PANEL | Italians: A Century of the American Dream

Italian immigrants in the United States faced discrimination, prejudice, and hostility before becoming an integral part of American socity. For more than two centuries, the United States has alternated between welcoming immigrants and restricting their entry, reflecting an enduring tension between its identity as a nation of immigrants and recurring waves of exclusion.

Drawing on a new study by the Centro Studi Americani, Between Hospitality, Bans, and Regulation: Immigration Laws and Policies in the United States of America, edited by Giuliano Santangeli Valenzani, this conversation will explore that paradox through the experience of Italian immigrants—once themselves the target of prejudice, restrictions, and exclusion—and consider its relevance to today’s debate on immigration, identity, and belonging in America.

The conversation will feature Annalisa Capristo, librarian at the Centro Studi Americani in Rome; Daniele Fiorentino, Professor of United States History at Roma Tre University; and Anthony Tamburri, Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College, CUNY.

BIO

Annalisa Capristo is a librarian at the American Studies Center in Rome and a researcher on the fascist persecution of Jews. She teaches Contemporary Jewish History in the three-year university diploma in Jewish Studies at the Union of Italian Jewish Communities. Among her publications are the books The Expulsion of Jews from Italian Academies (2002) and (with Giorgio Fabre) The Register: The Expulsion of Jews from the Italian State in the Court of Auditors Protocols 1938-1943 (2018). With Daniele Fiorentino, she co-edited the volume The American Studies Center and its History: Moments and Figures (2025), part of the same «Quaderni» series of the CSA, which also includes a volume on the history of immigration.

Daniele Fiorentino is Full Professor of United States History at Roma Tre University. He is the Director of the «Italian Review of International History». His most recent book is Cultural Pluralism. An American Debate (1915-1916) (2021). He was the scientific director of the project and the publication of the CSA Between Welcome, Bans, and Regulation. Immigration Laws and Policies in the United States of America (2025), which is also available in English. With Annalisa Capristo, he edited the volume The American Studies Center and Its History. Moments and Figures (2025).

Anthony Julian Tamburri is Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute (Queens College, CUNY) and Distinguished Professor of European Languages and Literatures. He is co-founder and co-director of Bordighera Press, past president of the Italian American Studies Association and of the American Association of Teachers of Italian. Concentrating on cinema, literature, and semiotics, he has authored twenty books, large and small, in both English and Italian, and more than 130 peer-reviewed essays and book chapters. His more recent books include: The Columbus Affair: Imperatives for an Italian/American Agenda (2021); Signing Italian/American Cinema: A More Focused Look (2021); and A Politics of [Self-]Omission: The Italian/American Challenge in A Post-George Floyd Age (2022).