Professor Ferrari earned his doctoral degree in 2006 with a dissertation titled, Italian Myths and Counter-Myths of America: Allegorical Representations of America in 20th-Century Italian Literature and Film. He has taught undergraduate courses in language and culture at The University of Chicago, DePaul University, Columbia College, L’Università del Sacro Cuore, and L’Università degli Studi di Milano. Research interests include the study of narrative constructs of nation and nationalisms, film, gender, entre-deux-guerres European international relations, and 20th-century Italian and French poetry and prose.
| CLCS 199 | The Pursuit of Happiness | FALL 2019 |
| The course provides a platform for scholarly exploration of the concept of happiness as articulated across a variety of cultures and from multiple disciplinary perspectives: psychology, sociology, linguistics, philosophy, religion/spirituality, literature, and film. Students enrolled in this class will work collectively to analyze and reflect on the ideological implications and possible cultural bias implicit to diverse texts that purport, through various means, to render happiness more accessible to and sustainable for the general public. What can be learned about happiness discourse through guided efforts in close reading, focused critical thinking, theoretical reflection, and comparative textual analysis? Widely popularized theories of happiness frequently merge with compelling stories of a hero's inward and outward journey; the individual pursuit of an inalienable and self-evident right. This seminar invites students to consider this heroic journey in terms of a symbolic construct, assessing its possible strengths and weaknesses; the certain promises it holds, and the likely consequences it may also engender. Like all First Year Seminars, this course will cultivate the fundamental skills considered necessary for succeeding at university. |
| CLCS 228 | Stardom, Influence, and Entertainment Cultures | FALL 2019 |
| The star phenomenon consists not just of their films, but the promotion of those films and of the star's appearances and coverage (in public, print, tv, social media). Star images are always extensive, multimedia and intertextual. Star images have histories that outlive the star's own lifetime and are as entertainers they are often involved in making themselves into commodities often attached to or in contrast with the ideologies of capitalism. This course investigates the emergence of stardom and the cultural influence of stardom primarily through the vehicle of film, with a comparative focus on European and U.S. and Latin American stars of the past and present. From Rudolph Valentino in the silent era to Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Carmen Miranda, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, to Brigitte Bardot; the actor-celebrities studied in this course will serve for theoretical reflection on the iconic value of stars, past and present, as instruments for transmedia storytelling. How does the history of the pinups of the past translate into discourses of fame, fortune, happiness, and success in contemporary culture? How do the current entertainment industry and its global markets respond to ethical questions related to women's rights and queer visibility movements, and backlash from a variety of other socially engaged, politically charged resistance movements typically originating in the United States? |
| ITA 300 | Advanced Italian, Part I | FALL 2019 |
| For students who have completed at least two years of college-level language studies or the equivalent. This course offers cultural readings from a variety of sources, including some literary pieces, as well as magazine and newspaper articles reflecting the contemporary scene in the countries where the language is spoken. Vocabulary expansion and development of techniques of expression are accomplished through oral and written exercises.
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| CLCS 232T | Specters of Paris | SPRING 2020 |
| Ghosts and spirits have played vital roles in oral, written, and visual narratives throughout history and across cultures, appearing as anything from fragments of the imagination, divine messengers, benign or exacting ancestors, and capricious otherworldly creatures populating particular loci to disturbing figures returned from the dead bent on exacting revenge or revealing hidden crimes, or simply searching for a way to make peace with the past and pass on.
French 19th and 20th century writers and filmmakers frequently depict Paris as a haunted city and craft tales that evoke the supernatural as a special form of remembrance, often attached to an ethical imperative to trouble the status quo, to never neglect the past as society pushes forward, with great speed and determination in the name of progress.
The course offers a hybrid creative writing/cultural studies approach to French theory, film, and literature dealing with the topic of haunting, and the specter. Students will gain knowledge of the history of the city of Paris through the unique lens of the ghost story, spectrality theory, and exploration of both the surreal and uncanny. Creative essay writing and storytelling will bring French theory to life, with a travel in Paris dedicated to exploring the underbelly of the City of Lights: its graveyards, its secret hideaways, its passageways haunted - figuratively - by the shadows of revolution, terror, restoration, lamentations of love and betrayal. (Students who have previously taken CRW 110T may not also earn credit for CLCS 232T) |
| IS 274 | Italian Cinema | SPRING 2020 |
| The aim of this course is to introduce students to the major accomplishments of Italian cinema from "neorealism" through the "commedia all'italiana" to the present. Emphasis is placed on film as an artistic, aesthetic and theoretical medium for an exploration and interpretation of issues related to contemporary life. Some of Italy's major film directors will be considered, such as Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Antonioni, the Taviani brothers, Scola. Particular attention is dedicated to the films of Fellini. A module dedicated to Italian-American cinema (Capra, Scorsese, Coppola, Tarantino) offers a means for comparative study of two related but contrasting traditions in filmmaking. (Offered in Alternate Years) |
| ITA 201 | Introductory Italian, Part II | SPRING 2020 |
| This course is designed for students who have completed three semesters of Italian language study. The course provides a review and expansion of command of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral communication skills will be stressed and, as such, the predominant language of instruction will be Italian. By the end of the course students will achieve proficiency at the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students will be expected to be proficient in the written and spoken usage of intermediate linguistic structures. Students will be able to interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. They will be able to: a) understand the main ideas of complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization; b) produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Whenever possible, the written assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community. |
| ITA 301 | Advanced Italian, Part II | SPRING 2020 |
| For students who have completed at least two years of college-level language studies or the equivalent. This course offers cultural readings from a variety of sources, including some literary pieces, as well as magazine and newspaper articles reflecting the contemporary scene in the countries where the language is spoken. Vocabulary expansion and development of techniques of expression are accomplished through oral and written exercises.
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| ITA 300 | Advanced Italian, Part I | SUMMER 2020 |
| For students who have completed at least two years of college-level language studies or the equivalent. This course offers cultural readings from a variety of sources, including some literary pieces, as well as magazine and newspaper articles reflecting the contemporary scene in the countries where the language is spoken. Vocabulary expansion and development of techniques of expression are accomplished through oral and written exercises.
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| LC 110 | Reading Cultures: Approaches to Cultural Studies | SUMMER 2020 |
| This course has two primary goals: to introduce students to the history and theoretical writings of various strands of cultural studies, and to acquaint them with some of the intersecting axes - race, class and gender - that energize the field. Close attention will be paid to issues such as the shaping of identity, forms of representation, the production, consumption and distribution of cultural goods, and the construction of knowledge and power in a host of cultural practices and cultural institutions. |
"Americana: The American(ized) Woman as Represented by Five Italian Directors since 1945.” Pagina Pellicola Pratica. Ed. Rebecca West. Ravenna: Angelo Longo Editore, 2000.
I.R.E. Research Grant, Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Italy), for research on Italian-American cultural relations.
International cultural relations, identity politics, performance, contemporary visual arts, poetry, film, gender studies.
