Dr. Teresa Fiore Invited to Give a Lecture on Food and War at UPenn

On March 26, 2026, Dr. Teresa Fiore gave an invited lecture at UPenn, titled “The Taste of the Landing: Food at the Time of Operation Husky in Sicily.” Fiore shared a section of her research linked to “Memories of the Landing,” the in-progress documentary that she is working on in collaboration with Awen Films.

Blending excerpts from audiovisual archival material, literary sources, and original video-interviews with direct witnesses of the 1943 Allied Landing in Sicily, the presentation read a largely forgotten pivotal historical event of WWII through the lens of foodways. In Fiore’s approach, as a memory and narrative device, food allows for an alternate history of the liberation campaign through complicating both the myth of the Land of Abundance incarnated by the U.S. military forces and the image of a destitute Sicily that the Americans embraced.

Included in the Jerre Mangione Lecture Series and sponsored by the Center for Italian Studies, the lecture fostered a lively debate among graduate students and faculty alike with a mix of touching family recollections, intellectual curiosity towards the subject, and careful inquiry about the research methodology.