Italian Faculty Present at American Association of Teachers of Italian International Conference

For the second year in a row, the Italian faculty of the University of Arkansas attended the annual AATI Conference hosted at the Università per Stranieri di Perugia in Perugia, Italy.

This year five of the U of A faculty attended and gave lively conference papers: Ryan Calabretta-Sajder and Valentina Morello from the Fayetteville campus and Laura D'Angelo, Fabio Benincasa, and Barbara Spaccini from the Rome campus.

Calabretta-Sajder presented on Amara Lakhous's novels through the critical lens of affect theory, which is part of his current book project and co-presented with his co-editor, Alan Gravano, their forthcoming volume entitled Italian Americans on the Page (SUNY Press).

Valentina Morello presented on the film Io, e l'altro which focuses on the question of Italian migration in the Mediterranean. She also shared her most recent collaboration on the grammar and cultural textbook, Davvero, 2, with Klett World Languages on a panel dedicated to new publications in language pedagogy.

Laura D'Angelo and Barbara Spaccini presented on a newly created course entitled "To Rome with Love," which has had great success at the Rome Center. This course combines a section on language, Roman and Italian culture, intercultural competence, and on-site lectures to create an unique experience for students to not only better appreciate Italy, but to also reflect on their study abroad experience in a thoughtful manner.

Finally, Fabio Benincasa provided an overview of his most recent publication, Nanni Settanta, which explores the cinematic opus of reknowned Italian film maker, Nanni Moretti.