Conferences

Frank Iacobucci Centre Lecture Series (Academic Year 2004-2005)
1) Anna Makolkin (University of Toronto): Transporting Italianness Abroad, November 18, 2004.
2) Antonio Nicaso (author): “The Discrimination Against Immigrants and the Contraddiction of the Canadian Society During Prohibition (1916-1930),” January 11, 2005.
3) Pietropaolo, Vincenzo (professional photographer and author): “From College Street. to Campo de’ Fiori: A Journey in Social Documentary Photography,” January 18, 2005.
4) Stellin Monica (Wilfrid Laurier University): “Between Diaspora and Global Icon: On the Representation of ‘Italicity’ in Global Media,” February 22, 2005.
5) Kuitunen, Maddalena (University of Toronto): “An 18th Century Miniature of Thomas Jefferson: From Lodi (Italy) to the White House,” March 8, 2005.

“From Emigrante to Canadese: The Italian-Canadian Project” (14-16 May, 2004):

“Workers to Employers: The Economic Impact of Italian Immigrants in Canada” (Seventeenth Annual Italian Canadiana Conference (Saturday, November 23, 2002). Description: There is general agreement about — though little measured study of — the economic impact of Italian immigration in Canada from the beginning of the last century and in particular, for the period after the Second World War. The impact, perhaps stereotypically, almost always is presented in the context of the movement of labour to capital. Italian immigrants are recognized within this process for their role in filling the labour needs of a variety of sectors of the Canadian economy — typically the construction or garment industries or similar economic sectors. Through a variety of presentations, the seventeenth annual conference will focus attention on the moments when the construction labourer becomes the construction contractor or the worker in the needle trades becomes (if ever) the garment factory owner or garment designer, and so forth. The insights to be presented will focus on the economic and other consequences of the transitions that occur when immigrant labourers become employers or when their children become professionals or employers in their own right.

“Nearly Invisible: The Integration of an Immigrant Generation” (Saturday, October 27, 2001): Presenters addressed the themes of Italian Canadians and acculturation, assimilation, and integration.

“Italian-Canadian Culture and History: Premises and Methods” (2000).

“Italians in the Law” (1999).

“Caboto” (1997). The conference was organized with the collaboration of the Centre and the Department of Italian Studies, the Italian Embassy in Ottawa, the Istituto italiano di cultura di Toronto, the Regione del Veneto, and the Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. The proceedings were published as Attraversare gli Oceani: Da Giovanni Caboto al Canada multiculturale, a cura di Rosella Mamoli Zorzi (Venezia: Marsilio, 1999).