Events


 EVENTS
2012-13 MA PROGRAM INAUGURATION: US Consul General Kyle R. Scott and journalist Oliviero Bergamini



2016-17 EVENTS

4 Nov 2016. Program Inauguration and Round Table : "The US After the 2016 Presidential Election"
Panelists: David Ellwood (Johns Hopkins Univresity, SAIS Europe),  Alberto Simoni (La Stampa), Maurizio Vaudagna (Univ. Piemonte Orientale), Christopher Wurst (US Consul for Press and Culture, Milan). Moderator: Marco Mariano (MA in American Studies and Univ. Piemonte Orientale). Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/342973299382536/

19 Nov 2016. Alan TAYLOR (University of Virginia): 1750-1804: A Continental Look. Saturday, November 19, 2016, at 11 am - Campus Luigi Einaudi - Lungo Dora Siena 100 A - Torino (room F1).
Lecture description: Most interpretations of the revolution's causes subordinate western issues, treating them as minor irritants less significant than the clash over taxes. And yet, the American Revolution took place way beyond north-eastern urban areas. After the war, thousands of settlers moved across the mountains to make more farms and towns. Westerners formed a national constituency stronger than anything in the East.
About the Lecturer: Alan Taylor, Thomas Jefferson Professor of History at the University of Virginia, is the author of many acclaimed books in early American history. He has twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize in History. Most recently, he has become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
ADMISSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

2 Dec 2016. Giorgio MARIANI (Università di Roma, La Sapienza): Peacefighting in American Literature, from the American Revolution to the Iraq War. At 2 pm. Venturi ex sala lauree, Via Verdi 25, ground floor.
Lecture Description: The war against war, William James once wrote, will be no holiday excursion or camping party. He was right, and in my talk I will explore some of the contradictions, tensions, and conceptual problems American writers who wish to write against war continue to run into. Whether by trying to fashion a "peaceful" version of the old epic genre or by denouncing the imbrication of violence and the sacred, American literature has often engaged an important though only partially successful fight against war. After sketching the general argument of the book I have recently devoted to this problem, I will focus in the second part of my lecture on the poetry of Brian Turner, a US Iraq War veteran who has been both praised for his attempt to acknowledge the human face of the "enemy" and criticized for failing to understand his own role as "imperial grunt"
About the lecturer: Giorgio Mariani is professor of American literature at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he directs the doctoral program in Scienze del Testo. The president of the International American Studies Association from 2011 to 2015, he is the author and editor of volumes on the work of Herman Melville, Stephen Crane, Ralph Waldo Emerson; on contemporary American Indian literature; on the relation between war and US literature. His most recent book is waging War on War: Peacefighting in American Literature (University of Illinois Pres, 2015)
ADMISSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

16 Dec. 1016. Antonio BARRANECHEA (University of Mary Washington): Mondo Dracula: Celluloid Vampires from Tod Browning to Mario Bava. At 2 pm. Venturi ex sala lauree, Via Verdi 25, ground floor.
Lecture Description: My lecture approaches American Studies from two directions: 1) through a hemispheric map that includes Latin America; and 2) by tracing U.S. cultural influence beyond Anglophone borders.  I begin by outlining the emergence of the two parallel versions of Dracula produced by Universal Pictures in 1931.  One is the famous version directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi; the other is a Spanish-language version produced to cash in on the Hispanic market during the Great Depression.  Together, these Hollywood adaptations created a commercial template for the Mexican horror cinema starting in the late 1950s.  I examine one key film from this period, Fernando Méndez’s El vampiro (1957).  I argue that, by reinventing the Hollywood gothic, this film forges a Mexican response to modernity in the Americas.  My lecture ends with a brief discussion of how a transatlantic model of Hollywood reinvention might apply to the European low-budget cinemas I am presently studying through a fellowship in Aix-en-Provence, France.  In this case, I look at the Italian film I vampiri (1957), which was directed by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava and is the first film to set in motion a “Euro-trash” film trend in the 1960s.
About the lecturer: Antonio Barrenechea  is Associate Professor of English at the University of Mary Washington in the Washington, DC area.  He holds a PhD in comparative literature from Yale University, where he specialized in literature and cinemas of the Americas.  Since joining the University of Mary Washington in 2005, he has created an Inter-American Literature curriculum, as well as courses in Hollywood, art, and—most recently—exploitation films.   His book, America Unbound: Encyclopedic Literature and Hemispheric Studies, was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2016.  The book is a study of how the maximalist novel reimagines European and Native American encounters in the New World, and allows us to envision a new (Hemispheric) American Studies grounded in multiple literatures, cultures, and languages.  He sits on the boards of the International American Studies Association, the International Association of Inter-American Studies, the American Comparative Literature Association, and Comparative American Studies: An International Journal.  Currently, he is a resident fellow at the Institut Américain Universitaire in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he is working on a new book with the working title “Hemispheric Horrors: Monster, Trash, and Exploitation Cinema of the Americas.”
ADMISSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

16 Dec. 2016. Krystyna MAZUR (University of Warsaw). details coming soon. At 4 pm. Venturi ex sala lauree, Via Verdi 25, ground floor.


please return for more 2017 events.





The MA in American Studies at the University of Torino would like to thank all the lecturers who have contributed in the last five years to the success of our Master's Lectures Series and Seminars:

JONATHAN ARAC (University of  Pittsburgh).  June 6, 2014. The Age of the Novel in the United States.

DAVID SHUMWAY (Carnegie Mellon University and current Fulbright Scholar) May 17-18, 2013. Faces of the Rock Star: Stardom and Cultural Change.

MAURIZIO VAUDAGNA (Università del Piemonte Orientale "A. Avogadro”). May 25, 2012. American History and European Americanist Historians: Defining the West in a Transatlantic Perspective.
GRZESIEK KOSC (University of Lodz), May 4, 2013.  Lecture: Nation Building Through Portraiture During the Cold War. This lecture was sponsored through the Erasmus staff exchange program.
FERNANDO FASCE (University of Genova), March 15, 2013-. A 5-session seminar on the history of advertising in the U.S. with a lecture entitled Advertising and U.S. Society in the American Century.
FEDORA GIORDANO (University of Torino): April 12, 2013,  Native American Literature, postcolonialism and cosmopolitism. (Sala Lauree Dip. Lingue e Lett. Straniere. Via Verdi 10, 2nd floor.)
BARBARA ANTONIAZZI (Freie Universitaet Berlin), May 3-4, 2013. 2-day seminar, Progressive America and Its Women: Civic Passions in a Time of Change.
2012-13 PROGRAM INAUGURATION: "Jobs, Families, Economy. A Round-Table on the 2012 US Presidential Election" Friday, 28 September 2012, at 3 pm. Fondazione Einaudi. PANELISTS: Kyle R. Scott, US Consul General, Milano; Oliviero Bergamini, Rai3; Maurizio Vaudagna, Università del Piemonte Orientale. Maurizio VAUDAGNA (Università del Piemonte Orientale), " "American History and European Americanist Historians", May 25, 2012
KRYSTYNA MAZUR (University of Warsaw), May 26, 2012
TOMASZ BASIUK (University of Warsaw), "Contemporary American Life Writing", April 28, 2012
ASHLEY DAWSON (City University New York and Fulbright Specialist 2012): "AMERICAN DISASTERS", April 13, 2012
DANIELE FIORENTINO (Università Roma 3): "SPREADING THE AMERICAN FUTURE The US and the World at the Beginning of the 20th Century", April 13, 2012
ARDASHIR VAKIL (University of London): 'Longing To Belong: Migration, Memory and Meaning in the stories of Jhumpa Lahiri.', March 30-31, 2012
ALAN NADEL (University of Kentucky and Fulbright Specialist 2012), March 3, 2012: "American Cultural Narratives."
OLIVIERO BERGAMINI (Rai 3): "American decline or 'rise of the rest'? The US and a fast changing world."
FEDORA GIORDANO (University of Torino): "Native Languages and identity in Contemporary Native American Literature".
PETER J. LING (University of Nottingham), Sept 30, 2011  "Uneasy Allies: The Presidents And Martin Luther King"
SYMPOSIUM: TORINO-NEW YORK. COME L'ITALIAN-MADE TRASFORMA L'AMERICA. Participants: MORNING SESSION: Stefano Albertini (New York University), Oliviero Bergamini (Rai 3), Oddone Camerana (scrittore), Daniela Del Boca (Università di Torino), Francesco Farinetti (AD Eataly), Giuseppe Lavazza (Luigi Lavazza S.p.A.), Luisa Passerini (Università di Torino), Carlo Petrini (Slow Food), Ennio Ranaboldo (Lavazza North America), Mario Calabresi (La Stampa) AFTERNOON SESSION : Daniele Fiorentino (Università Roma Tre), Stefano Albertini (New York University), Karen Pinkus (Cornell University), Sabrina Ovan (Scripps College), Davide Borsa (Politecnico di Milano), Simone Cinotto (Università di Pollenzo). Maurizio Vaudagna (Università Piemonte Orientale). May 24, 2011
ASHLEY DAWSON (City University of New York). "American Disasters."  A long seminar examining the changing contours of American culture over the last decade. December 3-11, 2010
OLIVIERO BERGAMINI (Journalist, Rai 3), discusses the Obama Presidency with Maurizio Vaudagna (Univ. East Piedmont) and Andrea Carosso (MA in American Studies), to mark the publication of Bergamini's Storia degli Stati Uniti (Laterza 2010), February 17, 2011
DANIELE FIORENTINO (University Roma 3), Building More Perfect Unions: the transformation of United States foreign policy and the Italian Risorgimento in the second half of the 19th century. November 19, 2010
DON MCKAY and MARLENE CREATES: In Dialog. November 19, 2010
OLIVIERO BERGAMINI (Rai 3), "Journalism and Obama's decline". November 12, 2010
MARINA CAMBONI (University of Macerata), "Modernist American Poetry. 1: H.D. and Imagism; 2. H.D.’s Trilogy and the Long Poem." October 22, 2010
SUSANNA BASSO (literary translator), Sul tradurre. Esperienze e divagazioni militanti. Discussants: Carmen Concilio, Anna Nadotti; opening remarks: Andrea Carosso. October 8, 2010
ROSEMARY SULLIVAN (University of Toronto). "Life Writing." May 15, 2010.
AARON JAFFE (University of Louisville): "Publication, Patronage, Censorship: Literary Production and the Fortunes of Modernist Value". May 7 and May 8, 2010
DONATELLA BADIN (Univ. of Torino). "Henry James and Europe." April 23, 2010.
ANDREA CAROSSO (Univ. of Torino). " 'The eyes of all people upon us.' Religious and Political discourse in Colonial America, 1492-1692." March 26 and April 16, 2010
FEDORA GIORDANO (Univ. of Torino). "Native American Studies Seminar." March 5 and March 6, 2010.
MAURIZIO VAUDAGNA (Univ. of East Piedmont). 2010 Inauguration lecture and seminar: "Social Democracy in the United States." Feb 26 and Feb 27, 2010. JAMES T. KLOPPENBERG (Harvard University), "Obama and the Historical Tradition of American Liberalism," April 3, 2009
ROBERT VISCUSI (Brooklyn College), "DEEP FUTURISM: Migration Aesthetics," March 6, 2009 DONATELLA IZZO (University of Naples), ""The Gendered Genealogies of Modernism and the Emergence of the Aesthetic Sphere," Friday, April 24, 2009.
DAVID NYE (University of Southern Denmark, Odense), "Technology Matters: The Transformation of Urban Space in the United States." April 17-18, 2009
SOPHUS REINERT (Cambridge University) and FRANCESCA VIANO (University of Torino), "The Art of Empire: America: 1700-1901". Nov. 14-15, 2008.
ALISSA YORK, presenting her latest novel Effigy, May 9, 2008.
RICHARD BUTSCH (Rider University). "A History of American Audiences" April 11-12, 2008
OLIVIERO BERGAMINI (Rai 3 and Università di Bergamo).  "The State of American Journalism". March 7-8, 2008. FRANCO MINGANTI (University of Bologna), "(Strands of) American Roots Music: from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music to Greil Marcus's The Shape of Things to Come (and back)", December 5-6, 2008.
MICHAEL HOENISCH (Freie Universitaet Berlin), "Documentary Film in North-America", April 18-19, 2008.
MAE NGAI (Columbia University), "Legal and Illegal Immigrants in 20th Century United States: Issues of Citizenship and Nationality", April 26 - May 3, 2007.
DAVID NYE (University of Southern Denmark)."Electrifying the American City" and "America as Second Creation", May 22-24, 2007.
STEFANO ROSSO (Università di Bergamo), "Male Identities in American Literature and Culture", April 18 and May 7, 2007
MICHAEL HOENISCH (Freie Universitaet Berlin), "American Documentary Film: History and Methods", April 26-27, 2007. GUIDO CARBONI (Univ. Piemonte Orientale). "Visual Arts in America, 1913-1917: realisms and abstractions.", March 21-28, 2007
ALBERTO PAPUZZI (La Stampa), "Dalla penny press a Walter Lippmann: il senso della notizia and Le regole morali del giornalismo americano", March 6-7, 2006
OLIVIERO BERGAMINI (Rai3 and University of Bergamo), "Giornalismo, media e guerra negli Stati Uniti. Prospettive storiche e problemi contemporanei", March 22-23, 2006
KEVIN BARNHURST (University of Illinois at Chicago), "The Ideology of American Journalism", April 26-27, 2006. PETER D'AGOSTINO (Temple University). "On the Lines / In the Air: surveying new & desperate media", May 15-16, 2006
FEDORA GIORDANO (Univ. of Torino), "N. Scott Momaday, the Man Made of Words", February 28, 2007
IVAN KURILLA (Volgograd State University, Russia). "Russia and the United States: Past and Present", March 5, 2007 PETER LING (University of Nottingham), "The Dream: Charismatic Leadership and Martin Luther King", March 29, 2007 WILL KAUFMAN (University of Central Lancashire), "Woody Guthrie: Hard Times and Hard Travellin'", a lecture/performance, May 16, 2007
GIAIME ALONGE (Università di Torino), "Schmucks with Underwoods. Ben Hecht and the craft of screenwriting in classical Hollywood", April 5, 2007. "The President as a Movie Star: John Fitzgerald Kennedy e il cinema", April 26, 2006.
MAURIZIO VAUDAGNA (Università del Piemonte Orientale), "Victorian Virilty, Democratic Emotionalism and Patriotic Citizenship in Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fireside Chats", April 17, 2007
JAN NORDBY GRETLUND (University of Southern Denmark), "Mark Twain, the Good American", May 24, 2006.
JOHANNES VOELZ (Freie Universitaet Berlin), "Introduction to American Jazz History, 1900-1945", March 21-30, 2006.
LAURA BUSH, First Lady of the United States, visiting the University of Torino while leading the US delegation at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics and bringing a book donation to the MA in American Studies, February  11, 2006.