Hopefully OSIA, NIAF, UNICO, Italic Institute, IAOV, and all other Italian American Organizations, who have been active in opposing Italian American Discrimination and Defamation, will plan on contributing and/or participating in this Conference. Obviously, also those individuals who have made significant contributions in this field should also be in contact with Prof. Connell to offer their services.

It would be tragic, if a mistake was made to include "Defamation Deniers", (ala Holocaust Deniers), as was made in other proceedings. (Bill Tonelli comes to mind)!!
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Up coming Conference- Saturday, December 4, 2004:
"Real Stories: Discrimination and Defamation in the History of Italian Americans."
Seton Hall University

From: William J. Connell

The Conference is hosted by the Charles and Joan Alberto Italian Studies Institute of Seton Hall University.

A volume of essays and an hour-long TV documentary have been planned around the
conference, which will be open to the public.

Some of the reasons for holding such a conference have been discussed on this Board previously.

In Academia, anti-defamation movements have long been seen as lowbrow--think of the ADL's protests against the Merchant of Venice in NY in the 1970s, and the counter-protests that appeared in the NY Times.

And when it comes to commanding University resources, there has been a tendency
for other ethnic studies programs to resist when Italians have attempted to
play the usually powerful victim card.

For these and other reasons the genuine and very interesting history of discrimination against Italian Americans, and of the Italian response to it, remains largely unexplored.

The place to begin is Sal Lagumina's documentary history, Wop!, recently
reissued by Guernica Press of Toronto.  I suppose Sal was being what one of
our contributors would call a "tough Italian" when he chose his title.

Independent Publishers Group (WOP!)
http://www.ipgbook.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=1550710478

For further information about the Dec. 4 conference, feel free to contact me.

William J.Connell
Associate Professor of History
La Motta Chair in Italian Studies
Office: 323 Walsh Library
Telephone: 973-275-2928
<connelwi@shu.edu>
Italian Studies - Seton Hall University
http://artsci.shu.edu/italianstudies/index.htm