The Center for Italian Culture (CIC) at Fitchburg State University will explore the Italian immigrant experience, past and present, with a series of programs called “Nuovo Mondo: A Century of Migrations from and to Italy.”
Through lectures, film series, food events, discussions, workshops, and more, the CIC will examine the impact and legacy of the emigration of Italians to the United States and contemporary migration into Italy.
The programs begin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21 with the first in a series of film screenings on the immigrant experience. “Nuovomondo” (2006) recounts the Mancuso family's migration from rural Sicily, Italy to New York City at the beginning of the 20th century. The film will screen in Ellis White Lecture Hall in Hammond Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.
The campus will present the Dr. Joseph Luzzi Residency Keynote Address: Italian Immigration to America at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, also in Ellis White Lecture Hall in Hammond Hall. Dr. Luzzi, the child of Italian immigrants and an award-winning scholar of Italian literature, is Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature at Bard College. In his address, he will discuss the subject of Italian immigration to America, with special reference to his 2014 memoir, My Two Italies: A Personal and Cultural History.
Additional information on the series can be found online at fitchburgstate.edu/nuovo-mondo.