57th Annual IASA Conference

Montclair State University

University Hall Conference Center

Nov. 6-9, 2025

Call for Papers

Submit by Monday, April 21, 2025

Intersecting Transitalia in Communities: Nation(s), Transnation(s), Neighborhood(s)

Conference Theme: The theme of this year’s conference is community in the Italian diaspora, historically and in the present day. The programs and panels of this conference will explore how, historically, Italians have worked in building their local communities and how they have attempted (successfully or not) to bridge (linguistic, cultural, etc.) gaps across communities throughout the country or even the world. 

The conference committee welcomes individual papers and full panels that engage with the diversity within and between communities, broadly defined, within the diaspora. The conference is open to scholars from all disciplines, creative writers and artists, translators, and members of the surrounding Montclair communities. 

The conference committee will consider proposals that do not specifically address but may complement this year’s conference theme. Organized panels should feature no more than three presenters (or creative writers or artists, as the case may be), not including the chair and respondent. All presentations are limited to 15-20 minutes based on the number of people on the panel.

Proposals should include a 250-word abstract for each paper and a 75-word bio for each participant, including chairs and respondents, and for all participants in a proposed panel. Each participant’s name, affiliation, email, and preferred address should be listed. Please indicate if the presenter/panel requires AV equipment (each room has a computer, a projector, and speakers). The Conference Committee will send an email notification of acceptance for individual abstracts or proposed panels through Submittable by May 15, 2025.

Possible themes and topics include but are not limited to: 

• Workers (e.g., Urban Industries, Coal Mining, Masonry, Railroad Lines)
• Politics, Unions, and Anarchist groups
• Italian American Protest (Civil Rights Movement)
• Italy Made in America
• Translation, Dialect, and Linguistic Perspectives
• Italian ‘American’ Creative Voices (All Genres Welcome)
• Italian Americans Youth Culture (Social Media, TikTok)  
• Italian American Sports Figures and Contributions
• Social Communities: Bocce, Caffes, Operas, Social Clubs
• Newspapers and Other Print Cultures 
• Religious Festivals and Traditions: Black Madonnas, San Gennaro, & Presepi
• Italian Americans and Native Americans (Alliances and Common Ground) 
• Multi-Ethnic Neighborhoods (Black and Italian; Hispanic and Italian)
• Multilingual Communities and Pedagogies (Heritage Learners, Romance Language Speakers)
• Labor Museum in Haledon (Botto House)
• Società di Mutuo soccorso