The University of Arkansas' Daniela D'Eugenio, assistant professor of Italian, recently presented "Comics and Graffiti for the 'Week of the Italian Language in the World'" on the  roundtable session "Teaching Popular Culture in the Intermediate Language Courses" at the 52nd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA).

The Week of the Italian Language in the World (la settimana della lingua italiana) is an annual event, promoted by the cultural and diplomatic network, that occurs the third week of October focusing on a theme that acts as a culture motif to be explored through Italian language and culture courses internationally. The theme of the 20th anniversary of the event (2020) was "Italian Between Word and Image: Graffiti, Illustrations, Comic Books."

D'Eugenio spoke about the adoption of comics and graffiti in her ITAL 2013 course in fall 2020. In this course, D'Eugenio took the students on a journey to Italy through the concepts of "street art," "graffiti," "comics," as well as addressing the issues surrounding the conceptualization of street art, i.e. is it vandalism or art? If the question is whether it is art, who decides? Throughout the course, students not only learned about Italy's response to systematic racism through the medium of street art, but also created cultural comparisons with similar movements internationally, including the U.S., and even Fayetteville. In this manner, students gained critical skills in intercultural competence, analysis, and communication. Additionally, students were invited to join in the creative process by making their own memes on diverse topics. Daniela D'Eugenio coordinated the ITAL 2013 level with Prof.ssa Barbara Spaccini; both incorporated these innovative projects into the curriculum.

In addition to her roundtable presentation, she also delivered a research paper entitled "Holyband and Florio: Two 'Go-betweens' in Elizabethan England."

Auguri to Prof.ssa D'Eugenio!