View Profile Page

Profile:

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.

2020-2021 Courses:

ITA 100	Introductory Italian, Part I	FALL 2020
Designed for students with no prior knowledge of Italian. ITA 100 employs immersive experiential learning pedagogy, providing an introduction to the essentials 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 A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students are expected to acquire the basic knowledge of the written and spoken structures. Students are expected to read and comprehend short passages in Italian and to draft simple compositions / dialogues. Project-based assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community. Whenever possible, students will be encouraged to participate actively in local initiatives, festivals, events and to apply the skills they are mastering in class to their co-curricular learning on and off campus
ITA 300	Advanced Italian, Part I	FALL 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.
LC 497	Capstone: Readings in CLCS or Lit	FALL 2020
LC 497 is the first of two capstone courses for majors in CLCS and in LIT. LC 497 is designed for all students and will follow the trajectory of a traditional reading course. Students and the professor will choose an extensive reading list that includes fundamental, primary and theoretical texts in literature and CLCS taken largely from the courses taught in the disciplines. Students will then choose their own texts to add to the core list that represent the individual student's particular area of interest. Class sessions will be devoted to the development of the list and subsequent discussion of the chosen works. Evaluation pieces include a comprehensive exam and a proposal for the subsequent thesis (LC 499) or internship project (LC 498).
CLCS 230T	Science Fiction: Envisioning the Possible (Switzerland)	SPRING 2021
Science fiction narratives often function as allegorical vehicles for theoretical reflection on the state of contemporary politics and society, implicitly calling for social reform. As such, the main objective of this course is to consider several major contemporary socio-cultural issues through the unique lens provided by writers and filmmakers of the science-fiction tradition. The issues, allowing for variances from year to year, will include questions regarding race, sex, gender and Otherness; the hypothesized deterioration of a human-world bond; modern apocalyptic anxieties; genetic engineering; intersections of ideology and communication technologies. Student work in this class will also include creative writing, storytelling and video making. On-location shooting of a short SF film will be the focus of the Swiss travel. Exact locations to be defined but will include the Lake Léman region (the origin of Frankenstein). No previous knowledge of video-making necessary.
CLCS 241	Forbidden Acts: Identity Politics and Performance	SPRING 2021
In this course, queer solo performance and theater are playfully considered "forbidden acts" because they commonly enact a special kind of transgression. These acts give voice to and, at once, subvert a wide range of political identities conventionally defined by race, ethnicity, HIV status, class, gender, and sexual practice. Often autobiographical at their point of departure, queer performance and theater seem intent on troubling the comfort of community even as they invest in it. This rich, albeit problematic, ambivalence stems from the fact that the term queer, itself, connotes primarily a locus of refusal, an unbinding and destabilizing term of defiance, of provocation via polysemy. As such, queer performance and theater seek to open up new vistas of multiple, shifting, polymorphous identities. What political implications might these queer texts dramatize? What may be the ramifications of instilling the notion of personal identity with collective utopian aspirations? How would the students enrolled in this class spin the term queer to encompass their own sense of individual difference and empower their own vision of creative defiance? In attempting to respond to these questions, students taking this course will be invited to share their own forbidden acts: to approach theoretical refection through performative exercises, to merge the analytical realm with the autobiographical monologue, to test the limits (if there are any) between theatrical play and ideological engagement.
ITA 301	Advanced Italian, Part II	SPRING 2021
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.
ITA 100	Introductory Italian, Part I	SUMMER 2021
Designed for students with no prior knowledge of Italian. ITA 100 employs immersive experiential learning pedagogy, providing an introduction to the essentials 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 A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students are expected to acquire the basic knowledge of the written and spoken structures. Students are expected to read and comprehend short passages in Italian and to draft simple compositions / dialogues. Project-based assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community. Whenever possible, students will be encouraged to participate actively in local initiatives, festivals, events and to apply the skills they are mastering in class to their co-curricular learning on and off campus
ITA 300	Advanced Italian, Part I	SUMMER 2021
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.

Publications:

Books

"Americana: The American(ized) Woman as Represented by Five Italian Directors since 1945.” Pagina Pellicola Pratica. Ed. Rebecca West. Ravenna: Angelo Longo Editore, 2000.

Works in Progress:

Books

Myths and Counter-Myths of America in Italian Literature and Film (working title, single-authored book).

Virginio Ferrari: A Critical Anthology, 1957-2007 (working title, co-edited book). 

Awards and Honors:

I.R.E. Research Grant, Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Italy), for research on Italian-American cultural relations.

Areas of Research:

International cultural relations, identity politics, performance, contemporary visual arts, poetry, film, gender studies.