{"id":219164,"date":"2024-12-28T12:40:26","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T17:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/?page_id=219164"},"modified":"2025-03-11T19:43:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T23:43:32","slug":"the-price-of-children-a-book-presentation-by-maria-laurino","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/events\/2024-25-events\/the-price-of-children-a-book-presentation-by-maria-laurino\/","title":{"rendered":"The Price of Children: A Book Presentation by Maria Laurino"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Price of Children: Stolen Lives in a Land Without Choice
\nA Book Presentation by Maria Laurino
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tue. March 25, 2025 6pm\u00a0 \u00a0 RESERVE A SEAT<\/a><\/span>
\nSBUS (School of Business) 140 Directions<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduced by: Mark Rotella<\/a> (Coccia Institute)
\nModerated by: Teresa Fiore<\/a> (Inserra Chair) and Erica Moretti<\/a> (FIT – Fashion Institute of Technology)<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>
\n

The Price of Children<\/em><\/a> is the never-told story of how the Vatican and the American Catholic Church sent nearly 4,000 children of unwed Italian mothers to the United States for adoption between 1950 and 1970, falsely labeling them \u201cwar orphans\u201d then later \u201corphans.\u201d With the religious stigma of unwed motherhood turning families against daughters, and a Church and State wanting \u201cillegitimate\u201d children sent abroad, mothers were lied to, given forms to sign that they didn\u2019t understand, or even told their baby had died, all to further supply this international adoption pipeline. Maria Laurino\u2019s investigation began from a family discovery: a chance phone call from her cousin revealed that he had been one of these children, leading her to uncover an adoption scheme overseen by the highest levels of the Vatican. More than a post-war adoption story, The Price of Children<\/em> is a call to defend the rights of women, which are being challenged today around the world. Interestingly the book was published in Italian (Il prezzo degli innocenti: Come il Vaticano ha sottratto migliaia di bambini alle loro madri<\/em><\/a>) before being available in English in the U.S.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n
\"Maria<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>
\n

Maria Laurino was born and raised in northern New Jersey. Maria Laurino is the author of the national bestselling memoir Were You Always an Italian?, <\/em>an exploration of how stereotypes and class prejudice influenced Italian-American identity; the memoir Old World Daughter, New World Mother<\/em>, a meditation on contemporary feminism; and The Italian Americans: A History<\/em>, the companion book to a national PBS documentary. \u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/p><\/div>\n

A former staff writer for the Village Voice<\/em>, Laurino\u2019s work has appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times<\/em>, Washington Post<\/em>, The New Republic<\/em>, and Salon<\/em>; her essays have been widely anthologized including in the Norton Reader.\u00a0 <\/em>Her latest book, The Price of Children<\/em>, was featured on CBS News \u201c60 Minutes\u201d and has been translated into several languages.\u00a0 She teaches creative nonfiction in the undergraduate writing program at NYU.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Moretti<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>
\n

Erica Moretti<\/strong> is associate professor of Italian Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology\u2013SUNY. Moretti\u2019s first book,\u00a0The Best Weapon for Peace: Maria Montessori, Education, and Children\u2019s Rights<\/em>\u00a0(University of Wisconsin Press, 2021), reframes Montessori\u2019s pacifism as the foundation of her educational activism, emphasizing her singular vision of the classroom as a springboard to reshaping society.\u00a0The Best Weapon for\u00a0Peace<\/em> was awarded the\u00a0first book prize from both the American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS) and the International Standing Committee for the History of Education (ISCHE), and it received honorable mention from the Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies. <\/p><\/div><\/p><\/div>\n

She is currently working on\u00a0Across the Colonial Sea: Family Reunification, Vatican Humanitarianism, and the End of Empire (1940\u20131950)<\/em>, an inquiry into how population movements (including displaced children) have challenged the boundaries of diplomacy, humanitarianism, and decolonization. This work has been supported by an American Council for Learned Society Faculty Grant, and the 2023 Mercer Johnsen\/National Endowment for the Humanities Rome Prize in Modern Italian Studies at the American Academy in Rome, among others.<\/p>\n

Jointly organized and sponsored by the Inserra Endowed Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>and the Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience in America<\/a>, in collaboration with the Italian Program (Department of World Languages and Cultures<\/a>).<\/p>\n

This event is linked to an Honors Program class titled “The Meaning of Adoption” currently taught on campus, which in turn is part of a broader initiative called “The Adoption Studies Project”<\/a> designed by Dr. Teresa Fiore.<\/p>\n

Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The secret stories of silenced women<\/a> – Maria Laurino at TEDxBergamo
\nExcerpt from episode of\u00a060 Minutes<\/a> (CBS) about Laurino’s book. Full episode of 60 minutes episode available here<\/a><\/p>\n

Short link<\/strong>: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/MSULaurinoPrice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Price of Children: Stolen Lives in a Land Without Choice A Book Presentation by Maria Laurino Tue. March 25, 2025 6pm\u00a0 \u00a0 SBUS (School of Business) 140 Directions Introduced by: Mark Rotella (Coccia Institute) Moderated by: Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair) and Erica Moretti (FIT – Fashion Institute of Technology) A former staff writer for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":219196,"parent":218605,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-219164","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/219164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219164"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/219164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219352,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/219164\/revisions\/219352"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}