On-Line/Live Event
EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR BUNDLE
“Thursdays in September”
Presented by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero and special guests Dr. Erin McCarthy King, Dr. Kristin Stasiowski, Dr. Nicholas Albanese, and Ross King
Dates & Times:
September 2, September 9, September 16,
September 23, and September 30
11am – 12pm ET | 8 – 9am PT | 4 – 5pm London
EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR BUNDLE | “Thursdays in September”
Each webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.
Please note:
EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “The Pazzi Conspiracy: The Plot to Kill the Medici”
Presented by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
On April 26, 1478, Giuliano de’ Medici lay dead on the pavement of Florence cathedral with 19 stab wounds serving as testimony to the vicious attack that he had just suffered. Had his assassins – who were backed by Pope Sixtus IV – succeeded in eliminating his older brother, Lorenzo “il Magnifico” de’ Medici, that day as well, the history of the western Europe, and the world for that matter, would have been drastically altered. This exclusive webinar will examine the protagonists, motivation, and plot behind one of history’s greatest conspiracies.
The webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.
EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Pasta ‘Fazool’ and the Congiuntivo: The Disparity between the Representation of Italian in the American Media and Italy’s Historical Devotion to Grammar”
Presented by Dr. Erin McCarthy King
with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
With film, music, and humor, this webinar will examine representations of the Italian language in the American media and how they affect Americans’ perceptions of the language and culture. In contrast to these portrayals of Italian as truncated, fragmented, and unrefined, we will consider how grammar has been embraced by Italians historically as a means of unifying Italy when it lacked a centralized government and clear political borders. Finally, we will look at the congiuntivo, or subjunctive, as a contemporary example of Italian’s elegance and complexity, and discuss the centrality of the Italian language to Italians’ conception of national identity.
Erin McCarthy King, Ph.D. has been teaching Italian Language and Literature since 2004. Erin earned a combined B.A. and M.A. in Italian Language and Literature from Yale University in 1998 and then her Ph.D. from Yale in 2009. She has taught Italian as a Lector at Yale and as an Instructor at Sacred Heart University, Southern Connecticut State University, Quinnipiac University, The Hopkins School, and is currently an affiliate faculty member at Fairfield University. Erin has published several articles, including “The Voyage of Columbus as a ‘non pensato male‘: The Search for Boundaries, Grammar, and Authority in the Aftermath of the New World Discoveries” © 2012, and has presented several conference research papers including “The Logic of the Clock: Dante’s Similes of the Horologe in Paradiso X and XXIV” and most recently, “Language and the Expansion of the Ecumene in the Mondo nuovo of Tommaso Stigliani.” Erin serves as an alumna interviewer for Yale College Admissions and as a member of the Yale Alumni Schools Committee. In her spare time, Erin and her husband are very busy parents to their four children.
The webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.
EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “How To Win Friends and Influence People – Italian Style: Baldassare Castiglione and the “Sprezzatura” of Renaissance Courtly Life“
Presented by Dr. Kristin Stasiowski
with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Join Dr. Kristin Stasiowski, Ph.D for a lively conversation about Baldassare Castiglione—the quintessential Italian Renaissance “influencer!” A diplomat, soldier, courtier, and humanist philosopher, Castiglione was the author of the well-known treatise on morality and etiquette entitled “The Book of the Courtier” (Il Cortegiano). Perhaps the most entertaining “how to” guide for those aspiring to a life at court, Castiglione outlines—with erudition and insight—all of the many ways in which someone could best handle the intricacies and intrigues of palace life in order to become a prince’s most capable and adored admirer. Written very much in the style of Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People,” Castiglione offers a meditation on life in the Renaissance princely court as well as a keen psychological study on human behavior and power dynamics in groups that leads readers through an outline of how to climb the ladder of success both in their personal and public lives. This in-depth talk will introduce you to one of the Renaissance’s towering intellectual figures and teach you how to embody his idea of “sprezzatura” so that you too can have it all—Italian style!
Kristin Stasiowski, Ph.D is the Assistant Dean of International Programs and Education Abroad for the College of Arts and Sciences and is also an Assistant Professor of Italian Language and Literature in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Kent State University. She received her Ph.D from Yale University in Italian Language and Literature and has taught Italian language, literature, cinema, history and culture in both Florence, Italy and at Kent State. She recently published a chapter entitled A Divine Comedy for All Time: Dante’s Enduring Relevance for the Contemporary Reader in Italian Pop Culture: Media, Product, Imageries. Rome, Italy: Viella Editrice s.r.. Her current research is focused on Dante, Boccaccio, and the modern poet Clemente Rebora.
The webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.
EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “Mafia: The History of an Italian Myth”
Presented by Dr. Nicholas Albanese
with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Mafia-type organizations in Italy continue to not only survive but thrive in the present day despite the attempts by the Italian State to combat the phenomenon. One of the major obstacles to fighting the mafia is the persistence of social acceptance and support for these organizations in communities across Sicily and Southern Italy. In this presentation, I will discuss how and why this is still happening and how cultural perceptions of the mafia have allowed the myths of mafiosi to endure in Italy and around the globe.
Dr. Nicholas Albanese is Associate Professor of Italian in the Department of Modern Language Studies at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He received his PhD from Indiana University in Italian Language and Culture and has taught extensively on Italian history, literature, and film both in Italy and the US. Dr. Albanese does research mainly on contemporary Italian history and culture with particular focus on Southern Italy and Sicily. His most recent publication discusses the ethics of story-telling in the works of the Sicilian author, Leonardo Sciascia. He is currently completing a project on 21st-century Italian apocalyptic fiction.
The webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.
EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR | “An Enemy of the Human Race? A Defense of Niccolò Machiavelli”
Presented by Ross King
with Additional Commentary by Dr. Rocky Ruggiero
Niccolò Machiavelli has a bad reputation. “Everyone hated him because of The Prince,” a friend observed around the time of his death—and the suspicion and hatred have barely abated in the 500 years since. However, Machiavelli’s writings are far more sophisticated than selective readings of the more hard-boiled passages of The Prince would seem to suggest. Far from being “an enemy of the human race”—as an English cardinal once called him—Machiavelli was a perceptive writer whose lessons on leadership, liberty, virtue and good government we might do well to heed today. This lecture by Ross King, author of Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power, will place him in the context of his times and examine his more positive legacy and influence.
Ross King is the award-winning author of numerous books on Italian and French art and history, including “Brunelleschi’s Dome” and “Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling”. His biography “Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power” has been called a ‘convincing portrait of one of the most misunderstood thinkers of all time’. His most recent book, published in April 2021, is “The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance”.
The webinar will include a 45-minute lecture followed by 15-minutes of Q&A.
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