In the Media
In the Media
In order for any progress to take place in the intellectual and critical realms of Italian Americana, we cannot simply dismiss ideas with which we do not agree by engaging in absolutisms that stifle further discussion. The irony here, of course, is that the model of modern-day argumentation and discourse has its origins to a significant degree in Ciceronian rhetoric. As we appproach the threshold of yet another year, 2008, well over one hundred years since the onset of the great wave of immigration from southern Italy, in particular, we need to re-adjust our horizons. We need to look backward in order to learn to move forward in a constructive and fruitful manner. Nostalgia, while temporary, is wonderful. When it becomes the driving force in either creative or analytical modes of discourse, we run the risk of remaining in a prison-house of nostalgic recollection that impedes us from moving forward.

Virginia elected official Salvatore Iaquinto is very much off the mark with his original “Godfather” ad and his follow-up commentary. But sitting back and lamenting only is,...

Dear readers of i-Italy: A crisis is brewing that threatens the future of Italian language studies in the United States. And unless we take a stand, the American educational...

When our role models leave us, where do we go to look for others? This is, for sure, one of the questions that arises after the loss of both Rudi Vecoli and Rocco Caporale, two...

I had a recent conversation with Professor Calabretta-Sajder, Dean of the New Jersey Lago del Bosco camp. I asked him to respond to a few questions of mine so that I could share...

As many know by now, the future of the Advanced Placement Exam in Italian is on the chopping block after two and one-half years in existence. The language might seem a bit...

Education is the only way we can change people’s minds. A concerted conversation (i.e., coming together) on cultural philanthropy among/by Italian Americans is, I would submit,...

This blog and the issues to which it pertains raise at least one thorny question, to say the least. In addition, it creates an uncomfortable situation, I would contend, for all...
Well, it seems that there is indeed more to Italian/American cultural philanthropy, and kudos to those who continue to give in substantial ways.
In his NY Times article on the "Funk of Disappointment," Ian Fisher alludes to a most important phenomenon ("brain drain") that, here in the United States, has, and will continue...