Director of SUNY Italian American Studies Program, Fred Gardaphe will speak at ASU

May 31, 2006 - Fred Gardaphe, director of the Italian American Studies Program at the State University of New York (SUNY), will speak at Arkansas State University Wednesday, June 14, at 4 p.m. in the ASU Museum, Room 157. Gardaphe is also a professor in the Department of European Languages, Literatures, and Culture at SUNY.

Sponsored by the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program, Gardaphe’s talk is entitled “From Wiseguys and Wise Men: The Italian American Gangster Figure.” The lecture is based on material from his most recent book “From Wiseguys to Wise Men: Masculinities and the Italian American Gangster,” published by Routledge in 2006.

Gardaphe is associate editor of “Fra Noi,” an Italian American monthly newspaper, editor of the Series in Italian American Studies at the State University of New York Press, and co-founding editor of “Voices in Italian Americana,” a literary journal and cultural review.

He is past president of the Society for Multi-Ethnic Literature in the United States (2003-2006) and of the American Italian Historical Association (1996-2000).

Gardaphe’s first book “Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution of Italian American Narrative” (1996) won the Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli/Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Award and was named an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice Magazine. His other academic books include “Dagoes Read: Tradition and the Italian/American Writer” (1996), “Moustache Pete is Dead! Italian/American Oral Tradition Preserved in Print” (1997), and “Leaving Little Italy: Essaying Italian American Studies” (2003).

He has also edited several anthologies of Italian American literature and commentary and has written two one-act plays: “Vinegar and Oil,” which was produced by the Italian/American Theatre Company in 1987, and “Imported from Italy,” produced by Zebra Crossing Theater in 1991.

Gardaphe’s talk is free and open to the public. For further information, contact the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program at 972-3509.

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