This panel invites contributions that approach the Italian American experience through a variety of alternative modes, genres and media such as comics, pulp fiction, songs and sound, home movies, performance, pornography, social media, fandom, ephemera, and other materials. Where and how are Italian American identities legible or detectable even when not explicitly registered? With what other cultures and communities – racial, sexual, religious, class-based etc. – have Italian Americans interacted and intersected? In line with the 2019 MLA presidential theme, the panel highlights how these unlikely archives can produce “textual transactions” that shed light on the complex ways of being Italian in America. Seeking contributions especially in queer and gender studies, race and ethnic studies, including Native American Studies, music and film studies, working class studies, migration and diaspora studies.

Contact: Clarissa Clò at cclo@mail.sdsu.edu for further information or to submit abstracts of 250 words and short bios of no more than 150 words, by March 15, 2018.