John and Mary Esposito Visiting Faculty Fellowship
Fred Gardaphe, Distinguished Professor of English and Italian American Studies at Queens College/CUNY and the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute. has been named the Esposito Visiting Faculty Fellow for 2012. He will present the Esposito Visiting Faculty Fellow lecture on Wednesday, March 28 at 4:00 PM in the Board of Trustees Room in the Foster Administration Building. His lecture, “Looking for the Laugh: Humor and The Future of Being Italian American,” explores the role that humor plays in developing Italian American identities and the tradition of humor as a means of dealing with the traumas of becoming Americans. He will also examine the stereotypes that surface in sensational media portrayals such as those found in The Sopranos and Jersey Shore.
Prof. Gardaphe directs the Italian/American Studies Program at Queens and formerly directed the programs in Italian American and American studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is Associate Editor of Fra Noi, an Italian American monthly newspaper, editor of the Series in Italian American Studies at State University of New York Press, and co-founding-co-editor of Voices in Italian Americana, a literary journal and cultural review. He is past president of MELUS (2003-2006), the American Italian Historical Association (1996-2000), and The Working Class Studies Association (2008-2011). His edited books include: New Chicago Stories, Italian American Ways, From the Margin: Writings in Italian Americana and Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice. He has written two one-act plays: "Vinegar and Oil," produced by the Italian/American Theatre Company in 1987, and "Imported from Italy," produced by Zebra Crossing Theater in 1991. His study, Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution of Italian American Narrative, is based on his dissertation which won the Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli/Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs award for 1993 dissertations) and was published by Duke University Press in 1996; it was named an Outstanding Academic Book for 1996 by Choice. He has also published Dagoes Read: Tradition and the Italian/American Writer, Moustache Pete is Dead!: Italian/American Oral Tradition Preserved in Print, Leaving Little Italy: Essaying Italian American Studies and From Wiseguys to Wise Men: Masculinities and the Italian American Gangster. Some of his short stories were translated and published as Importato dall’Italia by L’Idea Press, 2010. His most recent book is The Art of Reading Italian Americana, Bordighera Press, 2011.
Professor Gardaphe has taught a wide range of courses, including (most recently), U.S. America's Funniest Fiction, Images of Italian Americans in Film and Television, The Gangster in American Literature, The Italian American Experience in Literature, Comparative U.S. Ethnic Cultues, The Artist in Society (Honors Seminar), Making American Identities and many more. As part of the Faculty Fellowship, he will make classroom presentations on Tuesday, March 27 and Wednesday, March 28.
Established by Dr. Louis Esposito, former Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, this award honors the memory of his parents, John and Mary Esposito. First generation American citizens whose Italian ancestry traces to Naples and Sicily respectively, John and Mary, denied access to education beyond the ninth grade, raised and educated three children and instilled in each of their offspring the importance of education and an appreciation of Italian culture and history.
Distinguished Professor Fred Gardaphe is slated to deliver the 2012 Esposito Visiting Faculty Fellow Lecture on March 28, 2012, at 4:00 PM in the Board of Trustees room.
