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News and Announcements

Dr. Teresa Fiore Gives a Talk in Sicily about Italy’s Past and Current Migrations (Jan. 2020)

Posted in: CHSS News, Inserra Chair News and Announcements, Italian News and Events, World Languages and Cultures

Teresa Fiore

Dr. Teresa Fiore (Full Professor of Italian and Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies) gave a talk titled “Iper-rappresentazione dell’immigrazione in entrata in Italia e invisibilità dell’esodo in uscita (1990-2017)” (Hyper-representation of immigration to Italy and invisibility of the exodus from Italy), as part of the panel “L’Italia come laboratorio di mobilità tra emigrazione e immigrazione: Contesti storici e analisi dei fenomeni attuali” (Italy as mobility lab between emigration and immigration: Historical contexts and analysis of current phenomena) – SEE FLYER. In his introduction, the host Dott. Alfio Russo explained that the panel was organized to analyze the topical theme of immigration in Italy from different perspectives bringing together history, communication, and social activism. Fiore remarked how immigration in Italy is a phenomenon that requires a historical take in order to understand the emigration of Italians abroad yesterday as well as today, as part of a complex network of mobility.

The panel included a presentation by Dr. Francesco Pira (Professor at the University of Messina), on the invasive presence of fake news about immigration in Italy on social media and its problematic impact on the perception of immigrants. A faculty member from the Istituto Foderà, Dott.ssa Ilaria Castiglione, contributed a paper on the Amnesty International campaign called “I Welcome”, which is designed to counteract fake news and educate the general public.

Organized at the Istituto Foderà, the panel reached an audience of students and teachers, as well as representatives of the local associations for immigrants and university faculty members involved in the local B.A. in Cultural Mediation, including the director Prof. Marcello Sajja, an established scholar of Italian emigration abroad.

Earlier in the morning, Prof. Fiore illustrated her current research project about eating practices around the time of the Allied Landing in Sicily to an audience of students specializing in Food Studies.

This set of presentations, organized by Dott. Russo (former Director of the School Office of the Consulate of Italy in New York), was also the occasion for preliminary talks about high school student visits as part of an exchange program Italy-U.S. aimed at fostering language learning among peers of different cultural backgrounds during the summer.

Photo (from left): Ilaria Castiglione, Teresa Fiore and Alfio Russo.