Placement Test
Not sure in which class to register? Complete this placement test.*
We offer a professional Italian language proficiency evaluation for a refundable $25 charge. The amount will be deducted from tuition when you enroll in our classes.
Register and email the completed test to: annaolivero@theitalianculturalcenter.org, Director of Adult Language Program. You will be contacted to schedule a Zoom meeting to discuss the results of the test, your oral skills, and which class best fits your language needs.
* This test is recommended for those who have some knowledge of Italian and are registering for our classes for the first time. Students registering for Beginner 1 and current students don't need to take this test.
Registration is open! Courses are available at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced level online and in-person.
Ten week classes begin the week of September 12:
Small groups and university-educated qualified instructors provide the ideal environment to learn a foreign language. Our instructors bring first-hand experience and cultural background of Italian life and current traditions to the classroom.
Our Language courses, based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), range from Beginning to Advanced level and provide a full program of study, all year around. In addition, we offer conversation classes, grammar workshops, book clubs, opera, and literature classes.
Email us at contact@theitalianculturalcenter.org with your questions
Vittorio Panzani, 78 years old, and William Belli, 71 years old, Trent, Trentino-South Tyrol, 2018, 18”x24” Digital Print
"Wish It Was A Coming Out" Photographs By Melissa Ianniello We are proud to partner with The Rochester Art Center to present an intimate photography collection of gay life in Italy.
Open until January 29th, 2023
Through the lens of tenderness and care, Melissa Ianniello: Wish it Was a Coming Out addresses themes that are universally relevant: from self determination to gay/lesbian love, from the representation of affection in advanced age to the honest portrayal of grief, loneliness and death. By bringing these stories to light, Ianniello encourages us to look with compassion at our own humanity in an attempt to celebrate love in its purest form.
In this exhibition, the stories of gay men and lesbian women between their sixties and nineties unfold through sixteen intimate photographs and six large scale photographs of the interviewee's homes. This is the award winning show's first exhibition in North America.
We hope you will attend and support this emerging Italian photographer and her work! LEARN MORE
In this class, students have the opportunity to review and reinforce their language skills at the upper Intermediate level while working on cultural topics related to contemporary Italy. Grammar structures previously studied will be addressed in their nuances and practiced more in depth.
Prerequisite: Practice and Consolidation #2
Please contact the school if you have not taken any other classes at the ICC before registering. An instructor will assess your level.
Use this link and order your text prior to the first day of class:
Nuovissimo Progetto Italiano
The goal of this course is for students to be able to greet others and introduce themselves, ask for information, describe their house, family, objects, and their location. Each class will provide information and discussion on cultural aspects of Italian life.
Use these links and order a copy of your text and workbook prior to the first day of class:
Textbook: NEW ITALIAN ESPRESSO UPDATED EDITION -BOOK + E-BOOK INTERATTIVO
The E-BOOK contains audios and videos.
Please note: duration of access to E-book 14 months
Workbook: NEW ITALIAN ESPRESSO UPDATED EDITION
IMPORTANT - COVID POLICY UPDATE:
PLEASE READ! By registering for this in-person class, you fully agree to the ICC COVID POLICY: Proof of vaccination or a negative test within 72 hours to be shown upon entry, masking optional
The goal of this course is for the student to be able to communicate about events of the past, working on when and how to use the different past tenses, and to express feelings, emotions. Each class will provide information and discussion on cultural aspects of Italian life.
Prerequisite: Intermediate Level 1
Please contact the school if you have not taken any other classes at ICC before registering. An instructor will assess your level.
Use these links and order a copy of your text prior to the first day of class:
NUOVO ESPRESSO 3 (BOOK + INTERACTIVE E-BOOK)
The E-Book contains all audios and videos. Duration of access to E-book: 14 months
Note: the textbook includes homework exercises (with keys)
The goal of this course is for students to be able to speak more extensively about themselves, their profession, their likes and dislikes. Students will also learn how to handle situations related to ordering at restaurants, shops, ask about prices, clothes, and daily activities. Each class will provide information and discussion on cultural aspects of Italian life.
Prerequisite: Beginner Level 1
The goal of this course is for students to be able to talk about past events, make predictions and express probability, ask and answer questions about time, weather, locations and places. Each class will provide information and discussion on cultural aspects of Italian life.
Prerequisite: Beginner Level 2
Textbook: NEW ITALIAN ESPRESSO (BOOK+MULTIMEDIA DVD + E-BOOK)
Workbook: NEW ITALIAN ESPRESSO_WORKBOOK
Bridge class #2
(after Upper Intermediate 3 and before Practice and Consolidation)
Before proceeding to Advanced classes, students who have completed Upper Intermediate 3 have the opportunity to review and gain more confidence in their speaking and writing skills. They will refine their language abilities while working on short Italian literary texts as a springboard for a thorough and a more in depth review of previous materials.
Prerequisite: Upper Intermediate 3
Please contact the school if you have not taken any other classes at the ICC before enrolling. An instructor will assess your level.
GIOCARE CON LA LETTERATURA
l
The goal of this course is for the student to be able to express opinions precisely and thoroughly, and to describe events in detail in the present, past and future tenses using accurate and appropriate vocabulary.
Pre-requisite: Practice and Consolidation #3
Use this link and purchase the textbook prior to first day of class:
Raccontare il Novecento
PLEASE READ! By registering for this in-person class, you fully agree to the ICC COVID POLICY: Proof of vaccination or a negative test within 72 hours to be shown upon entry, masking optional.
This class is for students who are at Upper Intermediate Level. Facets of Italian regional culture will be discussed to provide students with various opportunities to practice upper intermediate reading and conversational skills.
Use this link and order a copy of the textbook prior to first day of class:
The goal of this course is to be able to express opinions more precisely and thoroughly and to describe events in various tenses using accurate and appropriate vocabulary.
Prerequisite: Upper Intermediate #1
Please contact the school if you have not taken any other classes at ICC before enrolling. An instructor will assess your level.
Use this link and order a copy of your textbook prior to the first day of class:
NUOVO ESPRESSO 4 (Student book+ E-book interactive) - it includes textbook+workbook
The goal of this course is for students to be able to communicate in written and orally about past events, to express feelings and emotions, using different past tenses. Each class will provide information and discussion on cultural aspects of Italian life.
Use one of these links and order a copy of your textbooks prior to the first day of class:
Textbook: NUOVO ESPRESSO 2 (BOOK + INTERACTIVE E-BOOK)
The E-Book contains audios and videos.
Duration of access to E-book: 14 months
Note: the textbook includes the workbook (with keys)
For additional practice:
NUOVO ESPRESSO 2 - Esercizi supplementari
Prerequisite: Beginner Level 3
Use these links and order copies of your text and workbook prior to the first day of class:
Textbook: NEW ITALIAN ESPRESSO (BOOK + MULTIMEDIA DVD + E-BOOK)
The E-Book contains all audios and videos
Please note: duration of access to E-book: 14 months
Workbook: NEW ITALIAN ESPRESSO_WORKBOOK E-BOOK
The goal of this course is for the student to be able to communicate about events of the past and express feelings, emotions and sensations. Each class will provide information and discussion on cultural aspects of Italian life.
Prerequisite: completion of Pre-Intermediate 2
NUOVO ESPRESSO 2 (BOOK + INTERACTIVE E-BOOK)
The E-Book contains all audios and videos.
Note:the textbook includes homework exercises (with keys)
Two Artists, Two Cities, Two Icons
A dialogue between Rome and New York City
The exhibition currently on display at the Weisman Museum of Art, “Capturing Change: The Urban Images of Berenice Abbott and Giovanni Battista Piranesi”, offers a rare opportunity to admire the works of two masters, twentieth century American photographer Berenice Abbott and eighteen century Italian engineer, archeologist and artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The works from Abbott’s publication “Changing New York” and from Piranesi’s “Vedute di Roma” are rarely on display at the Weisman.
Berenice Abbott photographed New York City in the 1930s while Piranesi created his etchings of Rome in mid-1700. Both artists saw these two cities with unfamiliar eyes as Abbott was from Ohio and Piranesi was a citizen of the Republic of Venice. One can say that their “foreignness” allowed them to recognize iconic architectural and urban elements of Rome and New York City, which helped create an imagery of the two cities that remains in our collective mind to this day.
“Changing New York” (1929-39) by Berenice Abbott is still regarded as the most important photographic portrait of any American city. “Vedute di Roma” (1747-78) by Giovanni Battista Piranesi created a perception of Roman antiquity lasting to our own time.
The tour is in English and will be led by Lorella Angelini. It will take place on Wednesday, October 12 from 6:00 to - 7:15 p.m. Participants will meet at the Weisman’s check-in desk.
Lorella Angelini, a native of Pesaro in the Marche region of Italy, has been living and working in Minneapolis for the last 20 years. She holds a graduate degree in Civil Engineering from Marche Polytechnic University and specialization in Marketing from SDA Bocconi in Milan. Deeply passionate about art, Lorella has built her art knowledge through a long-term collaboration with the Weisman Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center. Lorella is currently a tour guide with the Weisman Museum of Art.
IMPORTANT:
All cancellations must be received at least 72 hours in advance to receive a refund less an administrative fee.
COVID 19 PolicyICC will conform to the requirements of the Weisman Art Museum. Click here for details on their current policy.
PICTURES
Left: Berenice Abbott, Murray Hill Hotel: Spiral, 112 Park Avenue, Manhattan, 1935, gelatin silver print. Weisman Art Museum purchase.
Right: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Teatro di Marcello (The Theater of Marcellus), 1757, etching on paper. Weisman Art Museum purchase.
Opening Soon Botticelli and Renaissance Florence:Masterworks from the Uffizi
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) presents "Botticelli and Renaissance Florence: Masterworks from the Uffizi,” featuring more than 45 loans from the renowned Uffizi Galleries in Florence, including Sandro Botticelli's evocative Minerva and the Centaur (c. 1482).
ICC Members receive 50% off up to four exhibition tickets per purchase Request your code today! contact@theitalianculturalcenter.org
Marking the first collaboration between Mia and the Uffizi Galleries, the exhibition includes paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, decorative arts, and a selection of ancient Roman marble statues. It is the largest and one of the most comprehensive shows on Botticelli ever staged in the United States, featuring works that seldom leave the Italian museum’s galleries.
On view from October 16, 2022, through January 8, 2023, in Mia's Target Galleries, "Botticelli and Renaissance Florence" contextualizes the artist’s works within the broader artistic and cultural climate of Renaissance Florence.
Famous for his large-scale mythological and secular paintings, Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510) was among the most celebrated and gifted artists of the Italian Renaissance. He is also well known for his inimitable treatment of sacred subjects, which include altarpieces, devotional pictures, and three major frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV. In addition to his Minerva and the Centaur, painted for the Medici family at the height of his career, the Uffizi is lending a dozen works by Botticelli, including nine paintings treating a range of subjects from the religious and mythological to portraiture and three drawings that are very rarely lent and have never been exhibited in the United States.
The exhibition also includes loaned works by Botticelli's master, Fra Filippo Lippi, and other members of Botticelli's circle, including Filippino Lippi, the Pollaiuolo brothers, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Luca Signorelli, and Lorenzo di Credi. Important Roman sculptures spanning the second century BCE to the second century CE are also on display, including five major works from the Uffizi's collection. These antiquities help illuminate the integral role played by ancient art in the Italian Renaissance and its influence on Botticelli and his circle—providing a rare opportunity to present together works by Botticelli and the sculptures that influenced him.
Loans from the Uffizi are interspersed with objects from Mia's collection, including Benedetto da Rovezzano's Saint John the Baptist sculptural bust (c. 1505) displayed alongside Jacopo del Sellaio's Triumph of Mordecai (c. 1485), a panel painting from the Uffizi that depicts a similar terra-cotta bust. Visitors are able to see how artworks were originally displayed in Renaissance interiors and gain a better understanding of how they functioned in these spaces.
RELATED EVENTS
Talk: Living in Florence in the Age of Botticelli: Eike Schmidt and Roberta Bartoli
Sunday, October 16, 2022, 2:00 pm [Sold Out] -
Virtual Course: Botticelli and Renaissance Florence
Wednesday, November 9, 2022, 12:00 pm
-
Friends Lecture: Botticelli’s Florence and Florence’s Botticelli: Carl Strehlke
Thursday, November 10, 2022, 11:00 am -
Talk: Finding Botticelli: Rachel McGarry
Thursday, December 1, 2022, 6:30 pm
LEARN MORE
Week of Italian Language
October 17-23, 2022
“La Fabbrica dell’Italiano”
Documentary
October 17, 2022
Presented by
“La Fabbrica dell’Italiano” enters into the history of the Accademia della Crusca and of Italian language. The story develops from the beginnings of the first founders of the Academy to the creation of the first Vocabulary, passing through archival materials, fictional scenes and interviews with illustrious personalities of our cultural landscape up to the present day, with the description of the activities that see Accademia della Crusca involved and tell about the evolution of our language and therefore of our history.
The documentary will be available for 72 hours starting at 7:00pm CT on October 17, 2022.
Watch Online
The Week of Italian Language in the World is a yearly worldwide celebration of the Italian language and creativity. This initiative was born in 2001 in cooperation with the Accademia della Crusca. It is organized during the third week of October by the Embassies, Consulates, and Italian Cultural Institutes, with the support of the Ministry of Culture (MiC), the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), the Government of Switzerland and all of the main partners for the promotion of the Italian language.
Visioni Pasoliniane - Fuochi Segreti
A Contemporary Dance Performance by Compagnia Artemis Danza/Monica Casadei
for the fist time in Minneapolis
October 22, 2022
The performance is a tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), one of the greatest artists and intellectuals of the twentieth century.
“Non dovete far altro che continuare semplicemente a essere voi stessi: il che significa essere continuamente irriconoscibili. Dimenticare subito i grandi successi e continuare imperterriti, ostinati, eternamente contrari, a pretendere, a volere, identificarvi col diverso”
Pasolini’s research would begin from the body: his own, lean and athletic, and from his hunger for bodies, which emerges from all of his work in its lights and shadows. Through the characters, words and images that populate his oeuvre, the Emilian author manifested his thought and made it into a work of art open to different interpretations.
The language of dance, merging body and soul, becomes a powerful tool to revive the complexity of his thought: there is the woman-mother - pillar of his poetic and cinematographic production - there is the notion of freedom, there is poetry, there is Bach's music - with whom he sought to establish an artistic partnership - and there is the sacredness of the gesture. All these ingredients populate texts and visions that give life to an homage made of tension and redemption, dreams and utopias. A fresco of humanity and its paradoxes that live in the past and the present, exciting and opening our eyes to existence.
In Monica Casadei's choreography there is the sun of Roma’s “borgate” (the hamlets of Rome), where life pulsates, children play and the young, dressed in colorful clothes, dream and fight for their rights. In “Pasolini-Fuochi segreti” there is the warmth of that sun, the blue of the sky and the warm air of spring.
IMPORTANT
Tickets to the performance are free but a donation makes it possible for us to continue our mission to promote Italian language and culture here in Minnesota. Grazie!
The Italian Cultural Center of Minneapolis / St. Paul is a self-funded non-profit organization. Our members as well as the support we receive from the community make it all happen!
Please contact Tiziana at events@theitalianculturalcenter.org for sponsorship opportunities and donations above $100.
Saturday, October 22nd
Theater in the Round
6:30 PM - Social Time / Concessions 7:30 PM - Introduction and Performance 8:45 PM to 9:45 PM - Social Time with the Dancers / Concessions
It's easy to park at the Theater in the Round!Check out options here.
COVID 19 PolicyICC will conform to the requirements of the Theater in the Round where the performance will take place. Click here for details on their current policy.
Presented in partnership and with the support of
Choreography and direction Monica Casadei
Musics AAVV
Voices Davide Tagliavini, Monica Casadei
Musical dramaturgy Davide Tagliavini
Created and interpreted by Samuele Arisci, Michelle Atoe, Silvia Di Stazio, Costanza Leporatti,
Mattia Molini, Teresa Morisano, Christian Pellino, Salvatore Sciancalepore, Davide Tagliavini.
Production Assistant Mattia Molini
Customs Assistant Michelle Atoe
Thank you for the customs to Elena Nunziata
Production Compagnia Artemis Danza/Monica Casadei
In Collaboration with Comune di Bologna, Istituti Italiani di Cultura di Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Delhi, Mumbai, Seoul, Addis Abeba e Ambasciata Italiana ad Hanoi
With the contribution of Ministero della Cultura, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Comune di Parma
MONICA CASADEI AND ARTEMIS DANZA
“Everything mankind has experienced is written on the body. Dancing your soul out, the old one as well as the one we possess nowadays, equals putting movement and form to the service of need, urgency, emotion and soul” M. C.
Originally from Ferrara, Monica Casadei graduates in philosophy cum laude writing a dissertation on dance in Plato’s system. After a career as a professional acrobatic gymnast, she takes to studying classic and modern dance, at first in Italy, then in London, and eventually in Paris where she gets to meet choreographers Pierre Doussaint and Isabelle Doubouloz and the Master André Cognard Hanshi So shihan, with whom she still practices the martial art of Aikido.
In France, she founds the company Artemis Danza, with which she later moves to Italy, in 1997, giving birth to a fervent production activity that amounts, nowadays, to over 40 original creations.
From 1998 to 2007, the Company is part of an artist residency at Fondazione Teatro Due in Parma whereas, from 2014 up to this day, it partakes in an artist residency at Teatro Comunale in Bologna. Artemis Danza has been invited to the most important Italian theatres and festivals and to several international tours and festivals.
Pivotal elements in Monica Casadei’ s artistic research are the influences from different artistic, cultural and geographic fields and the exploration of urban spaces and places that turn into stages for performances.
Alongside the production activity, Artemis funds, produces and promotes young choreographers and organizes several activities meant to artistically educate the audience.
It's back! APERITIVO & CARTE Learn how to play cards the Italian way!
Join us on Friday, October 28th, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, for a fun evening of playing the traditional Italian card game scopone scientifico while enjoying an authentic Italian aperitivo (aperitif). NO EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY since Italian native Ileana, will teach you all you need to know in English. However, if you are already a PRO, feel free to show off your skills and join in the fun as well! Scopone scientifico is a variant of scopa, a simple card game that many Italians, including our facilitators, grew up playing in Italy with their grandparents. This event is open to all ICC members and non-members. Both individual players and pairs are welcome. Once you have signed up, the rules of the game will be included in the confirmation email so you can become familiar with the game. Per chi vuole trascorrere una serata divertente e giocare al tradizionale Scopone scientifico, il tutto accompagnato da un aperitivo italiano. Il torneo è aperto ai soci dell’ICC e ai non soci. Le regole del gioco sono spiegate in inglese. Non è richiesta alcuna conoscenza del gioco; se sei un campione, è l’occasione per mostrare la tua bravura. Lo scopone è un gioco a coppie divertente, semplice ed interessante. Se non hai un partner, te ne verrà assegnato uno la sera stessa. IMPORTANT: Masking will be optional but proof of vaccination or a negative test performed within 72 hours of the event will be required upon entry. Click here for details on our COVID 19 policy. Bring your friends and register now! Minimum number of participants: 10Maximum number of participants: 16 All events must be cancelled 72 hours in advance to receive a refund, less administrative fee.
Join us on Friday, October 28th, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, for a fun evening of playing the traditional Italian card game scopone scientifico while enjoying an authentic Italian aperitivo (aperitif).
NO EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY since Italian native Ileana, will teach you all you need to know in English. However, if you are already a PRO, feel free to show off your skills and join in the fun as well!
Scopone scientifico is a variant of scopa, a simple card game that many Italians, including our facilitators, grew up playing in Italy with their grandparents.
This event is open to all ICC members and non-members. Both individual players and pairs are welcome.
Once you have signed up, the rules of the game will be included in the confirmation email so you can become familiar with the game.
Per chi vuole trascorrere una serata divertente e giocare al tradizionale Scopone scientifico, il tutto accompagnato da un aperitivo italiano.
Il torneo è aperto ai soci dell’ICC e ai non soci. Le regole del gioco sono spiegate in inglese. Non è richiesta alcuna conoscenza del gioco; se sei un campione, è l’occasione per mostrare la tua bravura. Lo scopone è un gioco a coppie divertente, semplice ed interessante. Se non hai un partner, te ne verrà assegnato uno la sera stessa.
IMPORTANT: Masking will be optional but proof of vaccination or a negative test performed within 72 hours of the event will be required upon entry. Click here for details on our COVID 19 policy.
Bring your friends and register now!
All events must be cancelled 72 hours in advance to receive a refund, less administrative fee.
The ICC is pleased to present
ITALIAN IMMIGRANT CUISINE IN THE UNITED STATES: A History of Food and Diaspora
by Prof. Simone Cinotto
As part of our series ITALIAN AMERICANS: MORE THAN 200 YEARS IN THE MAKING, dedicated to exploring the history and heritage of the millions of Italians who emigrated to the United States and demystifying stereotypes, we are delighted to announce our 3rd talk: Italian Immigrant Cuisine in the United States: A History of Food and Diaspora, live from Italy with Prof. Simone Cinotto. Presented in English.
Food was at the center of the lives of Italian immigrants in the United States and their children in the early twentieth century. From generational conflicts resolved around the family table to a vibrant food-based economy of ethnic producers, importers, and restaurateurs, food was essential to the creation of an Italian American identity. Italian American foods offered not only sustenance but also powerful narratives of community and difference, tradition and innovation as immigrants made their way in American society, in the process inventing in the New World a widely popular Italian cuisine that did not exist yet in their country of origin.
Join us on Saturday, November 5th, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Doors: 10:30 AM) at ICC. Prof. Simone Cinotto will connect remotely from Italy (presented in English) with ICC members and friends listening together from our location in the vibrant North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis.
This will be a fascinating morning, providing participants with an opportunity to discover ICC's new location, reconnect and enjoy a good espresso and biscotti. Doors: 10:30 AM; Presentation: 11:00 AM.
It's easy to park at the ICC! Check out options here.
Simone Cinotto is Associate Professor of Modern History at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, where he is the Director of the master’s program, “Master of Gastronomy: World Food Cultures and Mobility”, the Coordinator of the Graduate Degree in “International Gastronomies and Food Geo-Politics,” and Reference Professor for Fulbright cultural exchange programs between Italy and the United States. Cinotto holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Genoa. He is the Coordinator of the Local Research Unit of the National Interest Research Project (PRIN) “Transatlantic Transfers: The Italian Presence in Postwar America” (2019-2023). He is currently an affiliate research scholar at Indiana University Bloomington. Cinotto is the author of The Italian American Table: Food, Family, and Community in New York City (University of Illinois Press, 2013), Soft Soil Black Grapes: The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California (New York University Press, 2012), and Gastrofascismo e Impero: Il cibo nell’Africa Orientale Italiana, 1935-1941 (Mimesis, 2022); the editor of Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities (Fordham University Press, 2014), which won the 2015 John G. Cawelti Award for the Best Textbook/Primer of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association; and the coeditor, with Hasia Diner, of Global Jewish Foodways: A History (University of Nebraska Press, 2018), and, with Daniel Bender, of Food Mobilities: Making World Cuisines (University of Toronto Press, 2023). His article “Leonard Covello, the Covello Papers, and the Eating Habits of Italian Immigrants in New York” won the 2004 David Thelen Prize awarded by the Organization of American Historians for the best article on American History published in a language other than English, and was published in the Journal of American History.
Cinotto has been Visiting Professor at Indiana University (2017-2018), Visiting Professor at University of London SOAS (2014-2019), Visiting Scholar of the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies (CEMS) at New York University (2013-2015), Visiting Professor at the Department of Italian Studies at New York University (2008-2009), Fellow of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University (2004), Visiting Scholar at the History Department at Columbia University (2007, 2000, 1998), Fellow of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell University (2000), and Scholar-in-Residence of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies-Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (2009, 2000, 1998).
Cinotto is on the Editorial Collective of and on the Editorial Board of several journals, among which Food, Culture, and Society, Gastronomica, Global Food History, and the Italian American Review.
Cinotto current research interests include the global history of food, migration, and mobility and the history of transatlantic consumer cultures in the twentieth century, with a focus on Italian America. He has four books in preparation: Fascist Coffee, Imperial Bananas: Food in Italian East Africa, 1935-1941; Birth of a Cultural Superpower: Italian Products and Cultures in Postwar United States and the Transatlantic Origins of Made in Italy; The Puerto Ricans and Italians of New York: Migration and Mobilization in the Atlantic World; and Transatlantic Emotions: The Mental and Intimate Biography of an Italian Immigrant to America, 1905-1942.
Cinotto has a long and significant administrative experience, having created and directed for sixteen years what is now the master’s program, “Master of Gastronomy: World Food Cultures and Mobility,” (previously “Food Culture and Communications: Food, Place, and Identities”), at UNISG Pollenzo. The program has so far enrolled and graduated about 750 students from about 60 countries. Through the years, Cinotto has invited to teach in the program many of the top international food studies scholars as well as experts and activists. The planning and management of the program has included the organization of some 50 study trips to different parts of Italy, Europe, and the rest of the world and the creation of a very large database of opportunities for student internships.
RESEARCH TOPICS
Food History and Culture
Italian American Studies
Modern Italian History
History of Consumer Culture
Migration History
U.S. and Transatlantic History
Website https://www.unisg.it/en/docenti/simone-cinotto/
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3519-5437
Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=96DonDQAAAAJ&hl=en
LITTLES ITALIES - A PLACE OR A PEOPLE? THE DEVELOPMENT OF ETHNICITY IN THE US
A visual journey across America by Prof. Jerome Krase
As part of our series ITALIAN AMERICANS: MORE THAN 200 YEARS IN THE MAKING, dedicated to exploring the history and heritage of the millions of Italians who emigrated to the United States and demystifying stereotypes, we are delighted to announce our November talk: Little Italies - A Place or a People? The Development of Ethnicity in the US with Prof. Jerome Krase.
For many, Italian America and the Italian American neighborhood are virtually synonymous. Ethnic urban villages, initially established to provide mutual assistance and support among immigrants, have survived despite upward social mobility, suburban migration, urban renewal, and invasions by subsequent groups. Interestingly, the local Italian community (as a congeries of families) has been better suited than many others to survive the transformations, having evolved over centuries within a variety of oppressive social, political, and economic structures. Until recently, most predicted the imminent disappearance of Italian ethnic neighborhoods, thus producing a large collection of studies on the birth and death of one or another Little Italy. These pessimistic analyses were based on various theories that predicted the “Twilight” of Italian American ethnicity. For historians the major rubric under which Italian residential communities are discussed is that of Little Italy. For other social scientists it is the urban village. Although most of these, almost stereotypical enclaves, are still found in the central areas of large metropolises many others can be found in smaller cities, and virtually every location where heavy industry, construction, sewer, road, or canal work, or major railroad or seaport connections required immigrant labor. Also, a sizable percentage of Italians have lived and worked in small factory towns, mining villages, and in rural America. Although these Italian American neighborhoods have many variations based on such things as size, concentration, and immigrant generation; from tiny California fishing villages to the huge concentration of Italians in New York City's East Harlem, it is possible to speculate about what they have in common. Not all of the neighborhoods in which Americans of Italian descent reside are regarded as Little Italies. Ironically, it is possible that an area in which all of the residents are Italian might not be called a “Little Italy” while another locale at which there is not a single Italian resident will be so regarded. Little Italies are frequently described as having Old World Italian airs, in most cases what is defined as Old World, or even Italian is arbitrarily ill-defined, if defined at all. People just seem to intuitively know when they are in a real Italian neighborhood.
Join us on Thursday, November 17th, 6:00 - 7:30 PM (Doors: 5:30 PM) at ICC. Prof. Jerome Krase will connect remotely from the East coast with ICC members and friends listening together from our location in the vibrant North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis.
This will be a fascinating evening, providing participants with an opportunity to discover ICC's new location, reconnect and enjoy a glass of wine and light appetizers. Doors: 5:30 PM; Presentation: 6:00 PM.
Jerome Krase, Emeritus and Murray Koppelman Professor, Brooklyn College CUNY is a Public Scholar writing, photographing, and lecturing on urban and ethnic issues globally. e.g. Rome, Padua, Urbino, Trento, Trieste, Bari, and Pisa. Relevant books include Ethnicity and Machine Politics: The Madison Club of Brooklyn (1992), The Review of I-A Studies (2000), Race and Ethnicity in NYC (2005), Ethnic Landscapes in an Urban World. (2007), The Staten Island Italian American Experience (2007), Seeing Cities Change (2012), The Status of Interpretation in Italian American Studies (2012), and four volumes of the AIHA Proceedings. A Founding Member the American Italian Coalition of Organizations (1978), he was Brooklyn College Center for Italian-American Studies Director (1975-84), received the Monsignor Gino Baroni Award (Italian Americana 2005), and was American Italian Historical Association President (1993-97). For those who are ethnically inquisitive, his mother Martha Rose Cangelosi’s family came from Marineo, Sicily in the late Nineteenth Century.
PLIDA Exams 2022
Registration open for PLIDA Exams Level B1, B2
to be held on
Wednesday November 30, 2022
Deadline for enrollment: Wednesday November 22, 2022
In Person, at ICC headquarters
250 Third Avenue N. Suite 625
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Please note that Società Dante Alighieri membership is required to take the exam.
Use this link to process your Società DA membership.
Registration open for PLIDA Exams Level C1
Thursday December 1st, 2022
