Please consider submitting an abstract for NeMLA 2026--Italian Food as (Re) Generation

The conference will take place in Pittsburg, PA, from March 5-March 8, 2026. The deadline for abstracts is September 30th, 2025.

Continuing last year’s conversation, this panel proposes to focus on representations of food in Italian and Italian American Cinema, Literature and Media. Taking this year’s theme, Re-Generation, into consideration it seems only fitting to discuss food. The idea of food or foodway as the locus of creation and re-creation invites us to consider the transformation of culinary history, identity, production, and consumption within or between the Italian, Italian American, and/or wider contexts of the Italian Diaspora.

This year we invite you to submit papers focusing on food in the context of Italian and/or Italian-American film, literature, and media, considering but not limited to the following themes:

· Transformation

· Adaptation

· Migration/immigration

· Environment/agriculture

· Minority communities

· Familial drama

· Generational trauma & resolution

· Memoir

Please submit an abstract of 300 words max to the NeMLA portal via this link: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21760.

For questions, please contact Irene Hatzopoulos (ireneh@ucr.edu) and Valentina Morello (vmorello@uark.edu)