Italian Americans and the Making of America: Design, Diaspora, and the Architecture of Belonging

58th Annual Conference of the Italian American Studies Association November 5-8, 2026

Tufts University, Medford, MA 

Proposals accepted through April 17, 2026

In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the United States, the Italian American Studies Association (IASA) invites scholars, artists, and practitioners to reflect on the theme “Italian Americans and the Making of America.” As the nation marks two and a half centuries since the Revolution, this conference examines how Italian Americans and members of the broader Italian diaspora have participated in, shaped, challenged, and reimagined the American project.

Freedom has long occupied a central place in American discourse, yet its meaning has never been stable or universally accessible. Rather than treating freedom as a self-evident ideal, this conference approaches it as a historical, cultural, social, and civic problem; one shaped by access to labor, education, enterprise, religious practice, political representation, creative expression, technological innovation, and full belonging. Across successive waves of migration, from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through postwar resettlement and into the present, Italian Americans have encountered “freedom” not as a settled condition, but as something negotiated across generations.

Hosted at Tufts University, in close proximity to the birthplace of the American Revolution, the 2026 conference invites interdisciplinary conversations that place Italian American and Italian diasporic histories at the center of the nation’s ongoing struggle over rights, recognition, dignity, and voice. We seek to foreground both historical inquiry and contemporary analysis, recognizing that the “making of America” is an unfinished and contested process.

We welcome proposals grounded in Italian American and Italian Diaspora Studies that engage a wide range of methods, archives, media, and forms of inquiry. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• How freedom has been constrained, contested, and reimagined within Italian diasporic communities across time.
• Italian Americans and the development of labor movements, religious institutions, political organizations, entrepreneurship, science, technology, architecture, design, and cultural production.
• The relationship between Italian American experiences and dominant narratives of independence, self-reliance, citizenship, and national identity.
• Racialization, whiteness, class formation, gender and sexuality, migration status, and regional identity within Italian American histories.
• Transnational and comparative perspectives that situate Italian American experiences within broader global diasporas.
• Cultural expressions, such as film, literature, poetry, music, visual arts, performance, digital humanities, and emerging media that interrogate memory, belonging, and innovation.
• Public history, community-engaged scholarship, archival projects, and creative work that illuminate the role of Italian Americans in shaping civic and cultural life. 

By centering Italian American and Italian diasporic experiences within the broader narrative of the United States, this conference seeks to explore how communities once positioned at the margins have participated in defining the meaning of America itself.

Preparing and Submitting a Proposal

Proposals should include a 250-word abstract for each submission.

· Please state clearly what you intend to demonstrate through the presentation and how it contributes to both the conference theme and to your disciplinary or creative field. The conference committee will consider proposals that do not explicitly address the conference theme but may complement it. 

· Organized panels should feature no more than three presenters or creatives, not including chairs and respondents. All presentations are limited to 15-20 minutes, depending on the number of panelists.

· Accepted submissions for individual presenters will be placed with other individual presenters whose topic or discipline is similar. 

· The conference committee also welcomes proposals that experiment with formats different from the traditional panel presentation. This may include roundtables, dialogues, workshops, or readings. Please describe your format clearly in the submission.

In addition to the presentation abstract, please include a 75-word bio for each participant, including chairs and respondents, 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. 

Proposals will be accepted through April 17th.

Reviews will be completed, and notifications of acceptance or regret will be issued on a rolling basis as they are received. Notifications will be sent via Submittable and must be completed by April 30th.

Please note that individuals will be limited to three appearances in the program: one as a presenter or panelist, one at a roundtable, and one as a chair or moderator. 

Inquiries may be directed to Lisa Paolucci, Vice President, at lpaolucci@sfc.edu