The Bronx Italian American History Initiative (BIAHI) began in the fall of 2016 as a joint project of Dr. Kathleen LaPenta and Dr. Mark Naison, of Fordham University. In keeping with the Best Practices outlined by the Oral History Association (www.oralhistory.org), the BIAHI aims to recover personal narratives, to document and remap the cultural centers of Italian and Italian American residents of
the Bronx, and to make recorded testimonies available to the public and for research purposes in an open access digital archive. By partnering with the Bronx African American History Project, the BIAHI engages in a broader conversation about the history of race relations and multi-ethnicity in the Bronx during the twentieth century. Interviews usually take place on the campus of Fordham University, Rose Hill from September through April. We are happy to conduct interviews over the phone or on Skype with anyone for whom getting to campus is a challenge. If you identify as Italian American and have lived in the Bronx, or if you have a story about living in close proximity with Italian Americans, perhaps as a non-Italian but in an Italian neighborhood, you are eligible for an interview. In summer 2017 the project will be undergoing a planning period and will not be conducting interviews, but we are scheduling for the fall 2017 semester. Please feel free to contact Dr. Kathleen LaPenta at 718-817-2695 or [email protected] if you are interested or have further questions.
