John D Calandra Italian American Institute

10/19/2026

The John D Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College, CUNY holds a special place in the history of the Sorbello Foundation: it was the Foundation’s first institutional partner in the US.

Since the beginning, partnerships have been at the heart of our work. Our network of universities, research centers, and cultural institutions allows us to develop new initiatives, support research, and create opportunities for dialogue and exchange between Italy and the United States.

We are therefore especially pleased to introduce the Calandra Institute as the first partner in our series highlighting the institutions that share our commitment to strengthening these connections.

The Calandra Institute is dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting the Italian American experience through scholarly research, education, publications, public programs, the visual arts, literature, film, and other cultural initiatives.
Its work also extends to Italian diaspora studies and international academic exchange.

Our collaboration is particularly significant through the Romeyne Robert and Uguccione Ranieri Sorbello Fellowship, which the Calandra Institute co-sponsors with the Sorbello Foundation and its partners.

The Fellowship supports original research on the historical, political, economic, social, and cultural relationships between Italy and the United States, encouraging scholars to explore the many connections between the two countries.

A first partnership that became an enduring collaboration. For us, this relationship is more than an academic collaboration: it is a shared commitment to keeping research, memory, and cultural exchange alive across the Atlantic.

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Fondazione Ranieri di Sorbello

10/17/2026

Thank you, Sam Roberts! AJT

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/nyregion/joseph-sciorra-dead.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwY2xjawU_q6FleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5vYymaEVhmhkD2_QLKDrBspXWGhsEWDPynC62lUCJ2R0Fsqe6QIEySII0ETQ_aem_4pgj3NNKVAX9RNvRyB7qdA

The cultural historian Joseph Sciorra, who has died, helped bring “a fieldworker’s eye and an archivist’s discipline” to his studies of Italian American culture.

10/15/2026

Italian American Review Announces Appointment of Its New Editor: Dr. Laura E. Ruberto

Laura E. Ruberto directs the Humanities and Film Studies programs at Berkeley City College, where she has been on the faculty for two decades. She is a Fulbright Faculty Scholar and Mellon Foundation/American Council of Learned Society Fellow; her research focuses on visual culture and material culture approaches within Italian diaspora and transnational contexts. She is the author of Gramsci, Migration, and the Representation of Women’s Work in Italy and the U.S. (2007). Her co-edited volumes include Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema (2007), New Italian Migrations to the United States. Volumes 1–2 (2017), and Pasquale Stiso’s “True Story” and Other Works (2021). In addition, she has edited or co-edited special journal issues for California Italian Studies (2020), the Journal of the West (2004), and the Italian American Review (2016, 2022). With Nancy Carnevale she edits the book series “Critical Studies in Italian Migrations” for Fordham University Press. She is a primary investigator for the Australian Research Council’s “Mapping Creativity in Captivity during WWII,” a digital-humanities project around the art of Italian prisoners of war. She has recently published book chapters on civil rights and Italian American material culture in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, on Tina Modotti’s performance history in San Francisco, and on Italian POW artistry in the United States. Her current book project is on midcentury Italian American aesthetics through visual and material culture, with a particular focus on the concept of artists as activists.

Dr. Ruberto will begin her appointment at the IAR January 1, 2027.

Italian American Review, a bi-annual, peer-reviewed journal of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, publishes scholarly articles about the history and culture of Italian Americans, and the larger Italian diaspora. The journal embraces a wide range of professional concerns and theoretical orientations in the social sciences and cultural studies. For more information, please visit our website: https://calandrainstitute.org/publications/italian-american-review/

10/11/2026

https://www.facebook.com/reel/937284039100108

10/11/2026

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1911924333514680

10/08/2026

Thank you to "La voce di New York"!

Dr. Joseph Sciorra, a prominent folklorist and cultural historian who spent decades documenting Italian American traditions, died suddenly on October

10/07/2026

We are devastated to announce the sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague Dr. Joseph Sciorra (1955-2026). He was an intellectual, cultural, and community anchor at the Institute, and everyone who knew him will miss him greatly.

A service will be held this coming Friday. His family sent us the following message to share:

"As per Joseph’s wishes—he was adamantly opposed to being embalmed—his remains are being donated to the Forensic Anthropology Center (The Body Farm) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

My children and I are hosting a memorial gathering this Friday, October 9th, between 4-8 PM at Sparrow Funeral Home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Instead of flowers, please consider donating to one of the following organizations:
World Central Kitchen or P@lest!ne Children’s Relief Fund."

10/07/2026

As we navigate these difficult times following the loss of our friend and colleague, I wanted to share one of the many instances when Joseph excelled in his passion for interrogating Italian diaspora studies. This episode of "Italics" took place at the former cultural institution, CIMA.

Buona visione, and may his memory be a blessing! AJT

On April 14, film director Martin Scorsese appeared live via zoom at the Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) to make some opening comments about the need to preserve Italian sheet music of the kind once sold at E. Rossi & Company in Little Italy.Cala...

10/06/2026

This morning we received a devastating phone call from Zulma Ortiz Fuentes about the passing of her life partner and our dear friend and colleague, Joseph Sciorra. We wanted to share her post with you.