Please help us congratulate Ashley Spartz on receiving the Donna Swaim Study Abroad Award for Double Majors and the Van de Verde Memorial Scholarship! In her own words:

“I am truly honored and grateful to have been chosen as a recipient for both the Donna Swaim Study Abroad Award for Double Majors and the Van de Verde Memorial Scholarship, and I thank the College of Humanities for allowing me this opportunity. These scholarships will assist me in achieving my goal of studying abroad and will alleviate some of the financial stress that it brings. I will be spending this summer in Orvieto, Italy, studying advanced conversational Italian and learning about the complexity and importance of food and wine in Italian culture. This program will allow me to progress through my education; I am currently a junior completing both a BA in Italian Language and Literature and a BS in Environmental Sciences. I hope my time abroad will allow me to unite these two paths into one, as much of our climate’s future is centered in Europe. These scholarships support my dream to study abroad and will help me grow in many ways as I immerse myself in a different culture, and I know that it will be an experience that will positively impact the rest of my life. I am once again immensely grateful to the College of Humanities for assisting me in my goals, and I will make the most of this opportunity given to me. Grazie mille!” 

Congratulazioni, Ashley!

Please help us to congratulate Federico Fabbri who was awarded the 2022 College of Humanities Outstanding GAT in Teaching award! Congratulazioni, Federico! 

The Dolce Vita Club's first Kick Off event of Spring 2022 in February was a success! Around 30 people attended the event, enjoying the sunshine with a cup of affogato coffee, playing bocce and Italian card games, and chatting with each other. The Dolce Vita Club is looking forward to their next event! In the meantime, if you have any questions about how to become a member or when and where the next upcoming meeting is, please feel free to contact the club officers: Helen Hoffart at helenhoffart@email.arizona.edu or Sofia Soliman at sofiasoliman@email.arizona.edu. Be sure to check out the Dolce Vita Club page on Instagram: dolcevitaclub_ !

Students of Italian gathered together for a virtual cooking event right before Thanksgiving to cook different Italian dishes together. They signed up before the event and chose a recipe from the list (or brough their own choice) using the Italian website: www.giallozafferano.it.

Participants were encouraged to visit the Campus Pantry if they needed support to gather ingredients. Some recipes that required minimal use of utensils and appliances were also included.

On the day of the event, participants were divided into small groups (breakout rooms) and they prepared the dishes together with their group members.

The recipes they cooked included: Brushetta (Ricetta 1), cacio e pepe (Ricetta 2), carbonara (Ricetta 3), pasta al pesto (Ricetta 4), but also some unique dishes such as l'insalata pantesca (a recipes from Pantelleria island) and Frico (from Friuli Ricetta 5) and two desserts, Crostata alla Nutella (Ricetta 6) and Torta tenerina (Ricetta 7).

Organizers, Giulia Negretto and Borbi Gaspar, were delighted to see the beautiful dishes students were able to create and they enjoyed connecting with everyone by virtually cooking together in their own kitchen. 

Jessica Polsky, a 1998 graduate who turned her degrees in Italian and dance into an acting career that’s stretched from Broadway to Milan, is the College of Humanities 2021 Alumna of the Year.

Midway through her dance degree, Polsky took a semester off for a study abroad trip to Florence, where she took language immersion courses and performed with a local dance company. Back at the University of Arizona, she added Italian as her second major.

“These crucial months formed my deep love for Italy, all things Italian, and my proficiency in the language,” she says. “I had formed a real relationship with Italy and I wanted very much to expand what I had started in Florence.”

The late start on her Italian degree didn’t deter Polsky, who completed both programs Magna Cum Laude in four years. After graduation, she moved to New York to begin her career as a Broadway performer, but she still traveled often to Italy and worked to keep her Italian skills current.

Her Italian proficiency ultimately combined with her performing career when Polsky was invited to Italy and direct a musical and then received an offer to move permanently to Italy to star on a hit Italian primetime sitcom, Camera Café.

“The first thing people noticed was my Italian was really sophisticated,” she said. “But what sets me apart in the entertainment industry in Italy is the rest of my Italian studies, the history, literature, art and politics. Beyond the language, all those other components of the degree offer a sophisticated education about the place and its culture. I can hold my own and it knocks everyone’s socks off.”

That role earned Polsky recognition as Best Actress of the TV Season (a U.S. Emmy equivalent) and led to many other highly visible and successful TV, film and theatre projects. In 2017, she was awarded a Cultural Ambassadorship from the Italian Parliament in recognition of her role in strengthening the ties and “bridging” the two countries through her work and positive role model celebrity.

“Jessica Polsky is the first to acknowledge and eloquently recount the many instances when her background in the humanities advanced her projects and career,” said Alain-Philippe Durand, Dorrance Dean of the College of Humanities. “She understands how the breadth of the skills we teach in the humanities apply to the global workforce and demonstrates it in her successful career as a performer in both the United States and Italy.”

Two College of Humanities professors are among 24 UA employees selected to participate in the 2021-22 Academic Leadership Institute. 

Aileen Feng, Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Italian Studies, and Caleb Simmons, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Faculty Director of the Bachelor of General Studies Program, are Fellows in the yearlong program designed to build the capacity of current and future University leaders.

The Academic Leadership Institute is a partnership between the Office of the Provost and the Division of Human Resources. The cohort is selected through a competitive application process, which looks at leadership potential, commitment to diversity and inclusion, and interest in enhancing the whole of the University community. More than 100 applicants are evaluated each year by the ALI advisory board. See the full list of this year's Academic Leadership Institute Fellows here. 

Two professors in the Department of French and Italian have been promoted, demonstrating excellent performance in teaching, service and research.

Dr. Deborah Kaye is promoted from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer.

Dr. Francesco Rabissi is promoted from Assistant Professor to tenured Associate Professor.

Kaye earned her Ph.D. in Modern European History from the University of Arizona and her M.A. in Jewish History from The University of Michigan. Her research interests include nineteenth century Italian liberalism and Jewish corporatism.  Research for Dr. Kaye’s dissertation Between Ghetto and State: Religious Policy, Liberal Reform and Jewish Corporate Politics in Piedmont, 1821-1831 was funded by a number of prestigious grants including the Fulbright, Krieble Delmas, Mellon, and Marshall fellowships. Her current book project entitled The Catholic Church and the Emancipation of the Jews in Modern Italy, 1815-1921 draws on her dissertation research to reveal the ways in which the process leading to Jewish emancipation in Italy undermined the Catholic Church’s capacity to compete effectively for its interests.

Rabissi earned his Ph.D. from Yale University and Laurea in Contemporary History from Università degli Studi di Milano. His research focuses on the relationship between Aesthetics and Politics with main interest in the case of Italian Cinema. His current research project analyzes the connection between the oneiric and the representation of history in the Contemporary Italian Film production. His research and teaching interests include Italian Cinema and Literature; Contemporary Italian history, politics and society; World Cinema. He published articles on the cinema of Marco Bellocchio, George Lucas, Jim Jarmusch and Otar Iosseliani.

On Friday, April 29 the Italian Department faculty organized a movie night event for all of their students, with the purpose of both celebrating the Academy Award nominated Pinocchio by Italian director Matteo Garrone, and engaging students in a fun conversation on it in the Zoom chat!

When? Thursday, April 29, 5-7pm (AZ time)

How? We provided a link to watch the movie on Panopto and sent a Zoom link to access the collective chat.

Languages: In Italian with English subtitles!

How to get an extra credit/redeem 1 absence? Watch the movie with us, take part in the collective chat, send your Professor an e-mail with your favorite scene from the movie.