University College Cork, 9-10 June 2023
Organised by the Department of Italian, University College Cork
The two-day “XII Annual Graduate Conference in Italian Studies”, hosted by University College Cork on June 9 and 10, 2023, saw the participation of 22 research graduate students (PhD/MPhil) working on Italian or Italian-related topics from a great variety of European and US universities.
The event was organised by the Postgraduate Community of the Department of Italian, University College Cork (PhD students: Elsina Caponetti, Dario Galassini, Noreen Kane, Francesca Nieddu, Ylenia Papa (Erasmus+ Trainee), Chiara Valcelli), and sponsored by the Italian Department and CASiLaC, UCC, and the Society for Italian Studies. The purpose of the event was to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and discussion of current and work-in-progress research within the Italian Studies community in Ireland and beyond. Contributions addressed, but were not limited to, topics related to Dante Studies, Reception Studies, methodological approaches, Women’s Studies, postcolonial literature, geocritical readings, and counter-narratives.
The conference consisted of seven panels, for a total of twenty-two papers, one workshop, and one keynote lecture.
© Copyright 2021 Liam Ó Broin x CDSI
It started on Friday 9th with the first panel, “Medieval Imagineries”, chaired by Dr Daragh O’Connell (UCC), with papers by Gianluca Caccialupi (Trinity College Dublin), Elsina Caponetti (UCC), Ylenia Papa (Università per Stranieri di Perugia – UCC Erasmus+ Traineeship), and Chiara Valcelli (UCC).
The panel was followed by a Workshop on Postdoctoral Applications, organised by SIS ECR Representatives, Dr Federica Coluzzi and Dr Paolo Saporito. The hybrid workshop saw the participation of Dr Allen White (UCC), Dr Rebecca Bowen (University of Oxford), Dr Eleonora Lima (Trinity College Dublin), and Dr Valentina Mele (University of Leeds), who shared their expertise and experiences on postdoctoral applications and tenures.
The second panel of the day, “Methodologies for Italian Studies”, was chaired by Dr Chiara Giuliani (UCC), with papers by Dario Galassini (UCC), Annamaria Azzarone (Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon), and Tommaso Verga (UCC).
A third session followed, entitled “Women’s Writing” and chaired by Dr Silvia Ross (UCC), with presentations by Paola De Piante Vicin (Università di Zurigo), Francesca Nieddu (UCC), and Stefani Scimeca (Ohio State University).
The second day started with the generous keynote lecture by Prof Emma Bond (University of Oxford), entitled “Museum Methods and World Literature: From Salvage Aesthetics to Post-Object Futures”.
The fourth panel, “Colonial and Postcolonial Italy”, was chaired by Dr Chiara Giuliani, with papers by Noreen Kane (UCC), Brandon Michael Cleverly Breen (Università di Cagliari), and Luca Fiorito (Università di Genova).
The subsequent fifth session, “Literature and Landscapes”, was chaired by Dr Silvia Ross, with presentations by Michele Gandolfi (Università di Pisa), Jacopo Turini (UCC), and Giulia Bernuzzi (University of Amsterdam).
The sixth panel, “Identity and Space”, was chaired by Dr Marco Amici, with papers by Laura Mattioli (University of Durham), Lorenzo Sabatino (Università di Bologna), and Marco Ceravolo (UCC).
A seventh and final panel followed, entitled “Narratives and Counter-Narratives” and chaired by Dr Mark Chu (UCC), with papers by Diletta Pasetti (Rutgers University), Pia Carmela Lombardi (Università degli Studi di Trento), and Salvatore Taibi (Rutgers University).
The event successfully reached its purpose to encourage cross-disciplinary communication and exchange of ideas among the Italian Studies postgraduate community, fostering discussions on ongoing research and projects and ultimately showing their potential contributions on existing scholarship.
