The Graduate Students’ Association of Italian Studies Conference 2022
University of Toronto, November 4-6, 2022
Food for Body and Soul: Representations, Symbols, and Practices of Nourishment in Italian Studies / Cibo per il corpo, cibo per lo spirito. Rappresentazioni, simboli e pratiche del nutrimento nell’italianistica.
No registration needed. Everyone is welcome. Please note that room capacity may be limited.
Friday 4 November
Charbonnel Lounge, 81 St. Mary Street
8.30–9.30 Registration and breakfast
9.30–10.00 Greetings and opening remarks
Professor Franco Pierno (Acting Chair of the Department of Italian Studies)
Veronica Manson (Director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura – Toronto)
Rachel Grasso (President of GSAIS)
Conference Organizers
10.00–11.30 Panel – Food and Nourishment in Italian Literature 1. Middle Ages
Chair: Ziyu Cheng (University of Toronto)
Giulia Gaimari (University of Toronto) Dante and the Food of Justice (Par. XVIII-XX)
Ernesto Virgulti (Brock University) Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold: Betrayal in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Novella of the Eaten Heart (Decameron IV, 9)
Kelsey Cunningham (University of Toronto) Galenic Strategies for Regulating the Spirits through Diet and Lifestyle in Boccaccio’s Decameron
11.30–13.00 Keynote address: Professor Patrizia La Trecchia (University of South Florida) Decolonizing Food: Food Justice and the Environmental Humanities
13.00–14.30 Lunch break
14.30–16.00 Panel – Cultivating Food and Nourishment in the Italian-Canadian Community
Chair: Jan Marta (University of Toronto)
Joseph Pivato and Emma Pivato (Athabasca University) Italian-Canadian Food Practices for People with Eating Difficulties
Jan Marta (University of Toronto) Gardens of Survival: Nourishing Body and Soul in the Italian Canadian Diaspora
Rosaria Moretti-Lawrie (York University) A Photographic Archive of Italian Canadian Subsistence Gardens in Toronto between 1970s- 1990s
16.00–16.30 Coffee break
16.30–18.00 Panel – Food and Nourishment in Italian Literature 2. Twentieth Century
Chair: Gianmarco Bocchi (University of Toronto)
Thea Santangelo (Freie Universät Berlin) Sintesi marinettiane. Cibo, digestione e antropofagia tra presente, passato e futuro
Alessio Aletta (University of Toronto) Frutti perduti. Il senso del sensibile in Pirandello
Giampaolo Molisina (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Don Fabrizio’s ‘mani in pasta’: Symbology of the Hands-Food Binomial in Lampedusa’s and Visconti’s Il Gattopardo
Saturday 5 November
Alumni Hall 400, 121 St. Joseph Street
8.30–9.30 – Breakfast (Dept. of Italian Studies, Carr Hall 2nd floor, 100 St. Joseph Street)
9.30–11.00 Panel – Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Italian Food and Nourishment
Chair: Marco Ceravolo (University College Cork)
Elena Brizio (Georgetown University – Villa Le Balze) The Wheat of the Duchess: 1556 Siena’s Famine and Eleonora de Toledo
Frances Clemente (University of Oxford) Tarallo: cibo-simbolo del popolo partenopeo
Elisa Chiocchetti (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano) Nievo rusticale: il cibo tra questione alimentare e identità nazionale
11.00–11.30 Coffee break (Dept. of Italian Studies, Carr Hall 2nd floor, 100 St. Joseph Street)
11.30–13.00 Keynote address: Professor Fabio Parasecoli (New York University) Food and Politics in Italy: History and Current Issues
13.00–14.30 Lunch break
14.30–16.00 Panel – Food and Nourishment across Borders
Chair: Rumi Handen (University of Toronto)
Federico Sessolo (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) Food as a Passport. The Gastronomic Borders of “Italianity” in Italian American Communities (1930-1940)
Daniele Laudadio (University of Toronto) “What People Do with Media and Food”: Black Italians and the Italian Digital Foodscape in Tommy Kuti’s Videos for Chef in Camicia
Letizia Tesi (University of Toronto) Parla come mangi: Italian Food as a Cultural Icon across Language and Society in the Italian-Canadian Community
19.30–21.00 Aperitivo at Laurence K. Shook Common Room (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies), 59 Queen’s Park Cres E [Invite-Only Event]
Sunday 6 November
Alumni Hall 400, 121 St. Joseph Street
8.30–9.00 – Breakfast (Dept. of Italian Studies, Carr Hall 2nd floor, 100 St. Joseph Street)
9.00–10.30 Panel – Talking Food and Nourishment: Linguistic Perspectives
Chair: Rachel Grasso (University of Toronto)
Simone Casini (University of Toronto Mississauga) Lingua, vino, cultura, identità: parlare, scrivere, immaginare il vino italiano nel mondo globale
Pierangela Diadori and Anna Borghi (Università per Stranieri di Siena) Food and Identity in Italian Textbooks Used in Bilingual Schools in Germany and Turkey
Daria Bozzato and Lillian Belzer (Bryn Mawr College) Spaghetti and Meatballs: A Language of the White Assimilation of Italian-Americans
10.30–11.00 Coffee break (Dept. of Italian Studies, Carr Hall 2nd floor, 100 St. Joseph Street)
11.00–13.00 Roundtable: Deromanticizing the Myth of Italian Food
Professor Daniel Bender (Culinaria Centre – University of Toronto Scarborough)
Professor Angelica Pesarini (University of Toronto)
Rosa Vaglio (Associazione “Diritti a Sud”)
Professor Donna Gabaccia (University of Toronto)
13.00-13.30 Closing remarks