The Center for Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania will host an international conference to celebrate "Sicily: Language, Art, and Culture", 11-12 February 2016.

Sicily, land of culture, art, cinema, literature; land of travellers and dreamers, of artists and thinkers; land of division and unity. Sicily presents the peculiar characteristics of an island with its own complex reality, distinct from Italian "continental" reality and yet linked to it. The conference aims at exploring Sicily in all aspects of its history and culture, in itself and in relation to the rest of Italy and to the world, from its most ancient traditions to present debates, to its hope for the future.

Themes of discussion will include:

1) Sicilianity and Sicilitude

2) Language and Literature

3) Visual Arts and Music

4) Cinema and Theater

5) The Sicilian Diaspora

6) Popular Traditions and Modernity

7) Gastronomic Tradition

8) Political and Economic History

Call for Papers: Submissions are invited for 15 minute papers. Please send submissions inclusive of 300 word abstract and brief narrative vita to [email protected] by October 30. An online registration form will be available shortly.

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/italians/event/2016/02/sicily-language-art-and-culture