Italy’s team has failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row, thus missing the competition for 12 years. Samaha’s analysis moves from the recognition of the the lack of racial diversity in the team, and investigates the reason for its homogeneity by looking at socio-cultural and legal issues. Dr. Fiore contributed information about Italy’s immigration and emigration flows over time and how they intersect in a citizenship law full of contradictions. The law favors Italian descendants over immigrants and their children, even when they are born in Italy, revealing its complex relationship with its colonial past which marked a deep separation with “other” populations from a legal point of view (prohibition to marry locals, lack of recognition of mixed children, etc.). According to the article’s writer, one of the possible reasons why the national team is not leveraging young talent from the immigrant communities lies in this unaddressed legacy, and in the impact of the law that governs legal belonging to the country. And Italy does not seem to take account, shamelessly.

Fiore has written about Italy’s citizenship law in her book Pre-occupied Space: Remapping Italy’s Transnational Migrations and Colonial Legacies��(2017) and has curated an exhibit about this topic titled Diritto di sangue – Rovescio di sangue by Marina Sagona (2025).

See article

This , this year at its 3rd edition, was conceived to bring visibility to the mountainous village of Bisacquino, in the heart of Sicily, the birthplace of renowned director Frank Capra. At the panel, his WWII films were discussed by Elena Costa (Borgo Film Fest Artistic Director), as part of a broader conversation about Italian American literature (Prof. Laura Restuccia, University of Palermo), the ambiguous experience of the Sicilian population and Italian American soldiers at the time of the Landing (Alberto Oddo), and the relationships between film and photography during WWII with references to Robert Capa (Prof. Gennaro Schembri, University of Palermo).

The Film Festival includes screenings, round tables, and workshops, but also opportunities for social gatherings and cultural discoveries over an entire week (May 25-31, 2026). A walk around this quiet town reveals the presence of a Jewish community in the past, that of a monumental Catholic sanctuary (Madonna del Balzo), and a majestic natural spot, Mount Trona, full of history and legends. But the more obvious route for the film festival participants is the one that traces the key moments of Capra’s film career as well as the brief story of Capra in town through panels located around the village and documents exhibited at the Civic Museum. Capra was 5 years old when he was taken to the U.S. and returned only for a short visit at the age of 77, a very successful self-made man by then, but also an immigrant who was for long time part of a process of intense Americanization in institutional environments. The attachment to his Sicilian roots came late in his life and this fact continues to constitute the source of an interesting debate about identity, origin, migration, memory, and life goals.

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Introduce Evelina De Castro (Museo Riso)

Collegamento online con l’artista Marina Sagona

Intervengono Teresa Fiore (��Ʒ���˸������� University, USA) e Clelia Bartoli (Università degli Studi di Palermo)

Mercoledi 27 maggio ore 18.00
Museo Riso (Museo regionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Palermo)��
Via Vittorio Emanuele, 365 – Palermo
Ingresso libero

La proiezione del video di Marina Sagona Diritto di Sangue – Rovescio di Sangue (2025) sarà l’occasione per uno scambio sull’impostazione della legge sulla cittadinanza italiana e sulle contraddizioni che genera nel trattamento degli immigrati in Italia, rispetto ai discendenti italiani nel mondo. Fondata sullo ius sanguinis, la legge crea un doppio binario, come registrato dalle interviste contenute nel video, in termini di diritti garantiti e diritti difficilmente concessi o negati, con conseguenze sulla società italiana e sulle relazioni internazionali. Nell’invitare, appunto, a leggere la legge nella sua complessità attraverso l’arte contemporanea, l’incontro si propone di offrire riflessioni su identità, appartenenza e convivenza nel presente, grazie all’analisi della storia migratoria e coloniale italiana.

– artista (DIRITTO DI SANGUE -ROVESCIO DI SANGUE)

Teresa Fiore è professore ordinario (Cattedra Inserra di studi italiani e italo-americani) presso la ��Ʒ���˸������� University, e ha anche insegnato ad Harvard, Yale e NYU. I suoi progetti sulle migrazioni e sull’eredità coloniali italiane hanno ricevuto riconoscimenti da istituzioni come Fulbright, Rockefeller e NEH. Autrice del pluripremiato libro Spazi pre-occupati: Una rimappatura delle migrazioni transnazionali e delle eredità coloniali italiane (Mondadori, 2021), ha pubblicato in più lingue su riviste, cataloghi e volumi, contribuendo a ridefinire i confini del pensiero migrante. Nel 2019 è stata insignita del titolo di Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia per il suo lavoro di diplomazia culturale tra Italia e Stati Uniti attraverso il coordinamento di programmi culturali che valorizzano regolarmente anche la Sicilia ().

Clelia Bartoli, docente di Diritti umani e politiche migratorie presso il Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza dell’Università di Palermo, coordina il corso di Laurea magistrale in “Migration, Rights, Integration”. Ha condotto diverse ricerche-azione partecipative che combinano etnografia, diritto, filosofia e educazione sperimentale. Di recente ha coordinato i lavori di scrittura dal basso di una legge sui servizi per le dipendenze patologiche, approvata all’unanimità dal parlamento siciliano (Legge 26/2024). È autrice di diversi volumi, tra cui: Razzisti per legge. L’Italia che discrimina (2012); Legal clinics in Europe. For a commitment of higher education in social justice (2016); Inchiesta a Ballarò. Il diritto visto dal margine (2019); Chile Revolts: from the Uprisings Toward the Constitutional Process (2022).

Presentato per la prima volta con la curatela di Teresa Fiore all’interno di una mostra all’ex-carcere di Agrigento in occasione di Agrigento 2025 Capitale italiana della cultura (con l’ospitalità di , con il sostegno di Fondazione 2025, Ministero Italiano della Cultura, Regione Siciliana e la co-sponsorizzazione dell’Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies della ��Ʒ���˸������� University, USA), il video Diritto di Sangue – Rovescio di Sangue di Marina Sagona (20 min., canale unico, colore, suono) è al momento inserito nell’ organizzato e prodotto dal Museo delle Periferie a Roma.

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This ever-expanding site available in both and , and configured in mobile-friendly mode accessible via cell phone, is an aggregator of pre-existing forms of knowledge as well as new textual, video, and audio material, gathered in collaboration with professors of the University of Palermo (including the Agrigento branch, Polo Territoriale), environmentalist guides, chefs, photographers, architects, local residents, etc., and co-implemented with Ph.D. students Giacomo Frazzetta and Doğa Tekin. The project was co-sponsored by the Agrigento 2025 Foundation, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Region of Sicily, the Municipality of Agrigento, the Inserra Chair (��Ʒ���˸������� University), and UCLA, with the logistical support of the Municipality of Realmonte.

The project has already been covered in other media: , , and .

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British cemetery (Siracusa)

While this history remains quite unknown to the general public in the U.S., and in Sicily it is still narrated by locals in a fragmented and often partisan way, the landscape tells powerful concrete stories of Italian defense systems developed before the Landing, Allied military structures built after it, and pre-existing places adapted to the war needs.

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Sept. 1943 Armistice location (Cassibile, SR)

Ruins of trenches, firing positions for cannons, and fuel tanks carved into the ground, as well as well-preserved cemeteries, bunkers, plaques, bomb shelters, and quarries functioning as arm deposits have revealed to Dr. Fiore a completely new way of seeing Eastern Sicily, often visited for Greco-Roman archeological sites and Baroque architecture.

 

It is a mostly silent history that is interestingly gaining voice through thematic tours such as those designed by Daniele Valvo and theater re-enactments in key spots (see ) that evoke the experience of frantically looking for a shelter against air-bombings or sadly killing a young soldier in what was a confusing war of allies turned into enemies and enemies turned into allies.

In the process, Dr. Fiore is discovering a plethora of small associations devoted to the collection of military gear (see Operation Husky organization) as well as organizations creating small museums and offering talks and debates: the memory of the event is a space of tension where nostalgia, ideology, archival research, and modern readings interweave and clash, providing rich materials for her sabbatical project.

Italian bunker (Siracusa)

Based on her sabbatical research on foodways at the time of the Allied Landing in Sicily (1943), the paper revises the narrative of the American forces feeding Sicilians through the use of eighteen interviews with direct witnesses and scholars sharing stories about the stark contrast between the local wartime food and the industrial food brought by the soldiers from the US. See webpage.

Prof. Cinotto introduced Dr. Fiore’s talk providing special insights into the impact of the landing in Italy in terms of U.S. control of the economic and socio-political sphere.��The students’ questions during the Q&A revealed a keen interest in historical issues, in methodological aspects linked to oral history, and in the encounter of cultures during wartime.

UNISG has an institutional commitment to videos about food. Its film archive directed by Dr. Gabriele Proglio, is devoted to oral history about food, food history, food practices, etc.

UNISG is a private university linked to Slow Food, the movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Focused on food and sustainability, the academic approach privileges collaborative hands-on projects ranging from cooking, cook-book writing, market visits, food history research, eco-agronomy techniques, etc.

The UNISG campus is a World-Heritage (UNESCO) site with its distinctive historical buildings, imposing towers, elegant courtyards, printing office for student-managed publications, student-tended fruit and vegetable gardens, and a unique cafeteria that largely relies on the produce cultivated on campus. All under the watchful eye of the snail, the Slow Food symbol, under no time pressure.

“Le ecoculture della Scala dei Turchi: Un sito-mappa di storie multispecie” è un progetto di ricerca digitale ideato dal Prof. Vetri Nathan e dalla Prof.ssa Teresa Fiore sulla base della teoria del Prof. Nathan di co-esistenza di varie specie e forme di vita (vegetale, animale, umana, minerale, ecc.) da narrare attraverso un sistema digitale di mappatura densa (thick-mapping).

Il progetto è stato avviato nel marzo del 2025, proponendosi come aggregatore di studi, ricerche, attività e conoscenze già realizzate e presenti nel territorio, ma non ancora collegate, proprio per riflettere sulla complessità, stratificazione ed evoluzione di un luogo iconico come la Scala dei Turchi. Per informazioni sulla fase iniziale del progetto, si veda questa pagina web. E per la seconda fase, si veda questo .

Giorno 11 luglio 2025 alle ore 10:30 presso la Villa Genuardi, sede del Polo Universitario, il progetto verrà presentato nell’ambito di un seminario con la partecipazione di ricercatori e addetti ai lavori fino ad ora abbracciati dal progetto. Il seminario sarà un ‘occasione per approfondire nozioni teoriche e applicate relative a studi multi-specie e tecnologia thick-mapping, ma anche per definire nuove sinergie in vista dell’ulteriore sviluppo del progetto in autunno. Il sito sarà definitivamente lanciato nel dicembre del 2025 e incluso nel del Prof. Nathan a UCLA.

Progetto inserito nella programmazione di Agrigento Capitale della Cultura Italiana 2025 all’interno del progetto , con il sostegno della University of California, Los Angeles (), e della ��Ʒ���˸������� University, New Jersey (Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies), con il contributo alla ricerca scientifica del dottorando Giacomo Frazzetta (UCLA). Si ringrazia il Polo Territoriale Universitario di Agrigento per l’ospitalità presso la propria sede in occasione della presentazione e del seminario.

PROGRAMMA

• Saluti di benvenuto del�� (Presidente del Polo Territoriale Universitario di Agrigento)
• Introduzione al progetto: Prof.ssa Teresa Fiore e
  • Teoria multispecie (cenni storici e nozioni principali)
  • Tecnica di thick-mapping attraverso la piattaforma geo-spaziale ArcGIS (descrizione base dello strumento)
  • Organizzazione specifica del sito per il progetto “Le Eco-culture della Scala dei Turchi” (illustrazione delle categorie in fieri e della visione generale)
  • Raccolta e condivisione di dati, storie, materiale audio-visivo (modalità di approccio e creazione di rete)
  • Fasi future del progetto
• Interventi:
  • e Nino Dinolfo (Visitagrigento): “Veicolare la ricchezza della Scala dei Turchi attraverso l’educazione ambientale e il turismo esperienziale: sfide e opportunità”
  • (Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, UNIPA): “Il chiodo d’oro: Cicli astronomici e cambiamenti climatici nelle rocce della Scala dei Turchi”
  • (Scienze della Natura e dell’Ambiente, UNIPA): “Interazioni multispecie nei fondali della Scala dei Turchi tra la pianta sottomarina Posidonia oceanica e due specie di molluschi”
  • (Architettura, UNIPA, Agrigento e Palermo) – “Rapporto tra ambiente ed edilizia nella vicenda dell’ecomostro sulla spiaggia della Scala dei Turchi”

• Saluti di chiusura del Sindaco di Realmonte, Alessandro Pietro Mallia, e del consigliere comunale delega alla cultura, Luca Fiannaca.
• Domande e suggerimenti da parte del pubblico

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Students working in groups during the workshop session

The talk centered on the notion of translation at large as a philosophy and practice of moving from one dimension to another, whether it’s language, culture… or family as in the case of adoptees. Indeed, both the books Prof. Fiore addressed – Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? (2011) and and Nikolai Prestia’s Dasvidania (2021) – are written by adoptees who resort to the genre of memoir to translate their experiences of loss and abandonment, as well as abuse and trauma, into stories, while translating themselves from the birth family to the adoptive one. Translators of lived experience, Winterson and Prestia, have also been published in translation. Students developed their translation of Winterson’s book and then compared them to the official publication in Italian. Prof. Fiore shared aspects of the translation of Dasvidania, which will come out in English in 2026 with Rutgers University Press in the OVOI series, as the result of a co-translation by Prof. Fiore and Daniela Chaudhary Fiore.

Students of the Translation graduate class and Prof. Fiore

“I am very grateful to Prof. D’Amore for inviting me to talk about a topic that is at the center of my current research agenda (Adoption Studies Project). It was a pleasure to meet the students as part of a workshop in which they have shown refined translation skills and a well-honed awareness about the challenges of this practice. By mere coincidence, the talk was held in the same room where, in 2024, I first introduced the Dasvidania translation project in the course of the AATI (American Association of Italian Teachers) conference. This time, it was exciting to announce that the book is now in the final stages of copyediting!” – Fiore commented. And she added: “The talk was also an opportunity to appreciate once again the breathtaking site of the the University of Catania’s Department of Humanities, a World Heritage building. The is a fascinating complex functioning like a palimpsest of several historical periods, from the Roman era in the foundations to the present with contemporary additions designed to enhance the 16th century structure rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake. A veritable work of architectural translation!”

Short link: tinyurl.com/UCTranslation

Inspired by Leonardo Sciascia’s novella ‘The American Aunt’, this article offers a new perspective on the 1943 Allied landing in Sicily, reading it through the lens of food practices and migration. Blending literary and historical analysis with the testimonies of direct witnesses of the landing, the article explores the role of food (access, products, symbolism) during late Fascism, the actual landing, and the post-1943 and post-Second World War era. The picture that emerges is a variegated landscape of experiences, pointing to starvation among the poor but also to food access for those Sicilians who lived in the countryside away from the bombarded cities, and in a Sciascia-like ironic twist, to the Sicilians’ offer of fresh flavorful food to US soldiers weary of the military pre-packaged food. The article complicates the assumption that all Sicilians were starving at the time of the landing and waiting to be fed by the American soldiers coming from the Land of Abundance, a representation created by a mixture of one-sided perspectives of the war along with decades of emigration to the United States.

Keywords: Food, Second World War, Allied Landing, Sicily, Leonardo Sciascia, Emigration, American Dream

Article’s DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/jrs.2024.17
Digital access to the journal’s article (by subscription only):

This project offers a variegated reading of the 1943 Allied Landing on the Southern coast of Sicily as part of Operation Husky through the novel perspective of food practices by interweaving accounts of food security and insecurity sourced from direct witnesses, historical scholarship, and a novella by Leonardo Sciascia addressing foodways in Sicily before, during and after WWII (read more).

This past July, Dr. Fiore (on the right) was able to visit a new documentation center about the landing in Licata that hosts a permanent collection of display boards gathering photos, letters, official reports, etc. about the Fascists era, the war period, Operation Husky, and the U.S.-controlled government set up after the liberation.

Organized in a chronological manner, the boards present scenes of military, private, cultural, and school life in the town of Licata between the late 1930s and the mid-1940s. Planned and implemented by the association Memento in collaboration with the Archeological Park of Agrigento, the center is located in a prime position in the heart of Licata, right across from an intimate museum of war memorabilia.

“I am grateful to Prof. Zangara (pictured in this photo) for introducing me to this center, sharing the story of its genesis, and illustrating its potential. Licata continues to be a key location to narrate the story of Operation Husky. Her efforts along those of the colleagues and partners she has worked with are admirable. Now the project needs further support and targeted planning to be more incisive,” Dr. Fiore remarked

Meanwhile, select documents focusing on food at this center, including photos by Philip Stern (see left), have proven to be of interest for her larger project. For more information, see .

In August, Dr. Fiore visited the in Troina. A jewel in terms of design and curatorial work, the museum hosts a precious collection of the amazing photos that the renowned Magnum photographer – arguably the greatest war photographer and innovator of photojournalism – took in Sicily in the course of Operation Husky.

The museum focuses on the Troina series, but also embraces pictures about different parts of Sicily, highlighting some of the most memorable shots taken by Capa (see bottom of this page) through the operation, while also including previously unpublished photos ().

Enhanced by incisive historical explanations mixed with quotes from Capa’s writings, and a video with original military footage, the photos constitute an important source for Dr. Fiore’s project.

“I was excited to learn that the museum in Troina worked in partnership with the NJ-based branch of the International Center of Photography, and I look forward to going through their collection to identify photos about moments of food exchange and consumption that Capa may have captured,” she commented.

This approach will continue to be at the core of Dr. Fiore’s research endeavors which aim at offering a fresh take both on military strategy and the tastes and desires of participants in the larger theater of war. Operation Husky, a massive campaign that commenced the liberation of Europe from Nazi-Fascism as the largest amphibious attack in military history up to that point, has been overshadowed by the more dramatic events of D-Day. In the collective imaginary, it is synonymous with the distribution of sweets to a struggling population by mythicized American soldiers. This project reintroduces the Landing in Sicily to the U.S. public challenging long-standing perspectives on foodways.

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