LINGUA ITALICA The Newsletter for Italian Studies at the University of Notre Dame Volume 11, Number 1• December,2016 italianstudies.nd.edu New Initiatives and Important Announcements Ph.D. in Italian Studies Program Launch: The Italian section of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures launched a rigorous new doctoral program this fall welcoming the program’s first class of doctoral students. The Ph.D. in Italian – led by Prof. Zygmunt Barański, director of graduate studies and the Notre Dame Professor of Dante and Italian Studies – aims to train students to meet the demands of teaching Italian culture across the curriculum while also promoting specialization in a certain area. “Our Italian program has long been recognized as one of the top programs of its kind in the country, so the establishment of the Ph.D. was a very logical step for us,” said Thomas Anderson, chair of the department and a professor of Spanish. According to Anderson, “Italian studies is an area of exceptional strength at Notre Dame, and thanks to our world-class faculty, outstanding resources, and consistently strong undergraduate enrollments, we are confident that our new Ph.D. program will attract top-notch students and will soon be recognized as a leading program in the U.S. and the world.” The department is now accepting applications for both its M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Italian beginning in 2017-8. The deadline for application submissions in both programs is February 1, 2017. For additional information on the Italian Studies Program and on the Devers Program in Dante Studies at Notre Dame, please consult: http://italianstudies.nd.edu/ and http://italianstudies.nd.edu/devers-program-in-dante-studies/ Ravarino Dedication: The inaugural annual Alfred J. and Helen M. Ravarino Family Lecture in Italian Studies will be given by Professor Lino Pertile, Harvard College Professor and Carl A. Pescosolido Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University on March 23, 2016 at 4 P.M. Professor Pertile's lecture will mark the inauguration of Notre Dame's new PhD program in Italian. The event will also recognize the many benefactions of the Ravarino family over the last twenty-five years in support of Italian Studies at Notre Dame. Mirella "Mimi" Ravarino will join us for the celebration. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us for this celebration of both the new PhD in Italian and the Ravarino family's generous support of the study of Italian language and culture at Notre Dame! LINGUA ITALICA TheNewsletterforItalianStudiesattheUniversityofNotreDame Volume 11, no. 1 italianstudies.nd.edu December, 2016 The Christopher G. Wagstaff Italian Film Collection Comes to Notre Dame: The Christopher G. Wagstaff Italian Film Collection will be formally incorporated into the Notre Dame Libraries Special Collection on Thursday, April 6, 2017. The centrepiece of the event is a lecture by Professor Chris Wagstaff, formerly of the University of Reading in the UK, whose kind donation of his film collection has substantially enriched Notre Dame's Italian film holdings. As a result, the Hesburgh Library will house one of the foremost international collections of Italian films. Dante Society of America Prizes Awarded to Two Notre Dame Students: The Dante Prize for best undergraduate essay was awarded to Dale Lobo (University of Notre Dame) for his essay, “Reaching for the Pomo: Seeking the Fulfillment of Desire Within,” which was described as “an ambitious and skillful close reading.” In addition to the Dante Prize, The Charles Hall Grandgent Award for best graduate essay was given to Thomas Graff (University of Notre Dame) for his essay, “A Rhetoric of Suspension: Rethinking Salvation in Dante’s Commedia.” Graff’s essay was described by the Prize Committee of the DSA as “a compelling appraisal of the scholarly debates surrounding the issue of Virgil’s salvation in Dante’s afterlife.” The Dante Society of America, founded in 1881 through the leadership of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, represents the oldest academic society in the United States. Since 1887, the Dante Society of America has presented annual prizes for the best student essays on a subject related to the life or works of Dante Alighieri. Congratulations to Dale Lobo and Thomas Graff for their excellent work! Recent Events Italian Research Seminar at Notre Dame: The Italian Research Seminar at Notre Dame, jointly organized by the Devers Program in Dante Studies and by Italian Studies at Notre Dame, aims to provide a regular forum for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and colleagues from other universities to present and discuss their current research. The Seminar is vigorously interdisciplinary, and embraces all areas of Italian history, language, and culture (from literature to film, from art history to music, and from anthropology to architecture), as well as perceptions of Italy, its achievements and its peoples in other national and international cultures. This fall’s Italian Research Seminar featured Heather Webb (Cambridge) - "Sandro Botticelli on Facing in Dante’s Paradiso,” Rebecca Messbarger (Washington University) - "From the Body to the Body Politic: Peter Leopold’s Creation of the Tuscan Enlightenment State," Joseph Francese (Michigan State) - “Where Do Ideas Come From? Of Critical Method and/or Historical Materialism,” and Francesca Bordogna (Notre Dame) - "The Dynamic Psyche: Italian Pragmatism and Fascism.” For information on upcoming seminars, please consult: http://italianstudies.nd.edu/events/ LINGUA ITALICA TheNewsletterforItalianStudiesattheUniversityofNotreDame Volume 11, no. 1 italianstudies.nd.edu December, 2016 Dante Now! A Celebration of Dante and the Divine Comedy in Performance: On Friday, September 30th, students of all levels of Italian gathered together at the Grotto to recite excerpts from Dante’s Commedia. This popular event, now in its fifth year, was followed with a lecture by Prof. Christian Moevs (Notre Dame) and Prof. Anne Leone (Notre Dame), and a reception. The reception featured an introduction to the Sacred Music event, “Journeying La Divina Commedia: Desert, Discovery, Song,” an inter-artistic work based on Dante’s Commedia performed the following weekend at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center Decio Theater, which took place on Oct. 7th and 8th. This event was co-sponsored by the William and Katherine Devers Program in Dante Studies, Italian Studies, and Notre Dame's Sacred Music Program. Film - L’Inferno (1911): directed by Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe De Liguoro. On Sunday, September 11th at the Browning Cinema in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, Prof. John Welle, Professor of Italian, Concurrent Professor of Film Television and Theatre introduced this film, credited as the first feature-length film to be produced in Italy. An epic adaptation of The Divine Comedy, L’Inferno offers a feast of imagery inspired by Dante’s poetry. This restored 35mm film print courtesy of Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna is the definitive version of this seminal work of the silent era. Notre Dame at the Lyric Opera of Chicago: On Sunday, November 6th students of Prof. Christian Moevs and Prof. Anne Leone traveled to Chicago’s Lyric Opera House for a performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s opera, Lucia di Lammermoor, in conjunction with their course ROIT30310: Passages to Italy. This special trip to Chicago was made possible through the generosity of the Demergasso family. The Demergasso Fund is a generous bequest that funds yearly initiatives in Italian, including the theatre production, trips to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Italian Club activities, and other Italian cultural events. Upcoming Events Italian Research Seminar - Spring 2017: The dates for the spring series of the Italian Research Seminar have been confirmed. 26 January – Valentina Ciciliot (Postdoctoral Fellow at Notre Dame); 23 February – MA Presentations; 23 March – Lino Pertile (Harvard University) - The inaugural annual Alfred J. and Helen M. Ravarino Family Lecture in Italian Studies 30 March – Alberto Lo Pinto (Ph.D. Candidate in Italian at ND) 13 April – Ruth Ben Ghiat (New York University). For further information on the seminars of Spring 2017, see: http://italianstudies.nd.edu/events/ LINGUA ITALICA TheNewsletterforItalianStudiesattheUniversityofNotreDame Volume 11, no. 1 italianstudies.nd.edu December, 2016 Italian Studies Spring Concert / ROIT 20202 - Language through Lyrics: Rhyme, Rock and Romance This spring the fourth-semester in language study at Notre Dame takes on an exciting new format using the context of Italian song. Students will trace a history of poetry, song, and music in Italy from the end of World War II to the present. Through the analysis of song and lyric, they will further their speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills as well as grasp of a wide variety of styles and registers in Italian. All semester students in this course will work together to organize a concert of Italian music for the other 250+ Italian language students at Notre Dame. The concert will take place on Friday, April 7th at 7pm in the Decio Theater in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. At the head of this new and exciting course is Prof. Lesley Sullivan Marcantonio, who joined the faculty of the Italian Program this August after completing her M.A. in Italian at Notre Dame earlier this year. Many will remember Prof. Sullivan Marcantonio from her contributions to last spring’s Italian concert dedicated to the music of Mina. Lesley was joined on stage by a number of Italian faculty and students, including Prof. Anne Leone (featured in the photo above), who put together a truly unforgettable concert that saw decades of Italian popular music, history and culture come alive on stage. With the spring concert, students of ROIT20202 will invite their friends and fellow Italian students to participate in the great art of freedom of the Italian song, and into the beauty and power of voice, of music, of language, and of history. Romance Languages and Literatures International Week (April 2 – 8): This spring will feature the inaugural ROLL International Week, with events organized by all sections of the department.