In Memory of Philip Cannistraro

Philip Cannistraro was a prominent figure in Italian American studies, his brilliant research on Fascism and his political implications, both in Italy and in the US, remain well known internationally in the academic field.  
 

John D. Calandra Institute in preparation for the conference

The Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Professor Anthony Julian Tamburri, explained to us the reason behind the conference his Institute is having to honor the memory of Philip Cannistraro and talked about his legacy and importance as an Italian American scholar and historian.

These are his words…

The conference that we’re having in honor of Philip Cannistraro is first of all to honor Philip Cannistraro because he died too young at 63.
He was our distinguished professor of Italian American studies, he’s known mostly for being a scholar of Italian Fascism, but he also studied the relations between Italian Americans and Italy and also the Italian Americans and their relation to Fascist Italy.

That’s the first thing. The second thing is that Philip Cannistraro, as opposed to many other people especially in Italian American studies, has left a legacy.

All nine presenters at this conference, all nine professors are basically all students of Philip Cannistraro, or at least the majority.

So he created a school, “ha fatto scuola”, and he left a wonderful legacy.

Ernesto Ialongo and William Adams, the people who really put this conference together, the coordinators, they’re going to put a book together, the essays of the presentation, so there will be a publication that will have full-fledged essays of the presentation.

New Directions in Italian and Italian-American History: A Conference in Honor of Philip Cannistraro

Date:
Saturday, November 05, 2011 9:00 AM

Location:
John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute 25 West 43rd Street, 17th Floor, NYC,
(212) 642-2094

Keynote 
  
Emilio Gentile, University of Rome, La Sapienza 
“Fabbrica del consenso o fabbrica del potere?  Redefining Fascism and Totalitarianism” 
  
New Directions in Italian-American History 
 

Chair:  Gerald Meyer, Hostos Community College, CUNY 

Charles Killinger, University of Central Florida, “Italian Antifascist Exiles and the Italian-American Community:  Renato Poggioli and Gaetano Salvemini as Case Studies” 
Marcella Bencivenni, Hostos Community College, CUNY, “Re-examining Italian-American Radical History Through the Lens of Culture” 
Peter Vellon, Queens College, CUNY,  “‘The humiliation of being treated like Negroes’:  The Italian-American Education in Matters of Race”

  
New Directions in Italian History, I  

Chair:  Emily Braun, Hunter College & The Graduate Center, CUNY 

Paul Corner, University of Siena, “Factories and their Products:  A Comment on Phil Cannistraro's La fabbrica del consenso” 
Ernest Ialongo, Hostos Community College, CUNY, “The Calculated Compromise:  F.T. Marinetti and Fascism in the Twenties” 
William Adams, Hunter College, CUNY, “The politica dei ponti in the Republic of Salò”

New Directions in Italian History, II 


Chair:  John Davis, University of Connecticut 

Marta Petrusewicz, University of Calabria, “Fin-de-siècle Rome:  A Republic of Collectors” 
Stanislao Pugliese, Hofstra University, “Dancing on a Volcano: Attempting a Popular History of Naples” 
David Aliano, College of Mount Saint Vincent, “Re-imagining the Nation: Italian National Narratives Abroad (1922-1945)”