New Books in Italian Studies

Apr 10 2025 325 ep. 58 mins 274
New Books in Italian Studies Podcast artwork

Interviews with Scholars of Italy about their New Books

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Enrico Fink, ed., "Shirat Hayam: The Song of the Sea" (Centro Primo Levi, 2023)

Apr 10 2025 69 mins  
Curated by Enrico Fink, Shirat Hayam: The Song of the Sea (Centro Primo Levi, 2023) inaugurates the Erna Finci Viterbi Chàzanut Roundtable, a workshop and program series on Italian Jewish music and liturgy established by Centro Primo Levi in memory of a dear friend and board member whose love for tradition and dedication to learning have profoundly contributed to shape the center�

Stephen J. Campbell, "Leonardo da Vinci: An Untraceable Life" (Princeton UP, 2025)

Apr 09 2025 46 mins  
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) never signed a painting, and none of his supposed self-portraits can be securely ascribed to his hand. He revealed next to nothing about his life in his extensive writings, yet countless pages have been written about him that assign him an identity: genius, entrepreneur, celebrity artist, outsider. Addressing the ethical stakes involved in studying p

Loretta Vandi, "Eufrasia Burlamacchi" (Getty Publications, 2025)

Apr 08 2025 47 mins  
Eufrasia Burlamacchi (Getty Publications, 2025) by Dr. Loretta Vandi is a timely exploration of the skilful illuminated manuscripts of Sister Eufrasia Burlamacchi (1478–1548) demonstrates her artistry within this sometime neglected artistic medium. Within the convent walls of San Domenico in Lucca where she lived and worked, Burlamacchi attained high levels of artistic proficienc

Roland Mayer, "The Ruins of Rome: A Cultural History" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

Apr 07 2025 76 mins  
The beguiling ruins of Rome have a long history of allure. They first engaged the attention of later mediaeval tourists, just as they do today. The interest of travellers was captured in the Renaissance by artists, architects, topographers, antiquarians, archaeologists and writers. Once the ruins were seen to appeal to visitors, and to matter for their aesthetic quality, their prot

Lingua Napoletana and Language Oppression

Apr 06 2025 40 mins  
Have you ever heard of Lingua Napoletana or Neapolitan, the language of Naples? In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Tazin Abdullah speaks to Massimiliano Canzanella, a Neapolitan language activist. The conversation delves into the history of the Neapolitan language and the interplay of culture, race, and national identity that have contributed to the oppression of

Chiara Faggella, "Becoming Couture: The Italian Fashion Industry after the Second World War" (Manchester UP, 2024)

Mar 13 2025 47 mins  
Becoming couture: The Italian fashion industry after the Second World War (Manchester University Press, 2024) by Dr. Chiara Faggella is the first book to examine the history of the Italian fashion industry during the global transition brought about by the Second World War. It draws on a wide range of primary sources, some of them newly unearthed, to demonstrate that the Italian fas

Melissa Vise, "The Unruly Tongue: Speech and Violence in Medieval Italy" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2025)

Mar 12 2025 52 mins  
The Unruly Tongue: Speech and Violence in Medieval Italy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025) by Dr. Melissa Vise, offers a new account of how the power of words changed in Western thought. Despite the association of freedom of speech with the political revolutions of the eighteenth century that ushered in the era of modern democracies, Dr. Vise locates the history of the repre

Exploring Muslim Sicily with Nuha Alshaar and Shainool Jiwa

Mar 07 2025 55 mins  
In this episode Saeed Khan and Hizer Mir take a trip to Muslim Sicily, via a new book edited by Nuha Alshaar. They are also joined for this conversation by Shainool Jiwa, one of the authors whose work is featured in this edited volume. They discuss the period from around 800 CE to the mid-13th century, one characterised by a large Muslim presence which still exerts an important, th

Maria Kaika and Luca Ruggiero, "Class Meets Land: The Embodied History of Land Financialization" (U California Press, 2024)

Mar 06 2025 63 mins  
Class Meets Land: The Embodied History of Land Financialization (University of California Press, 2024) by Dr. Maria Kaika & Dr. Luca Ruggiero reveals something seemingly counterintuitive: that nineteenth-century class struggles over land are deeply implicated in the transition to twenty-first-century financial capitalism. Challenging our understanding of land financialization as a

Robert C. Austin, "Royal Fraud: The Story of Albania's First and Last King" (Central European UP, 2024)

Mar 04 2025 63 mins  
Listen to this engaging podcast with historian Robert Austin, the author of Royal Fraud: The Story of Albania's First and Last King (Central European UP, 2024). In the book, Austin explains the rise and fall of Albania's first and only monarch, King Zog!. The road to becoming Europe's youngest president in 1925 and king of Albania in 1928 was paved with feuds and assassinations. Zo