Past Events

Italian-Ghanaian filmmaker, scholar, and activist Fred Kuworno presented a multimedia lecture entitled 'Representing Blackness in Italy Past & Present.' Social media is now the main platform where new artists, but also black activists, are imposing themselves in Italian culture. This multi-media lecture explores the role of Black women in the world-renowned Italian fashion and beauty industries and the role of Black artists in the music and entertainment industry. Social media entrepreneurship has emerged as an important strategy for Afro-Italians seeking to advance new narratives about Blackness and its inclusion in Italian culture. Afro-Italian entrepreneurship is also transforming Italian material culture, and the meaning of "Italianness" itself.

Fred Kudjo Kuworno is best known as the director of critically acclaimed documentaries such as Blaxploitalian 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema and Inside Buffalo . His documentaries deal with political and social themes, such as racism, diversity, Afro-Italians and Black diasporic identity in Italy.

A visit by Dr Irene Salas that showcased that while Renaissance physicians were beginning to pay scientific attention to gynaecology and obstetrics, Renaissance humanists were taking an intense interest in the way that human beings are made. They even dreamt of a new kind of Man. Physicians and chroniclers described hermaphrodites, monstruous births and pregnant men. Surgeons experimented with Caesarean deliveries. Theologians debated the births of Eve or of Jesus, demonologists grew obsessed with the wombs of witches. Alchemists attempted to create homunculi in glass vials. Comical writers related how the child's head could emerge from the mother's navel or ear… My purpose is to study, in the light of these extraordinary births, what one might term a Renaissance ‘obstetrical paradigm’, which may perhaps give rise to discussion of current techniques, as well as of transhumanist fantasies.

Karine Bertrand (Queen's University) was welcomed by the FRIT department as a virtual guest who presented in a session of Ioana V. Pribiags FREN 3431 course on the Arnait Collective and the film Restless River. The session focused on Inuit women's filmmaking.

Frit Department presents a book talk - " The Commander of the River " is a timeless, compelling, coming-of-age story in contemporary Italy. Written by acclaimed Somali-Italian author Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, the novel explores themes of racism, trauma, adolescent angst, and the rebellious torments of the young. Originally written in Italian," Il comandante del fiume" has been beautifully translated into English by Hope Campbell Gustafson. About the Author: Ubah Cristina Ali Farah is a Somali-Italian poet, novelist, playwright, librettist and oral performer. She is the author of three novels, " Madre piccola " (2007; "Little Mother," IUP 2011, republished in 2022 by 66thand2nd) " Il comandante del fium e" (2014; " The Commander of the River, " forthcoming IUP 2021, republished in 2022 by 66thand2nd), " Le stazioni della luna " (" The Stations of the Moon, " June 2021), the dell’ekphrasis " La danza dell’orice" (Juxta Press 2020) and the collection of short stories " Le ceneri della fenice" (Hopefulmonster 2022).