Events Archive

“Imparare le lingue, Imparare dalle lingue”

On November 27, 2020, Professor Anna De Fina gave a virtual talk for professors and students of the Università degli studi di Palermo (Sicily) and the Scuola di lingua italiana per stranieri (ItaStra). Italian linguist Giuseppe Paternostro of Università degli studi di Palermo was also involved in the dialogue.

“Adopting Technological Tools to Enhance Student Engagement and Participation in Remote and Online Italian Language Courses”

On October, 23, 2020, Professors Louise Hipwell, Fulvia Musti, and Donatella Melucci—in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC and l’Istituto italiano di cultura (the Italian Cultural Institute), as part of the Settimana della lingua italiana (the Week of the Italian Language)—hosted a webinar exemplifying the virtual pedagogical resources that they have employed in their distance-learning Italian language courses. Tools shown included Padlet, Powtoon, Panopto, Google Docs, YouTube, and Kahoot. The demonstrated activities were easily adaptable for Italian language teaching at any level, from K-12 to university courses.

Prof.ssa Louise Hipwell welcomes attendees and introduces the webinar agenda.
Prof.ssa Fulvia Musti demonstrates the synchronous and asynchronous benefits of using Jamboard.
Prof.ssa Donatella Melucci shows how her Italian Translation students engage with each other’s work via VoiceThread.

“Elena Ferrante: Time and Identity in the Neapolitan Quartet”

On September 30, 2020, Prof.ssa Laura Benedetti (Georgetown University; Villa Le Balze) and Prof.ssa Tiziana de Rogatis (Università per Stranieri di Siena)—with the support of the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC and l’Istituto italiano di cultura (the Italian Cultural Institute)—led a discussion around the main themes of language, time, and friendship found within the quartet of novels by this mysterious Italian novelist.

“The Decameron and the Hoyasaxon: Storytelling and the Plague, Yesterday and Today”

On September 21, 2020, Georgetown’s Villa Le Balze held its first virtual event of the semester, hosted by Prof.ssa Laura Benedetti (Georgetown University; Villa Le Balze) and her students. Inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, a collection of ten stories set during the time of the Plague, students shared their own modern-day versions of these stories in the context of COVID-19.