HOFSTRA CULTURAL CENTER, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY
ITALIAN ACADEMY FOR ADVANCED STUDIES, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
CASA ITALIANA ZERILLI-MARIMÒ, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

present a Conference

FOR A DANGEROUS PEDAGOGY:
A MANIFESTO FOR ITALIAN AND ITALIAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Wednesday-Saturday, April 14-17, 2010

Complete Schedule of Panels and Events (Final Program)

We intend to provoke a radical rethinking of Italianistica, a discipline more in need of cocaine than air. The conference is a very ambitious attempt to explore possibilities for a revitalization and refocusing of the field.
 
“For a Dangerous Pedagogy” wishes to generate a manifesto for Italianistica in the twenty-first century. Since we live in an age of “gentle” or “weak” manifestos, we want to indicate that we are using the term here in the old strong or Marinettian sense to suggest that we Italianists need to undertake a radical and polemical rethinking of the field -- its tasks, its methodologies, and its pedagogical practices -- at this moment of disorientation, particularly in Italy. In a similar attempt to re-think the teaching of philosophy, Derrida called for a “soliciting” -- in the etymological sense of a “shaking up”-- of the discipline, and this is exactly what the conference is intended to do.
  
The medium of the conference will be the manifesto/blast or the short provocative/polemical statement through which the participants will get things off their chests. We are convinced that aphoristic thinking and the short polemical statement are the best means of avoiding the lethally boring format of the traditional academic conference. The presentations will be followed by extensive discussions. There will also be, at certain points, variations on this format.
 
It is our fondest hope that the conference (and the book that emerges from it) will make a strong call to Italian Departments to commit to an interdisciplinary and theory-driven pedagogy grounded in the dialogizing of Italian literary and other cultural texts. Such a commitment is the only way to ensure a vital and progressive future for Italian Studies and to draw the brightest young minds to its study. We also hope that the conference’s attempt to re-think Italianistica as a transnational discipline and to establish a dialogue between the two teaching bodies (Italian and American) will generate a trans-Atlantic interpretive community engaged in an infinite conversation that will be continued -- individually or collectively -- in the future.
 
The conference is linked to the recent establishing of the Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professorship in Italian Studies and Italian American Studies at Hofstra. 

For a complete schedule of panels and events, as well as information about how to register, can be found in the conference registration program.

For more information contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at (516) 463-5669, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

CONFERENCE DIRECTOR
Pellegrino D’Acierno
Professor of Comparative Literature and Languages,
Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies
Hofstra University

SPECIAL CONFERENCE ADVISER
Stanislao Pugliese
Professor of History
Hofstra Cultural Center Fellow
Hofstra University


Hofstra University gratefully acknowledges the participation and generous support of:

Queensboro UNICO Foundation, Inc.
Tiro a Segno Foundation
Coccia Foundation
Angelo Fonte Family Foundation
James Periconi, Esq.
National Italian American Foundation (NIAF)
Long Island Regional Council/American Italian Historical Association


CONFERENCE COORDINATORS
Natalie Datlof
Executive Director
Hofstra Cultural Center

Athelene A. Collins
Senior Associate Director
Hofstra Cultural Center

Deborah Lom
Assistant Director for Conferences and Special Events
Hofstra Cultural Center