Ilaria Serra
Professor of Italian and Comparative Studies at Florida Atlantic University. Her research spans from Italian cinema and literature to the history of Italian immigration to the US. She published The Value of Worthless Lives: Writing Italian American Immigrant Autobiographies (2007, 2010), The Imagined Immigrant. Images of Italian Emigration to the United States between 1890 and 1924 (2009) and Italia cantata: A Language and Culture Textbook (2021). She coordinates several digital humanities projects, the Italian and Italian American Film Festivals and the annual International Symposium “Italy in Transit.” She is the founding director of the summer study abroad program in Venice.
open doors TO Italian in South Florida;
Follow roads That lead to Italy
Interview by Orianna Soublette, MA student in Comparative Literature
Orianna Soublette: What is the greatest merit of Italy in Transit?
Ilaria Serra: It is in the root syn (together): it bridges the community and the academy for the benefit of both. It brings together undergraduates, graduates, professors, scholars, writers, and professionals from all paths of life to share research. It builds connections, friendships, and faith in humanity! It is the only symposium that I know of where the community opens their homes to host the speakers!
OS: What classes are you currently teaching and how are they related to your own research interests?
IS: I am teaching two language classes this semester: Intermediate and Intermediate/Advanced Italian. They are both classes where we do much more than grammar. We open the doors of Italian in South Florida and even roads to a future in Italy. We learn about culture and literature, and we cultivate curiosity while learning to hold a conversation in Italian and write without AI.
OS: What projects are you working on now?
IS: Many: two conference presentations for this summer, an article, a short essay, a translation, and a longer book project. At this very moment, however, I am organizing another conference. Thanks to a European grant, this March we are bringing a group of doctoral students from the University of Padua to FAU for a series of lectures on the history of Italian music. We will have a two-day symposium and concert on the lives and work of Lorenzo Da Ponte (Mozart’s librettist) and Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco (XX century composer). Although they lived two centuries apart, they have a lot in common: they were both Italian Jews, they relocated to the United States, they were restless composers, and they left timeless work. Playing on Da Ponte’s last name, the symposium will be called “A Bridge to Italy.”
OS: What advice would you give a student who is interested in learning more about Italian studies?
IS: Just show up and become part of our program! Come to our study abroad in Venice and come to the extracurricular activities! We have so much to offer. Give us your ideas and dreams. We will try to make them a reality! We have students going to Italy after graduation or continuing their graduate studies.
OS: How do you contribute to the Study of the Americas Initiative?
IS: I participate in every one of their events, and we bring our own activities to their calendar. We host Italy in Transit every year. Last year, we brought a unique project on art, cuisine, and community to our Nonna Night, our event in which Italian American grandmothers invite our students for a home-made meal to start the new year. We invited FAU art professor Laura Tanner to Nonna Night, and she gathered pictures and stories to use in her research. She also designed a kitchen towel that we sold as part of our fundraiser. Thank you to the Americas Initiative!