Renaissance: Re-discovering Literature and Nicola

It is always a pleasure to hear Nicola Gardini speak. His unconventional approach - and indeed, challenges - to the literary canon and the academy are wholly refreshing. I met Gardini 10 years ago in Florence - I was barely 23 and Stefano Albertini's assistant - running around with 50 students at NYU's Villa LaPietra. I was all wild limbs and unseemly eye wear, flailing about with enthusiasm and chaotic mis-direction, discovering gelato alla frutta and campanili. Nicola, who was teaching a course in the program, took up lodging in a pensione near Piazza della Repubblica. How marvelously 19th century of him! I was instantly a fan.

Sadly, I haven't seen much of him in the last few years - he is now a professor at Oxford - save on the happy occasions of his book presentations at NYU's Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò.

Most recently, he was in NYC (and at the Casa) to discuss a new work - conspicuously (and perhaps provocatively) entitled "Rinascimento" [Renaissance], Einaudi 2010. I reviewed the book for i-Italy.

An incredibly prolific scholar, Gardini has penned a mountain of books, essays and translations. His writing can be as colorful and diverting as his conversation and his global perspective on the Humanities makes even an elusive and daunting topic such as the Renaissance seem relevant, accessible and exciting.

Italian- American Studies?

As a comparative scholar from an Italian Studies department - and a person without any Italian blood whatsoever - the concept of "Italian-American Studies" has always eluded me. Until Friday, that is, when I visited the John D. Calandra Institute (CUNY) for the conference - "Re-thinking Italian American Studies".

I found myself considering the way a hybrid definition of identity - entirely removed from either national political context - presents a challenge to the idea of an "imagined community" as shaped by geographic or linguistic borders.

I wrote on a piece on the opening panel discussion for i-Italy.org.