The Illusion of Inclusion – Collaborative Solutions for Performative Diversity
The Perennial Challenge of the Italian American in Higher Education
This is an invitation to all of those who, within reasonable commuting distance (20 miles?), profess to preserve, protect, and/or promote Italian-American heritage (history), language, and culture (past and present). The City University of New York is holding its biennial conference on diversity, equity, and inclusion over the two-day period, March 30-31, at the CUNY Graduate Center. The conference title is: “The Illusion of Inclusion – Collaborative Solutions for Performative Diversity.”
Thursday, March 30, at 12:45 in a room still to be announced, the following panel will take place:
The Perennial Challenge of the Italian American in Higher Education
Culturally responsive curricula development must include a broad outreach to ensure that the inclusion part of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion engages all groups who have experienced discrimination in the educational sphere rather than choosing select groups or communities that have been targeted more recently. That there has been a challenge for the Italian American in higher education is well-documented, especially at The City University of New York where Italian Americans are considered an affirmative action category. Despite supposed attention to the issues of discrimination and underutilization, the percentage of faculty and staff who claim Italian American as their heritage group has declined in the 46-plus years since then Chancellor Kibbee pronounced this decree. The aim of this presentation is to highlight the continued failures of the efforts to include Italian Americans and offer a curricular approach to address the perennial challenge.
Stephen J. Cerulli, Adjunct Lecturer, Hostos Community College; Ph.D. candidate in modern history at Fordham University; and College Assistant at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
Donna Chirico is Professor of Psychology; former Dean of Arts and Sciences at York College; and Resident Faculty at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
Anthony Julian Tamburri is Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute and Distinguished Professor of European Languages and Literatures
“The Perennial Challenge of the Italian American in Higher Education” is not particular to The City University of New York. This is especially true for scholarly and curricular issues. A number of professors who dedicate their scholarly work to Italian-American studies often find their work questioned, if not rebuffed, because it is not “mainstream,” “canonical,” “important,” etc. The difficulty in launching Italian-American studies courses is, even today, ubiquitous; this is especially true at the graduate level. Indeed, the resistance at the graduate level is often from programs in Italian studies.
It is a fact that many of the narratives articulated by some of the leaders of Italian-American cultural and/or fraternal associations are historically erroneous. While it is not the panacea for all issues that concern us, we might start by reading what our first historian/chronicler of Italian Americana, Giovani Schiavo, stated in 1976:
[…] Pleading with the mass media to abandon their scurrilous and nauseating campaign of hatred and prejudice is useless, because the only way would be to do what the Jews have been doing for years, but even then I have my doubts. I see only three ways of changing for the better the image of the Italians in America:
1) Personal contact with Americans of non-Italian extraction, because only through personal contact Americans of Italian extraction can show that they have no horns, like the devil, and not in the sense of the Italian word, COTW (cuckold); that they are decent, law-abiding, God- fearing citizens. That is, unquestionably the best remedy.
2) Publication of a first class magazine like Commentary which would expose the ignorance or bad faith of the mass media, not by ranting, but by correcting facts and demonstrating the falsity of some allegations.
3) Publication of books by serious students, scholars, that is, showing the contributions of Americans of Italian extraction to America’s greatness, not only economic but also moral-especially moral. Since the second remedy is rather visionary, this third alternative is quite possible because I am convinced that there are in America today numerous young men and women of Italian origin who are proud of their heritage, not in the sense of those hoodlums who scream about Italian power, or “Italian is beautiful” and similar imbecilities, but in the sense of awareness of one’s hereditary values. This can be done, provided one is willing to spend years and years digging and digging, without expectation of any reward, except the feeling of doing some good.1
Three things stand out: (a) “[C]ontact with Americans of non-Italian extraction” potentially invites us to the table with Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, Latin[o]as, and others; (b) “[A] first class magazine like Commentary”: We once had Attenzione, a magazine with national aspirations that was most articulate, full of very competently written articles, and open to all ideas. Today, if there is any semblance of this sort of publication with similar rhetorical and editorial standards, I would be hard-pressed to find one (I am not thinking of the various published organs of the various associations within this group; NIAF’s The Ambassador and OSIA’s Italian America, for example, serve their members, and their publications are de facto of a different nature than something like Attenzione). Perhaps something like Fra Noi comes to mind; but, here too, FN is (1) regional for the most part, and (2) not open to any sort of profound debate on the more important issues. (c) “Publication of books by serious students, scholars” is truly where the rubber hits the road. One must be willing to “spend years and years digging and digging, without expectation of any reward, except the feeling of doing some good” and not to position oneself above others.
Given the continued reluctance to Italian-American studies, and given the continual challenge within the university that is similar to Sisyphus’s, the intervention of those who purport to preserve, protect, and/or promote Italian-American heritage (history), language, and culture (past and present) and, in turn, find themselves in positions of influence and/or authority both within and beyond the borders of the academy, is of the utmost necessity if Italian-Americans studies is to find its rightful place with any college’s or university’s curriculum. These individuals and organization simply must step forth, engage scholars and university administrators, understanding the Italian notion that knowledge is power. If we do not understand the workings of the world of the university, and if we exclude scholars from any conversations with university administrators, then the someone not well-informed nor well-versed will only wreck more havoc than not.
For more information on CUNY’s conference on “The Illusion of Inclusion – Collaborative Solutions for Performative Diversity,” you can write to idea@cuny.edu.
Otherwise, if you cannot make this panel, then you can contact the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute and coordinate a program at your association / organization with any and all of the above and/or other expert scholars in the field.
I am so appreciated for what's articulated here and for our scholars who are fighting for us.
I have wondered if coalition-building with other ethnicities who find themselves in a similar position to ours today, meaning those that were once discriminated against and are now told their histories aren't important (the Slavic ethnicities who migrated at the same time, Jewish folks, the Irish, etc...) could be helpful (?) Has something like that been considered?
Hi Rebecca,
Many thanks for your thoughtful comment. What you are suggesting here is exactly what we have needed for years. A decade and more ago I was at a conference on Italian Americans. The organizer had invited a local officer of the NAACP. When it was her turn to talk, she opened with, "Where have you all been? We've been waiting for your call." If you're in the NY area, subscribe to our newsletter at Calandra and you'll get announcements of our events.
Cheers, Anthony