The talk series “Global Italy: Bringing the Contemporary Society in Class” will virtually bring to campus four speakers with the goal of enriching the colleagues’ expertise in topics that are currently re-shaping the Italian study field and beyond, such as immigration, gender equality, inclusive language, and the LGBTQ+ community. Each speaker is going to offer a talk on one of these contemporary topics that affect the global society, not just Italy, and a reflection on how to implement these topics in Italian classes (and beyond) starting from language classes. The structure of each talk includes a first part where the guest speaker presents their topic in a lecture modeling how to integrate this kind of material in class, and, then, a second part where the guest speaker addresses the pedagogical implications of the topic selected. 

Professor Francesca Calamita (Associate Teaching Professor of Italian Studies, Director of the Italian Language Program, University of Virginia)

“The Quest for Gender Equality in Italian Language Courses: Feminist Pedagogy in SLA Meets Research on Women’s Studies”

Carolyn M. Shrewsbury notes that feminist pedagogy “begins with a vision of what education might be but frequently is not” (1987, 6), thus suggesting that it attempts to bring changes to the status quo. Feminist pedagogy can be applied to all disciplines, including language learning, rendering it paramount not only for socio-cultural advancements, but also to improve the gender gap, gender equality, and gender concerns. Therefore, educators must ensure that classroom language education grounded in feminist pedagogies pervade the confines of academia, and thus promote social activism through and their application in social context. In this talk, Professor Calamita will share language learning projects  framed in feminist pedagogy, active citizenship and global citizen education, with a focus on her co-authored textbook DiversITALY, the first textbook of its kind to teach and learn Italian with gender equality and inclusive language.