The workshop Italian Interdisciplinary Modernism will take place on Friday, February 22 at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at New York University, 24 West, 12th Street, New York NY. http://www.casaitaliananyu.org/.The first in a series of workshops funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK as part of the Research Networking Grants project Interdisciplinary Italy 1900-2015: Art, Music, Text: http://interdisciplinaryitaly.com/home/ The workshop, which will concentrate on different aspects of Italian Modernism, is to open up discussion by bringing together specialists in different disciplines which share an interest in Italian culture, music and the arts in the period 1900-1940..

Papers and discussion will address the following questions:
1. Causes: where do the roots of modern interdisciplinarity lie? Why has it taken place in Italy over this period (1900-1940 ca) and what contributed to it? What is the place of technology, artistic milieu, journals, cafés, printing etc. in the development of cross-fertilisation?
2. Change and development: can one map developments across the whole period? Does the idea of working between artistic genres and disciplines change over time?
3. Philosophical and ideological underpinnings: how do metaphors of border enable us to understand interdisciplinarity better? What does interdisciplinarity tell us about the concepts of facilitatiting, policing, transgressing? How does border crossing relate to fragmentation? How do emancipation and freedom fit in?
4. Policy implications: how can interdisciplinarity inspire new patterns of research and teaching?
5. Specific additional questions: how does our understanding of Italian modernism affect trends in museum display and curatorial choices? Has the way in which Italian art, fashion and design have been shown to US, UK, and Italian public painted the right picture by not taking an interdisciplinary stand?

The open morning session has three position papers by leading specialists in early 20th-century Italian cultural history, cinema and the visual arts.

9.45-10.00: Welcome
10.00-11.00: David Forgacs, NYU, 'Disciplines, Arts, Industries, Technologies, Spaces'.
11.00-12.00: Vivien Green, Guggenheim Museum NY, 'Exhibiting Italian Futurism in 2014: l'opera d'arte totale'.
12.00-1.00: Stephen Gundle, University of Warwick (UK), 'Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Cult of Mussolini'.

Each paper will delivered in English and will be followed by a questions and answer session.