Roundtable for AAIS (March 14th-16th, 2019) at Wake Forest.

Award-winning author, academic, activist, and journalist, Igiaba Scego has produced wide-ranging work that plays a vital role in current debates on Italy’s colonial past, its sexist and racist legacy, and the identity of Italians of African origins. It also raises the question of fiction’s place in these discussions. This roundtable invites participants to address how we teach Scego, from a variety of perspectives. Issues might include the significance of the contexts in which we teach Scego’s work: in courses on colonialism, migrant literature, the novel, short fiction, women authors, children’s literature, Jewish Studies, Italian literature, journalism, transnationalism, European literature, etc. What distinct elements of Scego’s work do these courses highlight? Which texts do you pair or contrast with Scego’s and why? What are students’ reactions to reading Scego? What are the difficulties involved in teaching Scego’s work to an American audience? How do you navigate American and Italian concepts of race? Do you include her work in courses taught in English or Italian? Presenters will give brief presentations (7-8 minutes) to allow ample time for discussion. All presenters will provide a paragraph from Scego’s work before the conference, so we can have some specific texts to ground our conversation.

Please send a 100-300 word abstract, brief bio, and request for A/V to the round table organizer by December 30th.

Organizer: Saskia Ziolkowski

Duke University

sez6 AT duke.edu