinics at Oxford. Professor Weinberg is the author of The Light of the Eyes of Azariah de’ Rossi (Yale UP, 2001), which reveals her mastery of rabbinic texts, Greek and Roman literature, and Italian writers. Her research interests include Jewish historiography, Jews in the Renaissance, and Midrash.

-- submitted by Vivian Holenbeck (vdios@humanities.ucla.edu)

The Viterbi Program in Italian Jewish Studies and The UCLA Center for Jewish Studies present

"AZARIAH DE' ROSSI (1511-1577): AN EXCEPTIONAL ITALIAN JEW OF THE RENAISSANCE"

By: JOANNA WEINBERG (Oxford)

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2005 • Fowler Auditorium • 7:30 PM

ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE EMAIL CJS@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU TO RSVP.

This new program has been made possible by the generous support of the Viterbi Family Foundation.

*******************************************

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Joanna Weinberg is the James Mew Lecturer in Rabbinical Hebrew and Catherine Fellow in Rabbinics at Oxford. Professor Weinberg is the author of The Light of the Eyes of Azariah de’ Rossi (Yale UP, 2001), which reveals her mastery of rabbinic texts, Greek and Roman literature, and Italian writers. Her research interests include Jewish historiography, Jews in the Renaissance, and Midrash.

-- submitted by Vivian Holenbeck (vdios@humanities.ucla.edu)

**PLEASE NOTE VENUE CHANGED TO FOWLER AUDITORIUM**

The Viterbi Program in Italian Jewish Studies and The UCLA Center for Jewish Studies present

"AZARIAH DE' ROSSI (1511-1577): AN EXCEPTIONAL ITALIAN JEW OF THE RENAISSANCE"

By: JOANNA WEINBERG (Oxford)

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2005 • Fowler Auditorium • 7:30 PM

ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE EMAIL CJS@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU TO RSVP.

This new program has been made possible by the generous support of the Viterbi Family Foundation.

*******************************************

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Joanna Weinberg is the James Mew Lecturer in Rabbinical Hebrew and Catherine Fellow in Rabbinics at Oxford. Professor Weinberg is the author of The Light of the Eyes of Azariah de’ Rossi (Yale UP, 2001), which reveals her mastery of rabbinic texts, Greek and Roman literature, and Italian writers. Her research interests include Jewish historiography, Jews in the Renaissance, and Midrash.

-- submitted by Vivian Holenbeck (vdios@humanities.ucla.edu)

The California Interdisciplinary Consortium for Italian Studies (CICIS) was established in 2001 to bring together faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars from around the state who are interested in Italy. The organization maintains a list-serve and holds meetings to discuss shared concerns and to organize an annual interdisciplinary conference.

The topic for the fifth annual conference, scheduled for February 24-25, 2006 on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, is "Italy and the Mediterranean." Please see the attached call for papers for details.

Please sign up below to be included on the CICIS mailing list if you are not already a member.

Click here to subscribe to the CICIS mailing list: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/cicis-p

For further information you may also contact Prof. Lucia Re, re@humnet.ucla.edu

-- submitted by Danielle (danielle@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact danielle@humnet.ucla.edu

How does one explain this fascination with Dante, and especially with his principal work, the Divine Comedy? What are the textual characteristics of Dante’s masterpiece which make it an apt vehicle for literary appropriation, thereby allowing it to enjoy a sustained cultural afterlife and to achieve the great time or macrotemporality so eloquently described by Bakhtin in his proverbial formulation? What, moreover, are the more accidental factors (e.g. taste, world view, political agenda, strong supporters, etc.) which account for the popularity of Dante among modern novelists, poets and playwrights, despite the fact that the Florentine poet took a back seat to Petrarch and his works for almost three hundred years? These are some of the issues that this conference, organized by Massimo Ciavolella (UCLA) and Amilcare A. Iannucci (University of Toronto), will explore, as well as the actual workings of intertextual appropriation of Dante and the various forms it takes from citation to allusion to imitation and parody.

Complete program available at www.humnet.ucla.edu/cmrs/Programs/dante_2006 .htm.

-- submitted by Brett Landenberger (cmrs@humanities.ucla.edu)

Although not as well-known as families such as the Medici or Gonzaga, the Malatesti occupy a central position in the history of the Italian Renaissance. In Inferno V, Dante recounts the tragic story of Paolo Malatesti and Francesca da Polenta, one of the most famous episodes of the Divine Comedy. Pope Pius II, in his Commentaries, devotes a long section to the “unspeakable crimes” of Sigismondo Malatesta, lord of Rimini, a man gifted with eloquence and great military skill, who “surpassed every barbarian in cruelty … the worst of all men who have lived or ever will live, the shame of Italy, the disgrace of our age.” Four hundred years later, historian Jakob Burckhardt considered the same Sigismondo the crowning figure among “the furtherers of humanism,” equally capable in war and art, unscrupulous, cruel, and yet refined, in other words, the epitome of the new man capable of changing the course of civilization, and of ushering in the age of modernity. Ezra Pound’s description of Sigismondo in his “Malatesta Cantos” as the “filigree that hides the gothic” takes us back to Burckhardt’s definition of the Italian Renaissance as a time of physical violence and artistic delicacy, and of Sigismondo Malatesti as the source of one of the highest cultural achievements of the West.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Department of Italian, and the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles.

-- submitted by Brett Landenberger (cmrs@humanities.ucla.edu)

Justin Steinberg

University of Chicago

"The Spectre of the Other Woman in Dante and Petrarch"

Monday, January 22, 2007

5:00 pm

Royce 243

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact clennon@humnet.ucla.edu

Tuesday, January 23, 2007 5:00 PM

Royce Hall 236

Made in War (2006, 40') is a documentary about the Italian Resistance against Fascism during World War II. The documentary, by Alice Carletti and Jerry Ioppolo, analyzes the Resistance in Bologna through the testimonies of the people who lived under the oppression of the Fascist regime, the sad experience of war, and concentration camps. Interviews with historians, writers, and Partisans help to retell this difficult moment in Italian history.

This presentation of Made in War is organized by the Italian Department Graduate Students.

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact clennon@humnet.ucla.edu

invites you to a lecture

Roberta Morosini

Wake Forest University

“Whispers of the Dove. The ‘legendary’ biography of ‘Malcometto’ the prophet of Islam in XIV Century Mediterranean Italy: between prejudice and tradition in the Commentaries on Dante’s Inferno XXVIII and Fazio degli Uberti’s Dittamondo”

Monday, February 5, 2007 5:00 p.m. Royce 236

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact clennon@humnet.ucla.edu

invites you to a lecture

KARLA MALLETTE

Miami University of Ohio

“Intellectual Geographies in the Divine Comedy”

Monday, February 12, 2007

5:00 p.m.

Royce Hall 306

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact clennon@humnet.ucla.edu

Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, University of Turin and Program Director, Collège de France, will give a public lecture entitled:

“Postmoderno vent’anni dopo”

Time: Monday, February 26, from 2-3:30 PM

Place: Library of the Department of Italian (342 Royce Hall)

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact clennon@humnet.ucla.edu

Heather Webb

Ohio State University

"Plurality, Action and Delight in Dante's Political Thought"

Monday, February 26, 2007

5 pm

Royce Hall 306

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact clennon@humnet.ucla.edu

present

Gabriella Ghermandi

"All'ombra dei rami sfacciati, carichi di fiori rossi vermiglio"

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Royce Hall 306

5 pm

Lecture/performance in Italian followed by a Q&A in English and Italian

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact clennon@humnet.ucla.edu

"THE HISTORIAN'S CRAFT IN RENAISSANCE ITALY-THE CASE OF JOSEF HA-KOHEN" Viterbi Lecture in Italian Jewish Studies

Robert Bonfil(Hebrew University)

April 24, 2007 UCLA Hillel. 7:30pm.

Pre-registration is required. To RSVP email cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu or call (310)825-5387.

-- submitted by Vivian Holenbeck (cjs@humanities.ucla.edu)

"TURNING A PAGE: HOW YIDDISH -SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS REINVENTED THEMSELVES THROUGH READING" Seminar in Yiddish Studies Viterbi Lecture in Italian Jewish Studies

Eric Goldstein (Emory University)

306 Royce Hall. 12:30pm.

Pre-registration is required. To RSVP email cjsrsvp@humnet.ucla.edu or call (310)825-5387.

-- submitted by Vivian Holenbeck (cjs@humanities.ucla.edu)

-- submitted by Brett Landenberger (cmrs@humanities.ucla.edu)

The Student Committee for the Arts and

The Italian Club @ UCLA present:

MUSICàNTICA

A dynamic and interactive evening of music and culture from Mediterranean Italy. Using traditional instruments from Southern Italy and around the Mediterranean, MUSICàNTICA promises a unique performances of Italian folk music throughout the ages.

Friday June 1st 2007

Kerckhoff Grand Salon

Door open at 7:30pm

Performance begins at 8pm

FREE ADMISSION

The salon is in Kerckhoff Hall (adjacent to Ackerman Union) across the terrace from the coffeehouse. The closest parking is available in Lot 6. Take Westwood Blvd North into campus and Lot 6 is on the left.

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

The Student Committee for the Arts and

The Italian Club @ UCLA present:

MUSICàNTICA A dynamic and interactive evening of music and culture from Mediterranean Italy. Using traditional instruments from Southern Italy and around the Mediterranean, MUSICàNTICA promises a unique performances of Italian folk music throughout the ages.

Friday June 1st 2007

Kerckhoff Grand Salon

Door open at 7:30pm

Performance begins at 8pm

FREE ADMISSION

The salon is in Kerckhoff Hall (adjacent to Ackerman Union) across the terrace from the coffeehouse. The closest parking is available in Lot 6. Take Westwood Blvd North into campus and Lot 6 is on the left.

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

The Student Committee for the Arts &

The Italian Club @ UCLA present:

MUSICàNTICA

A dynamic and interactive evening of music and culture from Mediterranean Italy. Using traditional instruments from Southern Italy and around the Mediterranean, MUSICàNTICA promises a unique performances of Italian folk music throughout the ages.

Friday June 1st 2007

Kerckhoff Grand Salon

Door open at 7:30pm

Performance begins at 8pm

FREE ADMISSION

The salon is in Kerckhoff Hall (adjacent to Ackerman Union) across the terrace from the coffeehouse. The closest parking is available in Lot 6. Take Westwood Blvd North into campus and Lot 6 is on the left.

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

Cordially invite you, your students, and friends to

MAKING ITALIAN CINEMA

A Round-Table Discussion with

WRITER-DIRECTORS: Francesca Archibugi (Flying Lessons), Daniele Luchetti (My Brother Is An Only Child), and Stefano Calvagna (The Wolf)

ACTORS: Valeria Golino (A Casa Nostra, Our Country), Riccardo Scamarcio (My Brother Is An Only Child), Fabio Volo (One Out of Two), and Giorgio Pasotti (L’aria salata, Salty Air)*

In occasion of the 4th annual

Cinema Italian Style: New Films from Italy

Screening throughout Los Angeles, October 2007

http://www.cinemaitalianstyle.org

Friday, October 12, 2 pm

James West Alumni Center Founder’s Room, UCLA

Free. All students and interested public welcome. Space limited to the first 70.

* Look up complete film credits at http://www.imdb.com

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact clennon@humnet.ucla.edu

After a first birth before the age of the Roman Kings, the Latin language has enjoyed many rebirths: one was in the Carolingian era, another in the High Middle Ages, and a third in the Renaissance. In our own time, two extraordinary scholarly enterprises have renewed the vigor of Latinity: the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum (CTC) and the I Tatti Renaissance Library (ITRL), the first led by Professor Virginia Brown of the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto, the second by Professor James Hankins of Harvard University.

With the generous support of the Cassamarca Foundation, CMRS and the UCLA Department of Italian present a conference to discuss and celebrate the work of Professors Brown and Hankins. The program will explore the implications—actual and potential—for humanist scholarship of the CTC, the ITRL, and the texts and authors illuminated by them. Expected speakers include Chris Celenza (Hopkins), Michele Ciliberto (Scuola Normale, Pisa), Frank Coulson (Ohio State), Tony D’Elia (Queens, Kingston), Charles Fantazzi (East Carolina), Mirella Ferrari (Milan), Julia Gaisser (Bryn Mawr), Craig Kallendorf (Texas A&M), David Marsh (Rutgers), and Fabio Troncarelli (University of Tuscia). At the end of the conference, Professors Brown and Hankins will reflect on the presentations and discussions.

The program is available in PDF format-- click here.

-- submitted by Brett Landenberger (cmrs@humanities.ucla.edu)

Jung in the Land of Mujaheddin

by filmmakers Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Alberto Vendemmiati

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

5:00 pm

Royce Hall 314

"Jung" means war in the Dari language. It is a word laden with meaning for the Afghan people as they struggle for survival in a country devastated by more than twenty years of conflicts.

Filmed in 1999-2000, Jung is a narrative documentary that follows the human and professional venture of Italian surgeon Gino Strada and British nurse Kate Rowlands as they go through the process of building a hospital to provide specialized treatment to victims of land mines. They are accompanied by Ettore Mo, a war correspondent who has been reporting this "forgotten war" from Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion. The third and final act of the account, shot in winter and spring of the year 2000, bears witness to the life of the EMERGENCY hospital where in the midst of tragic injuries, its compelling presence opens the way to hope for an alternative to the madness of war.

Film screening followed by discussion. Refreshments will be served.

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

Alessandro Dal Lago

and Serena Giordano

authors of "Mercanti d'aura. Logiche dell'arte contemporanea"

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Royce Hall 236

2:30 pm

What does a person need in order to be defined as an artist? How does a simple object (a bike wheel, a soup can) become an art work? The authors will try to answer these questions, starting from the concept of "aura" by Walter Benjamin.

The lecture will be conducted in Italian.

-- submitted by Laura Clennon (clennon@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

Love-sickness, melancholy and nostalgia share many traits in common, then indeed, through the course of history these ideas have often overlapped, and this ambiguity persists today, since in everyday speech these terms are almost interchangeable. This mixing and matching should come as no surprise. Literature plays a unique role in this process of distortion and reassignment of meaning. In the case of these three ideas, in particular, men of letters have shown an indefatigable propensity to explore their boundaries, to bring their reciprocal relationships to light and, most importantly, to ponder their relevance in the creation of a work of art.

Time: Noon-6pm on Friday; 9am-5pm on Saturday

-- submitted by Brett (cmrs@humanities.ucla.edu)